I'm Part of the #ADCapeCult Now!

I've loved American Duchess for a long time, from their gorgeous historical shoes to the very helpful blog chronicling the making of various items of historical clothing, the accessibility of their Simplicity patterns and their informative Fashion History podcast. Somehow it escaped my notice that they had a Patreon page, but then all these costumers I admire and follow on IG were posting about making this 1912 wrap cape from a free pattern by AD. So now, a week of naptime/post-bedtime sewing later, I have a cape and am a patron of American Duchess!

I actually had this cape pinned ever since participating in the VPLL 1912 Project years ago, so of course I had to make it. It seemed like most IG-ers were either making neutral gray/black/brown versions, and a few people made capes in their Hogwarts house colors. I knew I wanted to go vivid, and I had a red brocade tablecloth that I got at a thrift store several years ago that I actually meant to make into a cape...but I'm so not a Gryffindor. In fact, when I took a Sorting Hat quiz that tells you what percentage of each house you are, I think I got something along the lines of 67% Slytherin and 33% Ravenclaw, and zero percent Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. In other words, if you want someone to learn a lot of information and then use it for their own ambitious ends, while not caring about other people or the right thing to do, then apparently I'm your person. *insert laugh-crying emoji here* I think I had a genuine existential dilemma for five minutes about making a red cape when I'm so not a Gryff, but in the end I decided I wanted a red cape too much, and  since I was lining it in black satin, I could just call it a Fire Nation cape. Not that entire fictional countries must match up to Hogwarts houses, but I really do think the Fire Nation (as evidenced by its royals) is the most Slytherin nation in ATLA. Nerdy crossover fanning aside, though, I'm so glad I went with the saturated dark red, both because that's one of my favorite colors to wear, and because if you're going to make an impractical historical cape, you might as well go the whole way and make it an impractical color too?

The AD pattern is done on a tiny grid, like Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion books. When I was making JA patterns, I enlarged them by drawing on the back of wrapping paper that was printed with a 1-inch grid. I don't have any gridded paper anymore, so I scaled up the pattern by plotting it on medical paper (which is very thin and see-through) laid over my gridded self-healing cutting mat. It took a couple hours (with lots of interruption from kids, so YMMV), then another couple of hours to plan the layout on my tablecloth and cut the pieces. Somebody on IG pointed out that the shoulder seam notch on the cape piece didn't make sense grain-wise, and many people pointed out that the cape was two inches too short on the back piece when you walked the back-cape seam. Putting together these two pieces of information, I decided to rotate the cape piece back two inches: this makes the hem line up and also puts the grainline perpendicular to the floor when worn. Other than that, I didn't have any issues with making up the garment. The darts did take forever to mark and pin, and my polyester fabrics were tricky to press well without getting a weird shine (thank you, silk-organza press cloth and wooden half-dowel), especially on the collar. I also decided to make the cape theoretically reversible, so that meant changing up the collar fabrics and putting the contrast piece on both sides. Hemming the back piece at the end also took a couple of tries before I got the tablecloth and the satin lining to hang right together. To add some additional visual interest to the cape, I decided to add little chain tassels to the collar corners to mimic the buttons at the shoulders on the original cape. The cape is secured at the ends of the wrap pieces with hooks and eyes.

I seriously love this tablecloth. 

Annnnddd...flipped!

And worn flipped. 

The finished cape is just delightfully full and twirly and swooshy and good for dramatically storming about. If I were Snape (because a chemistry teacher is just a step away from potions professor, right?), I could flounce about most pleasingly! My only regret is not checking the shoulder fit before cutting and sewing: with my wide shoulders, the only way to get the shoulder seam to not sit obviously too far in toward my neck (and therefore make the cape hang funny) is to wear the wrap portion too loose. It's not the end of the world (that would be coronavirus), but I just wish I'd thought to check. It's been so long since I've sewn a new pattern that I forgot what issues I usually need to adjust for.

Why is red so hard to photograph in the only somewhat-still-lit corner of our backyard when we sneak out to quickly snap some photos while the kids have their half hour of screen time? Oh wait, I think I just answered my own question...

Summary:

Pattern: the American Duchess 1910s Wrap Cape pattern, free on their Patreon page

Fabric: a thrifted dark red poly-cotton brocade tablecloth, and black polyester satin from a friend's destash for the lining. I'm really pleased that I was able to make this suddenly-jumped-to-the-head-of-the-sewing-queue project entirely from stash materials.

