Hedgehogs hedgehogs everywhere!

For the past 2- 3 years now my daughter has been obsessed with the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.  She has sonic shirts, sonic games, sonic plushies, wallet, bracelets, halloween costumes......She reads the fan fics, writes her own, watches the videos, reads the comics, plays the games.

So when her art teacher assigned a project and one of the animals to research was a hedgehog that is what she chose.  It was whilst she was doing this project she found out that it was possible to keep hedgehogs as pets and so of course she decided that she needed one.

Now I've been thinking that we need a pet for a while but I was never willing to commit - I didn't want a dog - we'd need to fence the yard, be willing to take it for walks and I'm allergic to some. My husband was against a cat, and I whilst I would love one I could see all the downsides too, but when my daughter mentioned a hedghog I thought - you know maybe this would be a good pet for us.  He's fairly well contained  wouldn't be running around the whole house, no walking requirements - If we went on holidays he could be left with one of the kids friends for a week or so.

And so I told the kids to do some research.  Find out how much it would cost, what care requirements are there etc.  This was right at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown so the kids had plenty of time. They did all sorts of research assignments, found out everything they could - made up quizzes for each other so they could test their knowledge - it was really great to watch them.

And so they came to us one day with all their research and my husband and I talked it over and decided maybe we should do it.  The kids had found their preffered purchase location and so we filled out their questionnaire, emailed it in and waited to hear back...and waited....and waited.....and it looked like we'd be waiting for months (they still haven't replied to us even though we followed up at least twice), but then one day I looked at a website for a place a bit further afield (about 2 hours away) and found that they had hedgehogs available right now......including this little guy who we fell in love with immediaately.

Ohh could it be possible?  As well as being a USDA licensed breeder they also have a store dedicated to all things hedgehog and sell all the gear required (we had originally planned to order a hedgehog then purchase all we needed off amazon whilst waiting for it to be available), This meant that we could buy it right now and have it this week.  After a bit more research into this place we decided to go for it and on May 1st the kids and I piled into the car for an outing.

We left early as I was worried that if there was traffic we could end up being late, but luckily there was none - we also had to make a quick stop at an auto shop since my windscreen wipers had died a little while ago and I had put of replacing them as we weren't using the car.  A final stop at a rest are to change the wipers and we arrived at our destination a hour early.  Since it was lunch time we popped into the drive through Maccas and bought ourselves lunch and ate it in the car parked outside the hedgehog shop.  At 12:30pm we were allowed into the shops - we donned our masks (I made my daughters out of the scraps of hedgehog fabric from her shirt I made) and headed inside to pick up Star.  He's a 6 week old hedgehog pinto in colour, mainly browny black but with one pink paw and one pink ear and lots of white quills scattered through (including a really cute white blaze on his butt).  He has a black circle around one eye that makes it look like one eye is bigger than the other - and he is adorably cute!

We bought the Ultimate Cage set up that provided us with everything we needed including heat lamps wheel, igloo, carrier.

and then headed home with Star being passed from lap to lap the whole way.

We got him all settled into his new house and I realised I was going to have to do quite a bit of sewing to make it comfortable for him.

trying put his new food bowl.

They had provided paper bedding for him but I knew that I didn't want to use that so I pulled out all my scrap fleece and started sewing.

I made a liner that would cover the plastic bottom of his cage and go right up the sides and tie to the wire mesh.  Originally this was just 1 layer of fleece, and then I added a cotton backing as well.  I made two of these liners.

But after a couple of days he found out how to get up and underneath the liner and we found him a couple of mornings lying on the plastic bottom of the cage under the liner.  My main worry about that was that he couldn't get himself out if he needed to so I changed tactics and made a different type of liner.  This time I used 3-4 layers of fabric.  Fleece on one side, heavy weight cotton on the other and in between a quilted sandwich - for my first one I used a premade quilted fabric two layers of cotton on either side of piece of batting, for the second one two layers of warm and natural quilted to a piece of heavy weight cotton.  These were great until I washed them the first time and they shrunk...

I have to think about what I can try next.

The kids also got in on the action each of them making a little snuggle sack for snuggling with him.

These snuggle sack are simple - take 2 rectangles of fabric and sew them together on three sides, then put two of these together, right sides facing and sewing them together around the top, leaving a small opening to turn them right side out.  Finally top stitch around the opening to close up that last hole.

