everyone knows that Matt is a star wars neeeeeerd, right?
well he's been asking me to make him a star wars stuffed animal for a long time and then he got the idea that i should make him a bantha stuffed animal.
what's a bantha?
this is a bantha...
some type of mammoth looking freak animal that little men in cloaks ride around on and shoot people.
he got the idea when he saw this picture...
and i actually thought the little stuffed animal looked much cuter than the real thing so i gave in and said i would make it for him.
he knows i can't resist a cute stuffed animal.
so i started studying this cute little guy and Matt actually found the website that goes with it.
the website was good for pictures and to start me out but it had one major flaw, it didn't say anything about what size to cut your fabric out to make each little piece!
that caused me to do a lot of trial and error.
anyway here's what i ended up doing...
first i went out and bought some tan fuzzy fabric, white fuzzy fabric and brownish colored fur fabric.
then i bought some new fabric because Matt didn't like the first ones i picked out.
i always try to get my fabric in the remnants bins and i was so lucky to find just what Matt wanted at Joann!
then i had to figure out how big to make this guy.
Matt said he wanted him to be BIG so i decided he should be about a foot long.
i made a cardboard cutout to measure all the body pieces out of the tan fabric so they would be just slightly bigger than 6in x 12in so after they were sewed together they would be perfect.
after cutting all four pieces i had to sew them together.
after sewing all the sides together i had to cut out the two end pieces.
i didn't make a cardboard piece to measure these i just made them a little larger than 6in x 6in and then sewed one end on by hand.
then came time to put some fluffy stuff inside to make him nice and cuddly!
and i sewed the other square piece on the end to finish off his body.
then i had to make his short chubby legs.
those were about 6in x 4in of the same tan fabric and i sewed them into cylinders.
then i measured 8 circles with a diameter of 2 1/4 in. to be on both sides of each leg and sewed one end on each of them, stuffed them but before i put the other circles on i had to make sure they were sturdy enough to support the big bantha body i made.
they were!
i decided before i sewed his legs to his body i better make his horns so it's not so hard to handle him.
the horns were 2 pieces of fuzzy white fabric that measured 6in x 4in.
i sewed the two long sides together and then stuffed them with fluffy and put some wire inside so i'd be able to shape them the way i wanted and then i sewed up the bottom part.
then it came to sew it to his head.
i just put the horns on the very front corners of his head and did some fancy hand sewing work to keep them there.
after his horns were done i went back to sewing his legs on.
this took FOR-E-VER!
first i had to make sure i put them in the right spot and then i had to do some funky stitching to sew the cylinders onto the flat belly.
i guess it was worth it because he stands like a champ but i really need to think of an easier way next time.
after what seemed like hours of putting his legs on i realized he was almost done!
only eyes, mouth and fur to go!
i got two black buttons and sewed them on so he could see.
then i measured piece after piece after piece of fabric to try to find the perfect size mouth and finally settled on 4in x 3 1/2 in.
it sounds big but you need to fold the two long edges in so they meet in the middle and then fold the fabric hotdog style and sew it together and then hand sew it on his face.
i know it sound confusing but that's what i decided was the best course of action when it came to his mouth.
that way you can open his mouth a little bit and pretend he's eating that mean old tusken raider that's always sitting on his back making that annoying sound.
now all i had to do was the fur!
it was a very messy part of the project because fur fabric always sheds.
i hand stitched all around his body so the hair would hang all the way down by his feet.
then i cut a piece to fit across his forehead like little bangs.
then came his goatee and after 5 straight nights of slaving over my sewing machine, getting blisters on my fingers and having crazy headaches from getting frustrated...he was FINISHED!!
Matt was a little excited.
okay he was psyched out of his mind!!
and then he decided that his new bantha friend will live here...
where everybody can see him!
it was a lot of work to make Makachu, that's what Matt named him, but i'm so glad i did.
i can't wait for my next sewing project now.
i'm quite the seamstress ya know.
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