Notions: three sets of hooks and eyes from a charity shop that I got on one of our anniversary trips to the UK, and two chain tassels that used to be earrings that I got at a clothing exchange.

Hours: Five for prepwork (scaling up the pattern, layout planning and cutting, pinning darts), then maybe another three for sewing and an additional hour for evening out the hem, sewing hooks and eyes, and adding tassels, for a total of nine hours.

How accurate is it? My fiber content is obviously anachronistic, but in terms of general look and "passing," I'd say pretty good!

Total cost: A whopping $5 for the tablecloth!

Final thoughts: How can you not love a cape? It's impractical, especially with young kids who see such a giant expanse of fabric as basically a giant napkin, and of course there's the fact that I made outerwear from non-breathable fabrics right as the weather is heating up, but I regret nothing. I'm so thankful that AD put out this pattern at this time, and I'm glad I can support their business even a little bit by being a patron.

"Captain America Goes to the Gym" Shorts

I've been experiencing a serious lack of sewjo ever since I sewed up SHB's Tako Hat (which was over a month ago). I've got a pile of underwear cut out but the thought of assembly-line sewing such boring basics (that nobody will even get to see!) was too boring to stomach. So I signed up for Gillian's sewing dares, hoping for a kick in the pants (shorts?). I think it worked, because her dare for me was to sew something 1) selfish, that 2) I missed from my pre-baby wardrobe. I haven't sewn a pair of pants since before SHB was born, but I didn't want to jump right back in with a fitted pair and have to deal with a fly front. I also only have one pair of woven shorts that fits me right now, and those are white, which is pretty much a no-no if you're running after a sticky-handed toddler all day. I knew I needed something relatively fast and easy to jump start my sewing, so I settled for elastic-waist shorts in a dark color to fit the gap in my wardrobe.

I used the City Gym Shorts pattern from Purl Soho (thanks to Leah of Struggle Sews a Straight Seam for cluing me in to this free pattern's existence!) and some scrap navy fabric leftover from my Han Solo pants. Since I was sewing the night before Independence Day, I figured I would patriotize them by choosing an appropriate color trim. I was going to do either plain red or white, but serendipitously Heather posted the tutorial that Sew Tawdry did for a two-color trim application. Her instructions were the perfect inspiration that I needed to dress up my shorts.

Exposure upped to show the crotch fit, although the actual colors are more accurate in the first collage.

Summary:
Pattern: The free City Gym Shorts by Purl Soho
Fabric: 1/2 yard of navy blue cotton twill from stash
Notions: A little less than a yard of 1" elastic, purchased at a grocery store in Italy, and vintage red and white bias tape inherited from another sewist's stash. I had exactly two inches of tape left at the end, which was good, because they don't make all-cotton bias tape anymore.
Hours: Four, mostly because of fiddling with the trim, then messing up irreparably and having to cover my mistake with a piece of grosgrain ribbon so that it looked like an intentional "label." And then having to unpick the waistband to shorten the elastic because I blindly followed the directions on the pattern without thinking to check the length first on myself.

And then my topstitching went all wonky on my "label," so I had to go back and fix that after SHB went to bed. 

Will you make it again? Yes, because I love the length and ease of these shorts! Although probably not with the fussy trim. I also want to smooth out the "J" of the crotch curve a little bit more, since I still see some pulling there.
Total cost: Free, because stash. Go me!
Final thoughts: I'm pretty sure my dad had gym shorts like this in the 70s, which is a thought that's neither here nor there, but still worth mentioning; it's probably why I find this look so vaguely familiar and slightly repellant? At any rate, I know these look like sporty lounge-at-home shorts, and not going-out shorts, but let's face it, all I'm going to be doing is chasing SHB around at the zoo this summer, so these are fine for that purpose.

This is what was going on in the background while I was taking pictures:
SHB was running around throwing his toy animals on the floor.

Thanks for the #SewingDare, Gillian -- it worked!


***
Okay, so I wrote everything above when I sewed up these red-white-and-blue shorts the night before Independence Day, and then I saw all the horrifying news earlier this week. Even though I had my pictures ready to go on the evening of July 5, I couldn't bring myself to post this entry yet; this was meant to be a patriotic pair of shorts, but I was having a really difficult time with America in general and it felt disingenuous to be posting something so rah-rah. I still don't have anything coherent to say about the tragedies of this week, but then I thought about Captain America: Civil War, and Steve Rogers' faith in people and how he tried his hardest to do what was right, his genuine grief over everyone who died on his watch, and I decided I was okay with making them Captain America shorts. I'd like to think Captain America would be all about #blacklivesmatter; also how dorky is it that I was vaguely comforted by a fictional superhero?

