Free softie pattern: Hamie the Hedgehog

I have an old friend to share today..  in the form of a softie pattern.  I think he's my very most favorite softie to date.  I was positively beside myself when he was coming together.  This was one of those rare times where the mental vision matched with the final outcome!

I start every softie pattern with a muslin version first.
He was a tad on the lumpy side...
...and covered in pen marks...
...but I knew he would work his curves out once he was put together properly!

 

DOWNLOAD PDF PATTERN

After I had cut my pattern out in fabric I then cut out the dart areas on the paper pattern so I could trace them onto the fabric (I used vellum to print my pattern cause I seriously heart vellum).
That was the easiest way for me to get the exact placement of the darts.

The way you sew darts together is by lining up the point of the triangle and pinching them together.
You then sew down that line.

Here is a little bit better view.
Leave enough string (of both pieces) from the sewing machine at the top of the point so you can tie a little knot. This keeps dart from coming apart.

Here are both darts sewn on one side.  The two fabric pieces are ready to be sewn together.
I actually cut out the rest of the paper pattern (along the dotted line) ...and then traced that shape onto the fabric pieces.  This gave me the exact place to sew the seam.

Once you have your seam sewn you are going to want to clip your curves (which is pretty much around the whole Hamie body..  he's a round sorta fella)

Trim your excess seams
(leave the opening part a little longer so you can tuck it in all nice and tidy)
NOTE:  We changed the location of the seam opening to right under his snout
(it's correct in the pattern - this pic is showing the wrong location for the opening).
We found that when it was along his bottom it caused a major cause of the humpty dumpties!
We cannot have that now can we?

I think I just heard a collective groan from the gals out there who do not have a Sizzix.
I am sorry you guys.  I had to use it.  It was too cute to not do any other way!
I do have a little secret to share (it's prolly just a secret to me and the rest of you already knew this).
You can actually stack the felt squares on top of each other (I found that 3 works best).
When I figured this out.  I sat there for a second and observed a moment of silence for my poor elbow.
The roughly 500 cranks on the machine for the felt topiary projects...
...could have been reduced to a mere 165 cranks.
Yep...  you read that right.  I did all that cranking for NOTHING!
Cranky sigh.
Dearest Elbow of Mine...  I'll make it up to you someday.  I swears.

I used a leaf shape for the Hamie Back Spikes.
Sew pretty.  Sew Hamtastic.

Here is a close-up of the leaves on Hamie.
I placed them with simple head pins for now.
But as soon as I am done typing up this little post I am going to tack them all down.