Mice!

I think mice
Are rather nice.
Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven't any
Chins at all.
Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white,
They run about
The house at night.
They nibble things
They shouldn`t touch
And no one seems
To like them much
But I think mice
Are Nice 

Skye reminded me of this lovely little poem by Rose Fyleman [thanks, Skye] . Over the weekend, in between working out to fold forage caps, and manipulate wax washers and cotton reels into tanks, I made two prototype mice, using my new book [yes, I ordered my own copy, 2nd hand online] They both came out around 6½" tall

Prototype 1;  I used some white curtain interlining [because I have loads of this, it was free] This was not 100% successful, as the woven fabric distorted when I was stuffing it, and frayed too easily. It had a strangely fluffy texture, and would have been better for sheep than mice, I think. I didn't have any fishing line, so improvised whiskers with beading wire - which bent too easily out of shape. Time to make -2½hours

Prototype 2; I'd bought a pack of cheap felt [with a high %age acrylic] to get different flesh tones for my Egyptian Puppets. So I made a second mouse using that. It worked better, but still went a bit fluffy when handled, and stretched when I was doing the fiddly head shape. I stopped before doing the nose and whiskers. Time to make - 1½ hours

Clothes;  I made the red felt blazer, and a blue cotton dress, using patterns from the book. They came up rather too large [that blazer is pinned at the back for the photo]  I think I should have had a greater seam allowance! Time to make -  less than 1 hour

Conclusions
Better felt will give a more professional result, I think, especially if I am planning to make and sell these. The instructions are really good [except for the seam allowance advice] with clear photos

Sue Quinn recommends cotter-pin-joints for arms, legs and head. I didn't want to go down that route. Too fiddly and expensive. My friend Wendy from craft group makes lots of rabbits, and just stitches the limbs on. It seems to work - I don't need these to be poseable.The pattern is designed to be machined - and that really does speed up the process.

Sue recommends forceps for pulling the pieces through [so seams are inside] and for pushing in the stuffing. I use a bamboo chopstick for stuffing memory bears. But forceps?
That's OK, said Bob, what size do you want - and went out to the Lathe Palace where [surprisingly]  he has locking forceps in three different sizes [Is he practising brain surgery out there, do you think?] The little 4" ones were perfect for the task. 

I shall find some fishing line, and have ordered better quality woollen felt*.and start designing a few different garments. But it is a good start, and I hope I will get some made for the shop in the autumn,

* on Tuesday afternoon I turned on the TV to the Create and Craft channel- which I rarely watch. There was Corinne Lapierre - who designed my Advent picture kit She was launching her latest book, and for one day only her packs of felt [wool/viscose] were on special offer. How cool was that? I had just finished sending off my order, when someone emailed me asking if I could make felt mice, as she has need of some for a special project she is doing. I replied that it seems the way was already being prepared, and sent her the picture.

Thank you all for the lovely comments yesterday about the Cross Stitch.

My stats have gone back up again, so I hope that means people are getting my posts on their feed.

I'm certainly getting Sue-In-Suffolk again [and other favourites] who had 'gone dark' last month.