This Year's Christmas Projects

I knew the holidays would be busy this year, so I started my Christmas crafting early. As is tradition, there was LOTR-related crafting, this time in the form of painted and wood-burned ornaments:

The Eye of Sauron, painted on a papier mache blank sphere from Michael's (this makes three eyes now in my living room, all ominously watching everything), and JRR Tolkien's monogram and the White Tree of Gondor. 

Things got kitschy and punny real fast when I used the free Sewaholic Stanley Tree pattern to make a chemis-tree out of leftover science-y fabric:

SHB really enjoys hitting it because all the bells jangle madly.

I also made little felt ornaments for my brother and sister:

For my sister, a paramedic in training: a Gumbulance (ambulance on one side, her crazy orange cat Gummy on the other). For my brother, a car enthusiast: a Fenxibaru (the Subaru logo on one side, and his sleeping cat Fenxi on the other). There were many hours of meticulous cutting and blanket stitching. 

And then my mother-in-law unexpectedly passed away and all plans got thrown out the window. While I had the fabric purchased for several weeks, I didn't get around to making Mr. Cation's and SHB's matching Warriors jammies until a few days after Christmas. Thankfully, elastic waist pants are just about the easiest thing to sew, so I was done with both pairs in an afternoon. I'll wager it took longer to actually get a decent picture of them together, because SHB was having a hyper morning. Oh wait, that's every morning. And afternoon. And evening. And unfortunately, sometimes night. 

"Could you stop running around for just two minutes?" 

"Maybe it's easier if we just get Walnut into position first."

"No, this is not easier, because I can't chase him down with a cat in my lap."

I place toddler in Dad's lap. He chooses that moment to imitate a fish flipping out on the line, fighting for its life.

Let's try this again. "Look, I've got a basketball! Don't you want to come get it?"
(Also, check out my not-thought-through pattern placement on SHB's butt. The two Warriors logos slightly overlapped make...a butt. Good thing he's a toddler and nobody will care.)

Toddler tries to ram his head into Daddy's armpit, cat leaves. 

"Okay, sit in Daddy's lap. Walnut, come here."

"Try to look happy, everyone! Dangit, Walnut, I can't see your face."

Toddler seizes the ball, cat decides he's done.

Thankfully, he settles down not too far away. I think this is as good as it's going to get.

Attempts at a brothers' photo work slightly better because Daddy can help wrangle both boys. 

I had plans to make more LOTR-themed gifts for SHB, but those will have to wait until I have time. Let's just hope that I get to make them before he gets too old to enjoy what I have in mind! 

In the meantime, SHB continues trying to bug his older brother into playing ball with him. Typical little brother. 

Stingray Plushie Pattern

Even though I'm teaching my two favorite classes, both of which are not new preps for me by any means, and my students are pretty great for the most part, this school year has still been one of the hardest I've ever had, and we're not even two months in! I think it's the struggle to balance time with SHB, time with Mr. Cation, time to grade papers (oh, how I sometimes wish I had a job that didn't require bringing work home!), and time to pursue my own interests. Poor Walnut often gets the short end of the stick, as do the papers, to be perfectly honest. SHB is so active now (and going through separation anxiety) that there's really no getting things done while he's awake. As a result, all my plans for a grand Pinterest-worthy theme party (Sandra Boynton! LOTR! Cats!) for his first birthday went out the window. Still, even if we were ordering cake and using mismatched disposable plates, the maker in me couldn't let go of at least making something, anything, just to personalize it a little. 

Since SHB's baby shower and nursery were marine-themed, I decided that making sea animal plushies/beanbags for his little baby friends was a doable undertaking that would be kind of on theme. Because Back to School Night was two days before his party (seriously, whose bright idea was it to have a birthday at such a busy time of year?!), I ended up staying up late the night before to make six of the simplest animal I could come up with: stingrays! No fiddly little flippers or fins or snouts, no appliques or weird pieces to insert. For a last minute project, it went fairly quickly and smoothly for once!

Except for this guy: his eyes make him look especially derpy, and his mouth ended up too large and off-center...ah, the perils of being the experimental prototype!

