Making Peanut
I got the book Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts for Christmas last year, and I found a perfect pattern: Peanut, the Wee Elephant. Peanut is a pattern created by Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls, and it is the most insanely lovable elephant I've ever seen in my LIFE.
I've been waiting for an excuse to make this little elephant for six months now, and we recently learned that old friends of my husband's just had their first baby. Babies are the perfect excuse for handmade toys, so I decided to make a set of soft toys for baby Allison.
The pattern for Peanut is only available in the book, as far as I know, but I did find that Wee Wonderfuls has a store and a section of free downloads in which I found the Wee Bunny. To round out the set, I decided to make baby Allison a stuffed puzzle ball (also in Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts; here's Grumperina's version).
This site shows the making of Peanut. You'll notice that the photos feature two different sets of fabric; this is because my five-year-old daughter sort of needed an elephant, too -- so I was making two at a time. We'll start with the component parts. Then we'll move on to construction and finishing techniques. Finally, I'll describe some modifications and variations that can be part of your project.
- Fabric and materials cost for this project: Could be as high as $20, if you have to buy everything new. I already had a fabric stash from my previous life as a quilter, so I paid a total of about $3 for stuffing and embroidery floss.
- Time to completion: Six hours or less, start to finish. This is in line with the estimation in the book.
- Experience level: Intermediate sewing skills required (sewing and easing curves using a sewing machine, clipping seams, manipulating non-flat objects). A confident beginner with good support/reference materials could easily pull this project together.
All text and images © 2008 by Christie Burke.
You can contact me with questions or comments: christie [DOT] e [DOT] burke [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
Updated June 22, 2008.