I also made a snuggle sack, but I made mine with a bottom.  Same steps as above, but after sewing the three sides together sew two triangles across the bottom to create a  square base.

We had some wire shelving lying around ready to be thrown out, but decided instead to use some of it to make a little playpen for Star, but he kept trying to slip out of the cage, poking his head almost right through on a couple of occasions.

So I sewed together some scrap fabric to cover the wire and then made a floor from fabric as well.

We then wondered if it was too bright for the little guy during the day living inside his see through igloo, so I made a fleece cover to go over the top of it.  I put 4 grommets in the top, attempting to align them with the air holes on the igloo for air flow.

And then one day I found a video tutorial on making your own stuffed hedgehog and that was it - the kids each wanted to make one.  Watching the video, the toy she makes is pretty much 2 dimensional and we all wanted a 3D toy so I modified the pattern slightly, adding a gusset underneath the body and the head and a triangular gusset coming half way up the back.  We used materials we had on hand so white fluff, beige fleece and brown micro suede.  I made the pattern and J was the first to sew - he cut out all his pieces, I pinned them together and he sewed them (except the last seam I did that as he needed lunch but still wanted to get it finished).  We turned him inside out and stuffed him - oh so cute.  J hot glued on two black felt circles for eyes, I sewed up the hole and he was done.

Unfortunately he turned out a bit hunch back.  The gusset up the back wasn't big enough so he now has a flat butt...but J loves him!

I wanted to modify the pattern before L made up hers so I tried a smaller version using just white fluff, white fleece and black fleece.  This time I extended the back gusset full width up to the top of the back, tapering off to a point at his face.

That's more like it.  The fluff is a bit long on this little guy, I was going to offer him to Star for a toy but he wasn't interested.

Next up it was L's turn using the new and improved pattern.

That's a much better butt!

And now we have a house full of hedgehogs!  A couple of last photos of the cute little guy.

Awhhh look - he thinks he's a parrot!

Cup O' hedgehog anyone?

Those eyebrow quills are so expressive.  When they come down and he squints at you you know your in trouble!

Pattern Review Sewing Bee Round 4.

I just realised that I never got around to blogging my round 4 entry into the Sewing Bee

This is just a cut and paste from Pattern Review but I wanted to include it here as well, plus I can add extra photos here!

The requirement for this round was – Biopic - Create an outfit for an interview with you. The outfit should represent your life.

The first thing I thought of when I read the challenge was that whatever I made had to be bright. Colour plays a big part in my life. In about 11th grade I started dyeing my hair bright colours – I continued through university, but then when I got a job out in the real world I had to go back to normal coloured hair. Thankfully after a couple of years my company got to know me well enough and said I could dye it as long as I wasn’t scheduled to face any clients. And so I started again – and I never stopped. I’m now almost 42 years old and still dye my hair vibrant colours whenever I can.
Since having kids and being around children a lot more I often get asked the question why? Why is your hair blue? Or green? Or purple? So one day I sat down and thought about it – why do I dye my hair? The short answer is because it makes me happy. It may sound corny but I catch a glimpse of colour out of the corner of my eye and I realise that that is my hair and I smile. I walk past a window and see my reflection and it puts a smile on my face. Some days, when everything seems to be going wrong, when I think about my Mum and Dad on the other side of the world dealing with dementia and so many other issues and not being able to do anything to help, just that small bright spark can make things feel a little easier to bear. And that goes for clothes too - bright coloured clothes act as a sort of pick me up – an excuse to smile everyday.
So right from the start I knew that whatever I made for this challenge, it had to incorporate a lot of colour and pattern