I didn't stop to take pictures while I was churning these guys out, so no tutorial here, but it's a fairly simple plushie to make. If you'd like to take a stab at your own stingrays, I've made the pattern (and brief instructions) available for download here. 

Summary:

Pattern: My own

Fabric: 1/4 yard of gray anti-pill fleece (enough for six rays)

Notions: Are polyfil fiber stuffing and beads notions?

Hours: Four, from drawing the pattern to cutting to sewing and then stuffing. Not bad at all! Assembly line stitching works really well for mass production.

Total cost: All the materials were from my stash, but they probably average out to about $1.50 each.

Will you make it again? After reading the comments on my IG posts, I'd love to make an enormous one big enough to wrap yourself in like some kind of weird sleeping bag/bed-type thing. You could sleep on the stuffed body and use the fins like blankets! Maybe one day when SHB is older he'll want such a thing. 

Final thoughts: Even though I didn't "hardcore" DIY SHB's party, I'm really glad I at least personalized this one little aspect. Plus, it was an immensely satisfying race-to-beat-the-deadline project, which is unusual. I secretly love the intense motivation I get when I'm mildly stressed and racing against the clock, but that situation usually sets me up for stupid mistakes when I'm sewing. I guess it's a testament to how easy these guys were to make that they came together so smoothly!

I don't know what it is about a whole bunch of more or less identical tiny derpy animals all gathered in one spot, but I was seriously in love with my little rays and ever so briefly considered keeping them all. Instead, I settled with posing them with my manatee made from the same gray fleece:

Speaking of the manatee, this is probably the coolest thing that's happened to one of my plushie patterns:

No, Dr. Frankenstein didn't get ahold of it. 

I don't understand most of what the article is about, but if you scroll halfway down she talks about using the manatee pattern to house a device to help stay in touch with their elderly loved ones. So neat! Also, w00t w00t female engineers!

The Return of the Dark Lord

Remember how I sewed underwear that one time, and I made the stunning connection that if underwear = unmentionables, and Lord Voldemort = He Who Must Not Be Named, then underwear = the sewing equivalent of Voldemort? If you don't, you're totally excused, because it happened three years ago.

After that first foray into sewing lingerie, I got all excited and went out and bought more wide stretch lace for making more pairs, only to get sidetracked by something else (oooh! squirrel!). The poor lace sat in my stash for the next three years, until one day last week, I read the sewcialist blog and found out that July is officially Lingerie Sewing Month.

I'd been doing a lot of mending and alterations and refashions, and then I had a couple of not-quite-successful makes, so I was feeling uninspired. At first, I thought I'd just sew up a couple pairs to get my sewjo going again, but then I was seized with the Must Make All The Underwears frenzy and went on to feverishly sew a whole week's worth of them over the next several nap times. They're the perfect project for someone whose life is dictated by when the baby sleeps, because you can still get most of one finished even if SHB only naps for half an hour.

Because prolonged wear revealed that I wasn't a fan of the Lacy Tanga pattern I used last time (too low of a rise in front, although it does do its originally intended job of eliminating VPL), I decided to go on a pattern testing spree.

I started with Butterick 4331, a 1970s lingerie pattern, using my hacked up Blank Canvas Tee for fabric (when I was going through my closet and culling me-mades, I realized that I had somehow managed sew up the whole tee with the wrong side of the jersey facing out):

Verdict: kind of pretty I guess, but like one would expect from a Big 4 pattern, especially one drafted for the little-to-no-ease knits of the 70s, there was waaaaay too much ease. I cut off a whole two inches on each side seam! Also, I didn't have the right elastic in my stash yet, so the stretch lace I used for the leg openings is much too wide. It looks okay until you look at the crotch.
Mr. Cation's judgment: agreement re: the lace width, plus the color is off-putting because it's the same color as this one free t-shirt that we got in college -___-


Next up: So Sew Easy's free Cheeky Undies pattern, so that I could use up my stashed lace.

Verdict: again, pretty to look at, but unfortunately not practical for wearing. The pattern is clever in that it makes use of the scalloped edge of the lace, so no edge finishing is needed and there's no VPL to boot, plus it sews up ridiculously fast (maybe 15 minutes from cut to finish). However, if your lace is not very wide (the pattern calls for 4-6", mine was 5"), the rise is very low. I also have a pretty major concavity where my leg meets my hip in front, so the straight line of the lace results in too much fabric flapping around there (Especially obvious in the picture of the burgundy pair). If I'm feeling really motivated, I might go back and add elastic there to reign it in, but TBH, I probably won't.
Mr. Cation's judgment: "Ooh, those are nice!" But when I pointed out the extra fabric, he agreed that they weren't the best for long-term wear. "But you can just wear it before sexy times, right? Because you'll only need to wear them for a few minutes!"


