Work in Progress: Phoenix (commission)

New commission in the works.

The (potential) buyer wanted a Phoenix that was akin to the one in Harry Potter.  She provided a pic of mass produced stuffed toy (to give me an idea what she wanted) and my first reaction was "It's a parrot in drag!".

So with that in mind, I sought out a parrot pattern.  That was trickier than I thought it would be.  But I did find THIS.  Someone took a song bird pattern and modified it to be a parrot.  Fabulous!

Based on that pattern/tutorial, here is my prototype.

Since this is just a prototype, I wan't overly concerned with matching threads.  So for the wings (where they attach) I'll probably use a matching yellow (not the orange I had already threaded!).  I'd also add more frillyness to the wings to get more of a feathery/fire look to them (I added the few snips currently on the wings at the last minute before taking the pictures).

Also, I didn't do much in the way of embroidery embellishment.  In fact, I'm not sure how much I would put on even for the larger finished product.  To be totally honest, this is for a baby/young child so I feel simple is better.  And if I'm being brutally honest, tons of embellishment seems wasted on a baby who's probably just going to destroy the toy by gnawing on it.  (also, stitches could come out and be eaten by said baby, so that's not cool either).

The final product will be MUCH larger, around 12-18 inches tall and will probably include legs/feet.  I'm toying with making simple velcro straps in place of legs so the bird could be attached to the side of the crib, so the Phoenix could be watching over the baby (I like that idea).  The potential buyer wasn't sure about legs or not (and even stunned me by flippantly saying, "well, they can cut the legs off if they don't like them"--what the hell?  but I digress).

Overall the pattern is super simple to make.  The real time suck will be in how much (or little) embroidery I add.  I'm thinking the larger item will look nice with a bit more than this small prototype has.

One more pic.

Perched on my apple.  This is what made me think a velcro strap to lash it to the crib would be a cute idea (though now that I'm thinking about it, a larger item might not lash so well--would it fall over due to the weight?  I'd have to look into that).

Now I need to share the pics with the potential buyer and see if this is what she had in mind.  I kind of hope she prefers this smaller one (with the idea of velcro legs).  A smaller one would sew up simple enough so I could have this commission done quicker (not that I hate this project but I'm really keen on my own projects right now so. . .this is kind of hanging over me like a dark cloud).

Here's hoping I get a positive response from the potential buyer.