On Reindeer Sewing!

With the arrival of December comes Christmas crafting! A few weeks ago while I was searching for some vintage paper reindeer cutouts, I accidentally stumbled across the DIY Vintage Reindeer Toy Plush post on the blog My So Called Crafty Life, which included a pattern from the November 1961 Woman's Day magazine. 

Being a huge fan of Woman's Day patterns and all things reindeer, I dropped all my weekend crafting plans to make one...which then predictably resulted in the making of a total of five over a period of two weeks. 

I adjusted the pattern for two different sizes with the intention of both machine and hand stitched versions. 

For the larger machine stitched one, I added a small seam allowance and used some very soft and silky suede like fabric scraps a friend had given me, which were just perfect for a reindeer and for fun used a white on white polk-a-dot fabric for the belly. For the antlers I used felt. 

The antlers were supposed to be stuffed, which, having very dry skin that catches on everything at the moment, I was having a nightmare of a time with. Taking inspiration from my actual 60's reindeer decorations that have wired antlers, I slipped in a pipe cleaner to fill them with the added bonus that they are adjustable! To finish it off I added some silver ric-rac, a few bells, and a cord bow and reindeer number 1, named Silverbells, was done!

Having completed Silverbells, I started thinking that if I made the pattern small enough it could easily be made into an ornament. So I shrunk the pattern down, used the recommended felt (and here I thought I wasn't making any more tiny felt animals this year), and hand-stitched the 3 1/2 Poppet.

Poppet was such a cute size, I decided having the right color redish-orange fabric that I should make a Rudolph too and that really I should make some does as well. This resulted in a tiny Rudolph, Marigold (Poppet's match), and because I wanted one with pink, Cranberry. 

If my hand wasn't so dry from all the sanitizer and alcohol wipes there is a good chance there would have been more. For now, though, I think my little herd is just perfect!

♥ 🎄 ♥