Next I had to decide what style of clothes to make. Growing up I had no interest in clothes. As long as I was comfortable that was all that mattered. I did always choose bright colours but my style was, shorts/jeans and a T-shirt and if it was cold a sweater over the top. It wasn’t until about 5-10 years ago when I really got into sewing my own wardrobe that I started to take an interest in clothes styles. I started reading sewing blogs regularly, often trying to find people with a similar body type so I could see what might work for me, but also trying to look outside my narrow sphere of influence and generally broaden my horizons. I started trying out different pattern styles and generally being a lot more adventurous with my style. As my wardrobe grew I realized that I had all these cool clothes and decided that I didn’t want to just have them in my wardrobe I wanted to wear them. So I stopped waiting for the right occasion and just wore them anywhere – So these days it’s not unusual to see me wandering around the grocery store in a flowy chiffon dress, or picking up the kids in a metallic gold maxi dress! And I love it. Yes occasionally I get the odd weird look, but you know what - at this stage of my life I don’t care.
That’s not to say that I spend everyday swanning around in my fancy clothes. In winter I often resort back to plain pants and a sweater simply because I can’t find any fabric that is both brightly patterned and warm and snuggly and unfortunately comfort and warmth wins out over style every time. But once the weather warms up I can use the great prints and colours to make all sorts of garments in fun styles.
Last summer I fell in love with jumpsuits. I’d sworn for years that jumpsuits weren’t for me, but then I tried one, and I was hooked. They’re comfortable and easy to wear but the best thing about jumpsuits, as far as I’m concerned, is that you can wear bright prints from head to toe. I have a tendency to want to make everything in bright patterns as that is what calls to me, but then nothing matches. With a jumpsuit you don’t have to worry about that!
And so I decided that it would be fun to create a brightly coloured jumpsuit as part of this challenge.

In order to be able to extend the amount of time when I can wear my jumpsuit I decided that I could make a cover up to go over it. I love making jackets and coats - in winter these are really the only part of my wardrobe that can be seen so I love making ones that are bright and cheerful – anything to brighten up those long winter days. However I didn’t think I needed a full coat to go over a summer jumpsuit. I decided instead on a cropped moto style jacket.

One of the things that I enjoy the most with regards to sewing is the designing and drafting of patterns. I’m a design engineer (Aeronautical) by trade and whilst I no longer work in the industry, I still think like an engineer and I love taking a design that I’ve seen, or coming up with my own design, and then trying to figure out how to accomplish it. How do all the different pieces go together to transform a flat 2D piece of fabric into a 3D design? It’s like a puzzle and it’s something that I really enjoy – probably even more than the actual sewing.
I also love to try out new sewing challenges. When my kids were small I decided that I wanted to try and make my own reusable diapers/nappies. I suppose I could have bought a pattern, but where’s the fun in that? Instead I turned to the internet and after much researching, and examination of my existing reusable nappies I was able to create my own pattern for these. Then as my kids got a bit older my son grew out of his soft soled shoes and I wasn’t ready yet to have him wear real shoes so I decided to make my own. Working on these sorts of challenges is something that I really enjoy. I never really think about whether something can be done or not, I just jump right in and try it. My motto is nothing tried nothing gained. What’s the worst that can happen – it can fail and I recycle it into something else. So once I mastered soft soled shoes for my son ,I decided to try and see if I could make shoes for myself. I’ve never been a big fan of shoes – preferring to be barefoot whenever possible so the idea of soft soled shoes was appealing to me.
For this challenge I knew that, to represent my engineering side, I wanted to make a pair of new shoes to go with my outfit. I also knew that I wanted to do some design and drafting work so rather than use existing patterns for my jumpsuit and jacket, I would create my own.

I sat down and sketched out my design. A jumpsuit with a wrap top with princess seams where one side of the wrap extends down to mid thigh curving out to the side seam. I envisioned short sleeves and legs gathered in at the bottom.

 For the Jacket I envisioned a waist length jacket, again with princess seams, with a mandarin collar.

Fabric
Once I had my design I needed fabric. I took a trip to the fabric store where I found a beautiful bright teal vinyl fabric that just screams me. Teal is quite possibly my favourite colour – as you may have noticed already in this competition – this will be my third submissions based around this colour. I couldn’t find any coordinating fabric at the store to use for the jumpsuit, however when I got home I searched through my stash and found a perfect fabric to match. It was tucked down the back of my fabric cupboard and I’d almost forgotten it but the teal vinyl had triggered my memory. I bought it last summer when I found it cause it was just so perfectly me, but never got around to making it up as the weather turned cold on me. It’s a lightweight poly lycra fabric with a black background with a teal design in a sort of paisley pattern which I love. It then has pops of purple, green and orange throughout the pattern. With these two fabrics I knew I had an outfit that represents me.

