Finished Nellie

One of the quickest projects I have done so far and by the far the best is my softie elephant.  I found the pattern on AllPeopleQuilt.com (http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/bags-pillows-gifts/gifts/treasure-elephant).  The original pattern had a pocket space in the elephants back for gift tokens/money as it was shown as a 'new baby' present.  As my babies are 18 and 19 years old and I have no desire for a new one, I decided against adding the pocket and cut the pattern leaving out the pocket.

My first attempt I made with a tartan material.  It looks ok but the eye wasn't too clear and if handled too roughly or too often, I think the material might start to fray.  My hand-crank Singer (shown in the last photograph) just has running stitches - no overlock or zig-zag stitch.  Again, I really must just take a deep breath and learn to use one of the electric ones :0/

Anyhoo, I was happy with the result but then came across some blue and white checked material and he looks even better.  I took my time with my machine to create the eyes sewing twice round and twice along the lashes.  The tying off of the thread ends was sooooo tedious but necessary and the result was so much better and neater than my hand sewing.

His ears are a little too flappy - should have had some interfacing between the layers (maybe the next one will be perfect...?) but I have a special corner of my sewing room where he takes pride of place.  Gorgeous!!