Trial pattern #3: Cloth Habit's free Rosy Ladyshorts pattern, which calls for a 4-way stretch fabric with 60-70% stretch. I used an old t-shirt that had a 5% spandex content, but it was the only one I had and I can foresee having trouble sourcing appropriate fabric in the future. I also hadn't received my FOE in the mail yet, so the elastic is a mix of 1/4" elastic from Daiso for the leg openings, and 3/8" elastic from an Italian supermarket for the waist.

Verdict: Very comfortable, thanks to the elasticity of the fabric, and good coverage because of the cut. I obviously didn't go the recommended route with the stretch lace fabric and trim, instead opting to use what fabric and elastic I had on hand, so the final product is more functional than pretty. Still, I could see these making it into my regular rotation. If only it wasn't so hard to find fabric with the right stretch! Girl Charlee lists percent stretch on their website, but very few other knit stockists do. I tried calling some fabric websites' customer helplines and they were entirely unhelpful, so this might have to be a buy-in-person-and-bring-measuring-tape-to-test-stretch pattern, which defeats the purpose of being green by recycling old tees to make underwear.
Mr. Cation's judgment: YES. Surprisingly, it turns out that these were his favorite. Apparently he likes the boyshort cut, even though he doesn't get why they're called that. "They don't look anything like my shorts."

Trial pattern #4: So Zo's free knickers pattern, which were ideal for recycling old 100% cotton, minimal stretch/recovery, run-of-the-mill single jersey t-shirt fabric. In other words, all my free tees from college can be turned into underwear now.

Verdict: My personal favorite of all the patterns I tried! These were supremely comfortable and my prescribed size-according-to-my-measurements fit right off the bat without any adjustments. I think this will be my go-to pattern when I need new underwear. After the first pair, I did make the tiny adjustment of lowering the center back rise, much like Allspice Abounds described when she made up this pattern. My FOE joins also need a lot of work.

I tried three different ways, and none of them are satisfactory: making a closed loop first, overlapping, and applying it before joining the side seams and then serging the cut ends.  Anyone have any wisdom to offer?

Mr. Cation's judgment: Fine, but as I mentioned above, he's not as much a fan of the bikini briefs. He is, however, a fan of saving money by using up old tees, so there's that.

All in all, my second foray into making underwear was quite successful! I came out of it with four wearable everyday pairs, and three bonus pairs. And then because I still had quite a bit of the red jersey left, I went ahead and made the matching slip from the Butterick pattern.

First, a close-up.  

Of course, I couldn't escape without at least one mishap...the lace on the back is wrong side out! *headdesk*

Summary:
Fabric: 3.5 old tees, doomed for the donation pile, all cotton.
Notions: Yards of 1.5" wide black stretch lace, inherited from a destashing friend; a few yards of black 5/8" FOE; miscellaneous stash elastic and ribbon
Other: A Sharpie laundry marker to draw cats on the one pair
Hours: This was several days' worth of naptimes; the intial pair took a good hour to figure out fit and process, but by the end I could bang out a pair in 15-20 minutes. I'd say that including the slip, this was a good six hours.
Total cost: $5 for the FOE, everything else was free from the stash! Although I guess if you were to be honest about the original cost of the wide stretch lace, that would bring the cost up to oh, $10?
Will you make it again? The Lady Shorts and the So Zo panties, yes; everything else, no.
Final thoughts: I never thought that sewing underwear would be so satisfying. I'd always dismissed it as one of those things that only "hardcore" people do, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense for a beginner sewist with the right pattern. There's nothing too difficult technique-wise, knit fabric makes for relatively easy fit, and unlike floofy party dresses you can definitely wear the results everyday. Bonus: if they turn out ugly, nobody will know since they're hidden under your clothes...I hope. Unless you're Superman, with his whole undies-outside-his-tights look. And I'm guessing that if you're going to be criticizing Superman for his Becky Home-Ecky undies, we've got bigger problems than that.

Lastly, I know that readers prefer live models instead of just laying garments out flat, or even mannequins, so here's Walnut to model the matched set!

