A Froggy Went A-Stockin'
The bad news is: I do it to myself. The good news is: I do it to myself.
Holiday season 2009 was a tornado, and not the kind of mildly murky swirl of bathwater down the tub drain but a Category 5 ("the FINGER of GOD") twister, black with mud and debris and trees and cows and tractor trailers, all of which threatened to collide and disintegrate and scatter into the four winds, lost forever. Of course, it wasn't technically trees and cows and farm equipment but homemade banners and candy sushi and a house full of guests and fish of every stripe--i.e., Wombat's birthday whirlwinding in the already-much-too-narrow canyon between Thanksgiving and Christmas--and I survived it with limbs and sanity intact but definitely strained.
The bad news is: I did it to myself. The good news is: I did it to myself.
In addition to tackling my most ambitious sewing project to date--a birthday banner--I also decided to gift Wombat a handmade toy, which was at once completely crazymaking and so overwhelmingly satisfying that I can say for certain it was worth riding the tornado for a few rough weeks to get to that place where I was set down, bursting with technicolor mother-pride at what I was able to accomplish. It's a small thing, but the fact that I was able to, amidst the chaos, set a goal and finish it on time and to my own satisfaction felt like triumph.
All of which is a long way of saying, "Hey! Look at this stuffed frog I made for my kid out of a pair of decades-old socks!"
Around Halloween, Martha featured this sock skeleton, and with a few modifications I turned a somewhat morbid doll into something much more benign. I made several adjustments to the skeleton pattern, the most obvious being the lack of a ribcage, and I also decided not to attach the second sections of the arms, in part because I think it looked better that way for a frog and in part because I was so completely over hand-sewing the joints after doing just the knees that I was happy for any excuse not to revisit that particular ring of hell.
One bit of extra work I did take on, however, was sewing definition into the frog's little webbed hands, which turned out to be both imperfect and a bit of a pain but still, I think, worth the fingertip caluses.
The most surprising challenge was tweaking the frog's expression so it wasn't completely terrifying. I had to redo the mouth several times, experimenting with thread placement and angle--it's amazing the range of expression you can manipulate with a single red line--and I spent at least forty-five minutes in the craft store trying to find the perfect combination of buttons for the eyes, since a lot of the options I thought would look good at first ended up looking psycho. I used the backside of the larger, wooden buttons because they curved out slightly, making the eyes bug out just a bit.
I still think he looks a tad demented--a little bit country, a little bit rock-and-roller coming off a three-day coke-and-whisky bender--but on Simon's unprompted insistence that the frog is perfect and wonderful in every way, I'm trying my best to just get over myself and admit that even though the frog looks slightly unstable, he's still pretty cute.
Other details:
--The collar is a cat accessory I found by chance at Target. I'd intended to sew a bowtie from some leftover paisley fabric, but manipulating miniature neckwear turned out to be too much for me in my fragile state, and besides, with a little wrangling Linus can wear this one too.
--I used an old pair of socks I've had since I was about thirteen, when I wore forest green socks as a matter of course (didn't you?). I figured I'd use these as a trial pair, since my limited sewing experience has taught me that I usually need to do something once to figure out what the hell I'm doing before I can with confidnce create a final product I'm happy with. I should also have remembered, however, that I inevitably lose patience with myself and never ever make it to Round 2 (see my frankenstein pin cushion and draft snake), and that's how these ratty, old, well-worn socks have come to be my son's beloved plaything. (He puts a hat on it and drives it around in his doll stroller while I look on and die of love.)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: that froggy is adorable.
I wish I'd known you made it when we saw you guys at Xmas. I think it's fantastic.
Martha better watch her back.
That frog is awesome! Well done!
Totally cute. Well done!
Thanks, friends. My pride is in proportion to how very much I'm NOT a natural at sewing crafts.
That is soo adorable! He looks like a happy frog!
DUDE. That froggy is adorable. And his eyes/mouth are PERFECT. Well done.
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