Jumpsuit Pattern - The next step was to create my jumpsuit pattern. I didn’t have time to draft everything from scratch so I went with the next best thing, frankenpattterning. I started with the Deer and Doe Sirocco and the Closet Case Sallie Jumpsuit patterns. I laid the pants pattern pieces over the top of each other aligning them at the crotch and created a pattern that was halfway between the two. Slimmer in the leg than the Sallie, but wider at the base than the Sirocco and cut off to the length of the Sirocco. (I then took a further 1.5”off the length to add the cuffs during the final construction phase). I used the crotch curve of the Sallie, but the rise of the sirocco.
For the bodice I used a modification that I made previously to the Sirocco to change the original pleats in the bodice into a princess seam. I took my previously modified pattern pieces and extended them by about 3” so that I could eliminate the waistband. It took a bit of reworking to figure out the angles on the new extensions to get it to sit nicely, but I’m happy with the final result. I used these pattern pieces on one side of my bodice and then for the opposite side I extended the pattern pieces even further down and curved them out to the side seam at about mid thigh.

 I then modified the back pattern piece to include a similar curved overskirt.

I made a quick muslin to check that everything fitted and then it was time to cut it out. At this point I realized that my fabric was actually a border print with a foot of geometric triangles down each side. To add to that the stretch was no aligned with the print so I had to turn my print sideways to be able to make use of the stretch. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get all my pieces cut out of the main pattern, but with a little bit of pattern tetris and cutting everything single layer I finally managed. Then I had to figure out how it all goes together.

I started with the pants, sewing the crotch seams, the inseam then inserting the front pockets at the sides (Yes there is a second pocket hidden underneath the overskirt) before finishing the side seams. 

I then serged 1.5”wide elastic to the top of the pants before turning it inside and top stitching. I then started on the bodice, sewing up the princess seams, sewing in the sleeves then the side seams. I cut a neckband out of the border print fabric and attached it starting at the waistband on the right hand side, extending up and around the neck, down the front of the skirt portion and back up to the back ending at the back waistband.

Then came the hardest part - figuring out how to attach the bodice to the pants. I sewed the bodice to the pants from the center front seam to the center back seam around the left side then had to attach the end of the band onto the back piece sewing at a right angle to get the band to sit flat. (I tried to get a photos but there’s so much print it’s really hard to see anything)

To keep the wrap top closed I interfaced a strip of the border print fabric and sewed it into a tube to make a strap which I then cut in half. One half of the strap was sewn into the waistband where the band attaches at the back and the other half was attached to a slider and sewn to the front of the wrap at waist level so that it makes a triangle where it attaches to the wrap.

Finally I added border prints bands around the sleeves and the ankle cuffs, gathering the legs to fit within the cuffs.

All seams in the jumpsuit were basted on the sewing machine then serged to finish.

Jacket Pattern – To create a pattern for the jacket I decided to start with my latest coat pattern. I took the bodice pieces and extended them to waist length, then as this is supposed to be a fitted jacket rather than a coat, I took a little of the excess ease out of the pattern (about 1” on each side and an 1.5” off the width of the sleeves). I made the pattern up as a muslin then added a mandarin collar. It wasn’t sitting well so I had to add extra fabric into the back neckline and shoulder so the neckband would sit snuggly around my neck.

Then I started on the front zip region. I knew I wanted the zipper angled like a moto jacket but when I tried it with the amount of angle I wanted the jacket didn’t hang nicely when it’s left open, so I reduced it to just a minimal angle and created an asymmetrical opening at the top. After getting my muslin to the design I wanted I trimmed down the seams, took it apart and remade my pattern from the muslin.
I cut the pattern out of my teal vinyl and sewed it together trimming down the seams but leaving them raw since this fabric doesn’t fray. I attached the collar, but not the bottom band. I inserted a black zipper in the front and then had to make a decision on pockets. Now usually I would say the more pockets the better, but with a jacket this short I realized that any pockets I put in would be too small to be useful so decided against putting in side pockets. But I did add one small chest pocket just to carry any small bits and pieces that I need.

After trying out a number of different ways of inserting this pocket I decided to do the following. Cut a slit in the jacket where I want the pocket, cutting a small triangle at each end. I then sewed the zipper directly to the vinyl so that I could avoid any topstitching. Even with the walking foot on my machine I struggled to get even stitches on this fabric so I wanted to avoid doing any topstitching. I added a pocket bag out of teal zebra print fabric that I had in stash.
Lining – I had two options for lining. The teal zebra print satin or a teal French terry fabric. I decided to go for warmth and cut the lining out of the French terry. I sewed the lining together and then attached it up the sides of the zipper and around the neck. I under stitched the lining to avoid top stitching on the vinyl. I finished the sleeves by trimming the lining down by ¾”, sewing the sleeve and lining together inside out then turning them right side out and pick stitching to hold the lining in place.

