The theme was "What's a Dotee?" so it was really open to whatever struck my fancy. The point of the swap was to let folks who've never made dotees or were just curious about them try their hand.
I wanted to go more "classic" with this dotee. To me "classic" is a basic shaped body (usually they're bowling pin/nesting doll shaped) with some cute embellishments (and, of course, the hanger and tail).
My partner noted she liked fall colors so I rummaged through my scrap bin and found some fun oranges that sort of went together to make a cute patchwork which I then used to make the body. (and yes, the head fabric is carrots!)
WAIT, we need pictures.
See, patchwork to make the front and back pieces of fabric for the body shape. Then I did the cheap and fast sewing method where you pin the two pieces of fabric together, trace your shape onto on side then sew on the line. Then you trim the edges and clip and prep the fabric to be turned right side out. (OH, and always attach the hanger as you sew the seam--I love neat hangers/tails).
The tail on this one is super simple. Maybe a bit too simple? Since I had to hand sew the bottom closed, I had to include the tail as I was sewing. To save my sanity, I just went with a piece of varigated floss with a wee charm hanging on the end. The charm was an extra I got from another dotee doll swap. (oh and the ribbon for the hanger is recycled, too--I even ironed it to get the wrinkles out from where it had been tied previously).
The eyes are buttons I removed from a wool sweater I felted (the sweater I used to make the cute little mice T.P. Day and Mr. Durr). I knew I wanted to do ric rac for the mouth but didn't want to use plain white like I have been lately. So I brought out the flashy silver stuff. It sewed on nicely but damn is that stuff strong (or maybe I need to toss my needles and replace them all?).
I added the little paws at the very end. I just needed to have some kind of arms on this little fella (and yes, I think it's a boy). Normally dotees don't have arms (that stick out from their bodies). I like how these turned out. I'm getting better at embroidering on stuffed items (backstitch for the win!).
Know what else this guy needed?
An actual TAIL!
This tail is what made me think he needed the paws/arms on the front. The tail gave him a bit of a fox look, too. I wasn't going for a fox, though. I was going for a generic "monster". The actual tail is the finger from a stretch glove! I was pawing through my non-cotton/quilting bin and found my bag of glove/sock scraps and the color was perfect. At first I was going to make a little bunny style tail but this tail is so much better.
I think he's cute and weird which is what I was going for. Cute, weird monster. I call him Carrot Top.
It was fun making another dotee using regular fabric. I've been making a lot of felt ones lately so this was a nice change of pace. It also has me thinking about what other dotee stuff I can make using the stretch gloves. I know I'm going to use them for my Hat dotee, but maybe they'll make an appearance in some others, too!
I'm also thinking about doing some welt felting for an upcoming easter dotee. I love making the fillable felt eggs (and I still have some wool roving left from when I made the Easter Basket of Awesome last year).
Up next? Well, tomorrow I have a day off from work so I'm going to dotee all day. Birthday and Wizard of Oz (Scarecrow) are next in line. Both will be shipping internationally so I might have to pay closer attention to what shape/size they are so I can pack and ship them the least expensive way possible. (I'm dieing to get to the Hat Dotee but these other two need to ship before the Hat one--maybe I can get all THREE done tomorrow!).
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