O'Reilly The Rat

I have a little news!  I am working on something new.  I have been sewing, designing and doing various arty things  pretty much my entire life.  I am at the point that I want to get others into the game.  I want you to do a little sewing with me, so I am in the process of making patterns and tutorials.  I have 4 done at the moment, 1 of which I am going to give away to you for doing me a favor.  The other 3, I will have in my etsy shop  at the beginning of March, hopefully 3/1, along with a few supplies you might need for the projects.





My first patterns and tutorials are going to be for making little mohair animals and some clothing that you might like to make for them.  The pattern and tutorial for this little guy, O'Reilly the Rat, I am going to give away for free for signing up for my newsletter, which I will tell you about in a minute. I am also going to give away the actual rat as a random giveaway to the people who will like my new artist page on FB, which I will tell you about in a minute as well.






What I am hoping to do is have a little community of people who like to sew, who are interested in making some things that they might keep for themselves, give away as gifts, or even sell if they were so inclined.  My first patterns that will be available after giving away the one for O'Reilly the Rat, will be a little 5-1/2" bear and 2 different outfit sets of 3 pieces, one for girl bears, one for boy bears.  The girl bear set actually can be made to fit a Blythe or Sad Eyed Susie doll, which is convenient for people just jumping in with sewing for those dolls.  I am starting out basic with what I do.  Little animals that will be able to wear clothes, at first pretty easy clothing, and hopefully adding in some more challenging stuff later.  I am hoping to design different animals for you to choose from and many different outfits for them in the coming months.






The O'Reilly the Rat pattern freebie will give you an idea of what my tutorials are like.  I a pretty thorough.  This little guy is tiny, only 3-1/2" tall, but pretty easy to make.  I added a tail to this rat, but did not discuss a tail in my tutorial.  It is simply a crochet-looped piece of embroidery floss that I tied in a know at one end and sewed to his butt :)  I don't think that needs too much explaining and you could use whatever you like for a tail, if you think he needs one.

Okay, so you got this far through the reading.  I'll get to the good stuff.  If you sign up for my free newsletter (which will just alert you now and then that I have new patterns, new things related in my store, and maybe some free things and tips from time to time), you will get an email somewhere in the process with a link to download the O'Reilly the Rat pattern.  If you go to my new artist FB page and like it, I will enter you in a chance to win the little O'Reilly the Rat you see here in this blog post.  He is 3-1/2" tall, made from a natural white German mohair and has Swarovski crystal beads for his nose and eyes.  he is wearing a silk ribbon on his neck . He needs a bit of propping to sit or stand.  His limbs are jointed, but his head is not.  It is sewn to the neck, which is what I teach in the tutorial.  If you are skilled at cotter pin and disk joints, you could make a rat with a jointed head quite easily.  The drawing for the rat give-away will be St. Patrick's Day, 3/17.  I will randomly choose a name from the people who have liked my new artist FB page and contact them through FB.  That's it!  Hope you like this little guy.  Hope you will want to come sew with me!