*Designer* - New Retro Soft Toy Pattern at Get Smitten

Let me introduce to Rory Lion and his friends! They love to have fun adventures together and are inseparable, which is why I have included the step by step instructions to make all four members of the gang in my latest pattern release at Get Smitten!

Rory is quite bossy; the leader of the gang. He is caring, loyal and loves to dance and sing. He goes out of his way to be centre of attention and his favourite crisps (that's potato chips to my American friends) are Cheese and Onion flavour

Barney Lamb is happy-go-lucky and follows Rory wherever he goes. He is very good at Maths and jumping and he loves remote controlled cars. One day he would like to visit New Zealand

Squealia Piglet is very excitable and has to fight the urge to squeal nearly all the time. She loves arts & crafts and sometimes gets in a right mess with all her paints & crayons. Her favourite colour is pink and she has a very curly, spiral crocheted tail!

Miss Bunnie-Penny is quite timid but very, very caring. She is helpful & kind and is always available for cuddles. You can tell her all your worries & she will make you feel better just by being there. She dreams of having her own chat show like Oprah & she loves lollipops. She has the most beautiful tail you ever saw on a rabbit

I had great fun designing these guys - I wanted to capture the carefree innocence of childhood friendships and have their expressions reflect this. I love the naivety of their faces, both in terms of expression and in construction - the large eyes appeal to younger kids and the long gangley limbs give little hands something to hold on to. I kept the shape simple so that sewists of all ages and experience could make them and the pattern can be made by hand or machine, as there are no difficult sections to trip you up. The character of the animals is added with crochet details and the pattern contains full step by step instructions on how to make these defining elements

I also wanted to give Rory and his buddies a kitschy, retro vibe - like the kind of toys I remember seeing in my Mum's crafting books of the 70s. I have used a selection of mismatched vintage fabrics with bold floral patterns to help achieve this look. If you want to do the same, you'll find a great selection of vintage fabric fat quarters here

Preview

I recommend adding a little bit of lavender to the body just before you stuff it so that the toy has a calming and relaxing affect on children at bedtime - the scent is released as you give your cute, new friend a good night hug!

The pattern is available at the bargain price of €5.00 in my Get Smitten Etsy store right here

Happy sewing!

Lisa xx

p.s  if you happen to make any of these guys from my pattern, you are most welcome to upload your photos to my Get Smitten Flickr group or my Get Smitten Facebook page so that we can all get a load of the cuteness!

{all images © Lisa Pocklington for Get Smitten using Instagram on iphone 3G}

Brit Brit Hooray! Union Jack Cushion

With all eyes on London this week in anticipation of the Royal Wedding, it seems the perfect time to tell you about my latest project... the Brit Brit Hooray! Union Jack cushion

The Union Jack has become a staple of interior fashion over the past few years; regardless, it seems, of your patriotic origins. There have been art prints, rugs, cushions and all manner of crockery donning the mark of the British flag; everywhere from your local high street store to the highest fashion houses (all hail Ms Vivienne Westwood!)

Liberty Jack quilt by Janey Forgan

My Get Smitten™ version - the Brit Brit Hooray! cushion - was very much inspired by the fabulous quilt by Janey Forgan I saw last spring at the V&A exhibition of quilts. I love the use of the Liberty prints to depict this emblem and as an avid collector of vintage fabrics there was no question about where this project was heading! The difficult part, as always, was narrowing down the fabric selection!

Having been inspired by the quilt I decided to tackle this project from a patchwork perspective - rather than my usual approach of mixed media, free-style embroidery techniques - and so began the head-scratching to work out how to piece the design together in a coherent order.  Being rather 'experimental' by nature in my textile work (that's art school training for you!) I am quite fascinated and even awed by the technicalities required for designing patchwork - it's almost a science and requires a disturbing (for me anyway!) amount of mathematics and pre-planning

I started by sketching out the design full size so that I could determine the finished size of the cushion - this is important as I planned to use a pre-bought insert. I then divided it up into the obvious strips that the design dictated and calculated the required seam allowance. Having decided on my 4 fabrics I worked on joining the strips into blocks and then joining the blocks to make the cushion front. The tricky part - and it took several attempts to get this right - was to get the middle diagonal strips to line up with the corner of the block and in turn the corners of the main central cross! I got there eventually

And so with a little bit of quilting (I just used a piece of fleece fabric on the reverse) and a  simple envelope closure for the back, the Brit Brit Hooray! Union Jack cushion was born! I love it and I keep coming up with new fabric combinations I'd like to try! This one is in subtle muted tones to sit amongst the other furnishings in my lounge (as seen in the pic) but I think there is a bolder, brighter, Get Smitten™ colours version itching to be made very, very soon! I'm thinking yellow, turquoise, pink and grey

Want to make your own version of this modern design classic? Be my guest... the pattern with full instructions is available here as are a range of vintage fabrics here in the Get Smitten™ online boutique. Oh and for those of you on my workshop mailing list.. stay tuned for the announcement of the Brit Brit Hooray! workshop in May

Let's see what you made! Feel free to upload your creations made with any of my Get Smitten™ patterns to the Get Smitten™ Flickr group or the Get Smitten™ Facebook page. I hope to see you there!

Lisa x
{Liberty Jack quilt postcard bought at V&A Museum London, all photos by Lisa Pocklington for Get Smitten™}