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Regal tang keychain

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.

Miff Miffler

If you were wondering why my first needle felting project was just a green and yellow blob, here’s your answer. We attend a weekly movie night, and after the show there is usually a contest. Often the contest involves drawing or writing the answer to a question, and one week (for a question which might have been about what precipitated WWIII in that night’s movie), Matt drew the following:

This cat was originally labeled “Miff Miffer” but by popular demand (read: how everyone remembered it) it was changed to “Miff Miffler”. One of the movie night organizers later named his wireless network Miff Miffler, and now he even has a Facebook page.

I’ve been wanting to make a plush Miff Miffler ever since, and after scaling back to a much smaller and less-perfected version than originally planned I was able to make one for Matt for Christmas. Here he is licking the Christmas tree.

His legs are big and wonky and his face and head aren’t quite proportioned right, but for something I made with a limited number of drafts I’m pretty happy with him. He’s made of acrylic felt and fiberfill. Gussets in his upper back and lower belly help give him the potato shape of the original, and his eyes are made with a rounded, short-tailed fly stitch. Actually several of them, on top of each other. The layers of his ears are glued together as well as sewn into the head together.

Rock and roll!

Sometimes the planets align.

Before Christmas I had an Open Hours at the Sew-op about last minute gifts. No one showed, so I used one of the ideas provided by my Upper Valley Fiber Crafts co-blogger Jenn to make this guy:

He’s from Mix and Match Monsters from It’s Always Autumn. I left him at the Sew-op to be a sample for Jenn’s last minute gifts Open Hours a few days later, and in the hustle and bustle of Christmas forgot about him entirely until I was back at the Sew-op today (and didn’t realize how much he has in common with the monster of the same shape on the website until looking it up tonight).

Incidentally, that pink button was just lying around in the Sew-op, and I was amazed what it did for the character. Just see side by side:

Personality………………… ALL the personality.

He plays the rare 8-string bass. I asked my husband if he wanted him, and he said yes, “but I didn’t want to just ask if I could have him.”

One more shot with better light and camera. I only had my flip phone with me for the above.