Friday Archives: elephant evolution

Once again I'm joining the Friday Archive fun over at Loobylu with a project from my (not so distant) past.

A year or so ago, after seeing herds of little elephants on Etsy and this documentary, I decided I needed to make an elephant softie. I printed out some photos of elephants and traced a simplified outline as my pattern. There were a few aborted attempts as I worked through the proportions before I finished this little guy. He was a little skinny, and his trunk was kind of wonky, but I thought he was cute.

His sister turned out a little softer and rounder, although she was a little unsteady on her feet as her center of gravity wasn't quite right. More research was conducted into how other people made stuffed animals to determine the correct proportions for optimal "cuteness." Shorter and wider seemed to be a theme so a few more iterations of pattern adjustment along with a few more half-finished elephant carcass rejects.

Finally, this little girl emerged with all the softness and squat proportions that I was going for. Just in time to be given as a new baby gift along with a few embellished onsies. I was so thrilled to see my little elephant on the changing table when we went to visit a few weeks later. Sometimes I worry when giving a handmade gift that the recipient won't see it the way I do, but this gal seemed to be getting lots of love.

Friday Archives: have a seat

Just about a year ago I was preparing for my wedding, doing all the typical last minute things like finding jewelry to go with my dress, sewing table linens and refinishing my patio furniture. Yes, I decided the week before my wedding was the perfect time to have the patio furniture that I'd purchased three years before stripped and repainted. Isn't this on the list of every bride?


I scored this vintage metal table and two chairs on a 2004 trip to Brimfield with Tory. It was the last day of the show and we were hoping to get some good deals from vendors who didn't want to haul their unsold wares home. We had seen at least a dozen sets before we found this one. After some negotiation the dealer let me take it home for $75. I scraped it as best I could by hand (it was pretty rusty and had a bad paint job) and sprayed it white. My handiwork held up for a couple of years, but by last May it was looking pretty sad, with lots of rust flaking through the paint.



By the time I'd decided it had to be refinished before our guests descended upon us there was no time (or desire) to refinish it again myself. After some serious detective work I found a local paint shop that agreed to work on it. They heat-stripped and sand-blasted off the old paint rust and then powder coated it a matte black for $150. I recovered the seats with oilcloth and we had ourselves a new vintage patio set.

I'm so glad I spent the money to have it professionally refinished. They did a far better job than I could ever have done by hand and for relatively small money. Now I just need to find a couple more chairs...