I added the band at the bottom sewing through both vinyl and terry lining and then hand basted and stitched in the ditch to secure the inside of the band.
Once the jacket was all made up I tried it on….and was a bit disappointed. It was a bit plain…..and if there is one thing that I don’t do – it’s plain! So I decided I needed to add some embellishment. I thought about doing some embroidery but stitching on this vinyl was not pretty. So I abandoned the embroidery idea. Instead I bought a stencil with a number of different mandala type designs. This picks up on the pattern on the fabric of the jumpsuit. I used a black glimmer paint and stenciled one big design on the back, two small design on the lower half of each sleeve and three small designs on the front.

The last thing to do was to figure out what sort of fastener to use for the bottom band. I had a fantastic button in my stash, but after trying on the dress I realized that I wanted that bottom fastener to hold the band nice and tight and I wasn’t sure that a single button could do that without stretching out the button hole, so I decided to used two black snaps instead. Unfortunately the only black snaps I had in my stash were stars and I didn’t want stars, so I took some white snaps and painted them black.


Shoes – Strangely enough these were probably the easiest of my three pieces to make. This is because I already had the pattern. I’ve made these shoes a number of times now – they really only last one season so I have to make a new pair or two each year. That’s given me plenty of time to perfect my pattern. These shoes are super comfortable and I think super cute. 

They have an upper vamp and a heel made from the teal vinyl and lined with interfaced zebra print satin. 

I added strips of blue embossed leather across the toe for interest stitching these strips into place before sewing on the lining. The innersole piece is made from black velvet. The vamp and heel are sewn onto the innersole then the sole material – a special fabric that has a vulcanized rubber bonded onto a knit backing – is sewn, right sides facing, over the top leaving a small gap. 

The shoe is turned inside right through the gap and then two layers of foam (one 2mm thick and one 6mm thick) are inserted inside the shoe through this opening to provide some cushioning. I then hand-stitched the opening closed.
The shoes are secured using a teal vinyl ankle strap that is top stitched onto the heel and secured with a snap.

At the last minute I decided I wanted to add one final piece to my outfit – this garment represents the future. A future in which I finally start wearing hats regularly. I grew up in Australia in a time when we didn’t really know about sun safety and a lot of my friends and family are now paying the price. So many people I know, including my Dad and my sister have had to have cancerous growths removed, it’s really just a matter of time for me! Since having kids I’ve tried to be a lot more vigilant about sun safety but I don’t really like using sun screen either – so many chemicals - and so I really want to wear hats more. Up until a couple of years ago I was under the impression that all hats look terrible on me, but then I finally found a hat that worked! It was amazing – I wore that hat till it just about fell apart. In September last year I was inspired by the Pattern Review Hat contest to see if I could sew myself a new hat. I managed to create a pattern by tracing around my old hat and was able to - not quite replicate my old hat - but I at least create a hat that I was happy with. For this challenge I decided I wanted to make a hat to represent all the hats I will hopefully wear regularly in the future.

 I made it from a black wool suiting fabric. The crown and sides were interfaced using a heavy weight interfacing and the brim was interfaced using buckram. I then lined the entire hat in a teal linen which was also interfaced with heavy weight interfacing for the crown and sides and buckram for the brim. I used a strip of wool for the inside band and trimmed the hat with a teal ribbon and teal feathers to match the rest of my outfit.

Conclusion:
I love my new outfit. I know that as soon as the weather warms up I will get a lot of wear out of my jumpsuit, and my shoes are so comfortable. The combination of the velvet innersole and the vinyl upper and satin lining feels fantastic. The jacket, now this it has it’s embellishments is super cool and will be worn with more than just the jumpsuit. I truly hope that the hat will get used. I am trying to get used to wearing them, and this one is definitely comfortable so we can only hope!

 I have now had a chance to wear each piece of this outfit (though not all together) so I thought I'd add a follow up.  The jumpsuit is fantastic and has been worn quite a bit this spring - every time it's been warm enough.  And now that the weather is warming up I've been able to wear the shoes too.  They are super comfortable, though if I were to make them again I would use something other than satin for the lining as my feet do tend to sweat in these.  The hat has been worn a couple of times  I just have to remember to grab it.  I do find it's a touch too small. I may take out the woolen sweat band as I think this is making it just a touch too tight. 

The jacket I have worn maybe once.  Unfortunately I've found that jackets made from vinyl just aren't that comfortable.  They are too stiff - maybe I just need to break it in.  I'm going to try it and we shall see.