Girl Monkey

Using the traditional design of sock monkey, how could I make her a girl?

I thought about lipstick and eyeshadow and fancy hair...

This is the lips.. I didn't like it.

Then the hair became pigtails under her hat.

I like this way, as you can take the hat off and have a generic monkey, plain and plain cute.

I finished Frankensock....
I think he's fab.

New Monster from Old Socks...

This one is made from some socks that I knit last year. The yarn was hand-spun and hand dyed, purchased at a yarn fair, and it is so soft and the colours so lovely. I knit them into the MOST soft and lovely socks and LOVED wearing them, every time a delight, until after about 10 wears, the heel blew through (gasp of horror).... The problem with softly spun pure wool, is it is NOT tough. Certainly not tough enough for the kind of hiking and walking and standing that I expected it to live up to.

So these holey socks sat in my sock drawer (could NOT throw them out!) and existed just to be caressed occasionally in passing, until the monster bug hit me...

Here is the hole....

Here is the patch up....
Here is the body assembly...

and here is the end result, a Monster that is amazing to touch and cuddle and has all the hand dyed yumminess that the socks had, only with more character. He is now out of the drawer (is that like out of the closet?) and on my monster shelf, to be enjoyed.

I had some sock left over, so added some antenna like attachments, to make him a bit more monster and a bit less kitty cat....
Off to buy more stuffing, as I have run out and have many more socks.... :)

Soft-sculpture Lips

I found this great workshop, that describes sock monkey construction really well. I will describe my patterns here, but this is a good basic instuctional site, with good photos.

Here are a couple of more monsters.... the basis for these are the soft-sculpture mouth. A bit different than the sock monkey muzzle, you anchor the sturdy matching thread at the Xon the left,

then following the arrows, push needle under the mouth (into the monster, to gather some stuffing between the needle and the surface,) take a tiny stitch above the fabric in the middle of the mouth, then go under again and come out at the bottom edge of the mouth. Turn back and put the needle in a half inch to the right and go under and UP through a small stitch in the middle and finish at the top edge. Continue to do this running stitch up and down until the right side of the mouth is reached **** gently pulling the stitch so it gathers the lips together in a snug, but not TOO puckered way. When it seems right, secure the thread at the second X.

This one also features ball shaped attached eyeballs with buttons on his head and a crooked lips design, done like above with uneven spacing of the gathering stitches.

This one has the classic straight mouth and a curved top of head with the cut off sock band used as a pony tail band!

Sock Monkeys and Monsters

I have become enraptured with these easy and cute home sewn critters, and would like to explore patterns and ideas in this blog.... with your indulgence, my writings will likely ramble and the photos and drawings may be rough, but I hope others enjoy the silly things and I will have all the photos in one spot, in this new blog... If you find this, you may also enjoy my knitting site HERE. So for all those creative folks, hope this inspires, or at least gives you a laugh!Then, with only a few variations, you can create monsters! Cute, scary, whatever...
I will have more detailed construction photos by the weekend. For now some photos and a basic sketch of the sewing.