Today is my dad’s birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!
But this post has nothing to do with him. I have a couple of friends who have adopted “Just keep swimming” as a mantra, and that inspired me to make a small plush regal tang (also called a blue tang, but that name is used for multiple species) for a keychain.
After looking at Google Images for a while, and then through my fabric stash, I went to the store, made a couple of versions, and ended up with this:
An amalgam of craft techniques are represented. Although the felt is acrylic, I needle-felted the tail and fins onto the body, with some extra wool on top. The eyes are shank buttons pushed through a small slit in the body felt, with a second button on the inside of each to keep them from pulling out again. I had to hand-sew the region nearest the eye, but the rest of the perimeter was sewn by machine. After trimming my seam allowance –perhaps past the best point– I painted the navy blue details and dripped some Fray-Check on the stitching that wasn’t painted. I opened a small hole for the keyring with a large needle.
It’s pretty substantial for a keychain, but it could be hung up elsewhere too.
What a delightful amalgam lol !
Thanks! I was pretty happy with it.
Very cute.
I’ve never needle-felted anything, How sturdy is it? Are the needle-felted parts weak spots that could be pulled apart more easily or is the whole thing pretty well put together?
Thanks!
It’s pretty solid. Now, the previous version didn’t have enough overlap between body and tail, and was also made to have the seam allowances inside – and when I turned it right-side-out the tail pulled off the body. The blue felt and original yellow felt weren’t that great; the fins basically disintegrated around the edges when felted. This one has a significantly larger overlap as well as different yellow felt that holds up better (I didn’t have alternate blue felt in the right shade). Acrylic felt isn’t great for needle felting because the fibers are quite short (and it ruins your needles faster than natural fibers), but it works okay. The stitching and paint help it hold together too, as well as the extra layer of wool felted on top of the yellow parts.
My son has just gotten a PhD position studying and raising the Blue Tangs. While digging around on the internet looking for something fun to get him for Christmas I saw your felted wool blue tang key chain. It is very cool! I wonder if I could commission you to make one and if so, how much it might be? I didn’t see where you had one for sale.
Thanks,
Ann RAmee