Why is red so hard to photograph? None of these pictures really captures the color. And then it really throws off the color balance of the whole photo and washes out Walnut's luscious fur.

Thank you for sacrificing your dignity for the sake of my getting photos, dear. And the honorable mention for lingerie model goes, of course, to my handy IKEA heart pillow, whose circumference more or less matches my hip measurement and whose rounded edges make a remarkably decent substitute for leg stumps/butt cheeks. 

I am grateful for the proverbial kick in the pants (I didn't realize that this was Brit-speak for underwear, and American pants = trousers for them...oops!), Gillian et al! Lingerie-sewing was just what I needed. Now it's back to figuring out what my teaching wardrobe needs for the fall.

[ETA: I tried to test out the Indigorchid free T-shirt Underwear pattern too, since you know, t-shirts! Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to print right since two of the pages are scaled for a different size sheet, but you might be able get it correct with some futzing around with scaling. I just didn't have the time because SHB woke up.]

Hammerhead Shark Plushie Pattern and Tutorial

I know, I know, it's not Shark Week for another couple of months...but what can I say, I was still high on the thrill of having done so much cute sewing for the SHB Sew-Along. Speaking of the sew-along, we'll be doing a roundup and announcing the winners by the end of the week. It's been ridiculously difficult choosing because of how good the entries are! We wish we could give prizes to everyone, but alas, we must try to narrow it down to three winners.

Like these three sharks. Each shark represents a category? 

Anyway, I didn't know what to sew next, so I figured I might as well clean up my hammerhead shark plushie pattern. I spent a whole naptime digging through my box of self-drawn patterns, only to realize that I must have recycled the original pattern pieces, because who needs more than one hammerhead shark? This meant I had to redraw and retest a new pattern, which resulted in two more sharks: the red one was a little longer and skinnier than looked proportional, so I had to make the pink one to test my modifications. Yay, a trilogy! I love trilogies. Although, a trilogy of shark sounds like it might be on the menu of a very un-politically correct, not-at-all-environmentally-minded exotic meats restaurant.

The final pattern and brief instructions can be downloaded here, and I ask that if you link to it, you link to this blog post and not the direct download link. As always, any sharks that you make from this pattern should be for personal, non-commercial use only, i.e. please don't go selling these sharks at craft fairs and such.

If you're an experienced sewer/plushie-maker, it should be a relatively quick project; I finished my second shark, from cutting to sewing the side closed, all in an hour,  so when SHB woke up there was a new toy to chew/lick/suck on. I guess in that way, the trilogy of shark is on his menu.

If you've never made a plushie before or just want a step-by-step tutorial, I took the time to photograph the making of the last shark.

1) Sew mouth onto ventral (belly) piece. 

2) Sew fin pieces. Put the mirrored pieces right sides together (RST), sew, trim, and then flip. 

3) Place the dorsal pieces RST and sew A-B, the eyestalk edge.

This is what it should look like after you've sewn the pieces together. 

4) Sew the eyes onto the eyestalk over the A-B seam.
Mine is just a plain black circle, but you can also make a more standard eye with a black pupil on a white eyeball. 

5) Pin and baste the dorsal fin in place... 

...and sew all the way from point C down the back, around the tail, and ending at the dot on the pattern. Backstitch.

6) Pin and baste the side fins onto the ventral piece.
This looks so weird, doesn't it?

There, it looks more normal with the dorsal part flipped down. 

7) Sew the dorsal part to the ventral piece, leaving a gap in the side between the two dots. Backstitch. 

You'll use this gap to turn and stuff the shark. 

8) Turn right side out...

...and stuff! Use a chopstick to poke the filling into the eyestalks and tail first, then plump up the rest of the body. 

9) Ladder stitch the side gap closed.  

10) You're done! Enjoy your new sharkie friend!

All the sharks posing with the shark panel on SHB's quilt. 

Part of me is very tempted to make fifty more sharks from all my fleece scraps (sharks in every color of the rainbow!), and another part of me (the saner, more reasonable part, to my husband's relief) says there are better things I could be doing with my time (and our available storage space). So as much as I enjoy mass producing plushies, I will refrain (at least until SHB is old enough to request more, at which point I will happily acquiesce). But for those of you who don't already have two sharks too many, I hope you enjoy making one (or twenty) so that I can live vicariously through you!

Or maybe the pink and blue shark could get together and make lots of little baby sharks, while the goofy-looking red shark looks on like the most clueless third wheel ever... "Dude, can't you take a hint?"