Big Changes and New Starts: Journey of a Little Lamb

I enjoy so, so many things and, as I recently discovered, sewing is one of those things that I just love to do. I feel like I picked it up pretty quickly and fell in love just as fast. I soon found myself with a sewing machine, tons of patterns, and lots of fleece.

My family knows I enjoy sewing stuffed animals, and I've even made them a few creations. Well, at the beginning of October, my mother asked me to sew a lamb for her. Now this isn't just any plush lamb, noooo. I was asked to make this lamb for a play my mother has been asked to direct. A play for the church. This lamb that she asked me to make was to be the sacrificial lamb representing Christ in "Savior of the World." My mom was called to direct this play and couldn't find a realistic looking lamb anywhere in stores or online, so she asked if I would take on the task of creating a life-like lamb.

I agreed. Oops.

Now, I thought this would be a simple process: Find the pattern, grab my fleece, good to go. Nope. First of all, my mother wanted more textured, realistic fabric. So, not fleece. All I have is fleece. Awesome. Second, there are also no realistic lamb patterns either. There are lots of cutesy patterns, vintage patterns, and 2-D patterns, but none that looked real. So now I had a huge project on my hands. I had to either make my own or modify a pattern, something I've never done before. Not only that, but it needed to be good. Realistic even.

Well, the way things turned out, I saw a 3-in-1 pattern for an Elephant, Horse, and Lamb. The lamb's head looked pretty good and the horse's body looked right for a realistic lamb, so I thought, hey, I'll get this pattern and just stick the lamb head on the horse body! Cake, right? Right.

Well, I decided before I went all crazy and bought some nice (not to mention SUPER expensive) fabric for this project, I would work with my fleece and have some "rough draft" lambs, ya know, just in case the patterns didn't work out right away.

Rough draft fleece lambs were a good idea, because things did not go well right away. I present to you...FRANKENLAMB!

I only have this one photo of frankenlamb because after this came out from under the sewing machine needle I was rather upset. Frustrated. Confused. That lamb/horse combo was supposed to work perfectly! Why wouldn't it?! Well, for lots of reasons actually.

After frankenlamb came out, I did a lot of thinking, drawing, modifying, and worrying. I was afraid I would get another frankenlamb, and this first fail already took up a good amount of fleece. Okay not really, but I did feel a little like it was a waste and I was afraid to screw up more. It was very disheartening and I really wanted to quit, but I knew I couldn't. My mom was counting on me and I'd made a commitment, so I tried again. The 2nd rough draft lamb turned out much, much better.

As you can see, I got the head right! And figured out how to properly attach it! Little did I know that that was the EASY part. Now, the lamb had to be enlarged to a realistic size. And I'm talking life-sized baby lamb. About two feet tall. This little guy? He was 7 inches. Uh oh...

I read online that one can easily make a pattern bigger by graphing the pattern pieces on say, a 1/4 inch scale, then redraw it on the desired size. Well, I figured it needed to be twice the size it was, so I'd redraw the pattern on a 2 inch grid. I started and it was working out pretty good! Until I realized I was making the exact same size of pattern. I was looking at things wrong. I don't know quite how to explain with text how I was doing things wrong, but all that's important is that I was doing it wrong. So after figuring out how to enlarge it properly, I began doing so. And it turned out WAY TO BIG!!! Like, ridiculously big. So, now I was frustrated. Again. Even more than before. This was the 2nd time I screwed up the enlargement. Taking a deep breathe, I thought to myself "You just need to give it one more try. Two inches was waaay to big, so we'll try one inch!" Nope. Nope nope nope. One inch was also WAY TO BIG! I was so done. That was the last straw. I could handle no more sheepy frustration. Thank goodness for Staples. They saved the lamb.

Staples, unbeknownst to me, does copying and enlargement of pretty much whatever you need. So I took them my pattern, they blew it up to the perfect size, and I swallowed my frustration and tried again. These next few photos are the results for the rough draft, full sized lamb.

Cut out pattern! (I did design the hoofs myself. Those worked out great!)

I worked! This little guy stands exactly the same height as a real little lamb!

The hooves worked out great too!

Looks good, eh?!

So, now that I have the fleece draft looking like I wanted it and got my mother's approval, it was time to use the real deal, fancy shmancy fabric. I picked a minky roset fabric for the body and a double-sided minky for the head and feet and used fleece for the hooves. I think the finished product looks pretty good! I'm super happy with the final product, especially with all the frustrating and hard work it took. In the end, however, it was all worth it. I could not be happier.

It's all sewn! But stuffing it will show if it really worked out!

I had a few holes that needed some ladder stitching, but other than that it worked out great!

Since this lamb is to be a sacrificial lamb representing Christ, it needed to be perfect so I had to make it white and with a tail (yes, sheep DO have tails!).