Lamb Soft Sculpture - Part 1

Once again an apology for not posting on Thursday.  I was unable to access the internet.  We have been having an intermittent problem with access for some time.  Sometimes everything was fine and sometimes we would get a message server not found, and other times it would just start to load then sit there and spin.  It was very annoying.  Then, the next time you would try it, everything would be fine.  It was difficult to figure out what the problem was.  Yesterday the modem bit the dust for almost the entire day.  Then they were able to determine that our nine year old modem was not working.  They are sending us a new one.  It should be here in 24-48 hours.  I am able to access the internet today, so I am attempting to make a post.  Hopefully, the modem will hold up until I am finished.

I have started on the Lamb soft sculpture project.  Step one is to make a pattern.  I am sure that there is a lamb pattern out there somewhere, but I like to do my own work.  This is folk art after all.  If I used a pre-made pattern I would be making a craft.  Anyway, to make a pattern, I need to have some idea of the shape of a sheep.  I looked at a picture of a sheep and then tried to draw my own sheep by using the grid method.  It took a couple of attempts.  I don't know if the resolution on the photo is good enough that you can see all the erasure lines.  My first attempt looked more like a Doberman that had just caught you breaking into his junk yard.  But, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again.  Finally, I have a drawing of a sheep I can work with.  At least, it is sheep like.

Now that I have made a drawing of a sheep, it is time to use some technology.  I used this sheep drawing, which is six inches tall by four inches wide, to make pattern pieces.  I placed the drawing on my light box and traced the basic shapes.  The drawn pattern lines will be my sewing lines.  I cut about a quarter of an inch around the drawing to give myself some extra fabric for the seam allowance. 

Of course, this pattern is only drawn at six by eight inches.  At first, I considered just making a small toy using the pattern as drawn.  Working small requires a lot of effort and patience.  It is difficult to get into tight turns and hold onto small pieces.  On the other hand, working small requires you to just work on a more basic level and not do as much detail work.  Then I considered making a somewhat larger one. I don't know how big newborn lambs are, but I am guessing they would not be too large.  I decided to double the size of my pattern.  That would make the pattern roughly twelve by sixteen inches.  That may not be lifesize, but maybe three quarter size?  I will have to continue my research in trying to find out how big lambs are when they are new born.  So far, most of the information I have come across references their weight rather than length and width.

I could have made another graph drawing to enlarge the pattern, by at this point I decided to use a copier and increase my pattern to two hundred percent.  The size seemed more to my liking so I cut out the pattern pieces.  What you see are the basic shape pieces.  I still need some extra pieces to give breadth to the back and stomach and increase the girth of the lamb shape.  They will just be straight pieces of fabric sewn to the other pieces.  I am still experimenting with the width of the strips.

That is about as much as I have accomplished on the project so far.  It is spring, and my schedule is very busy now.  I will blog more on this project on my Sunday blog post.  (That is if the new modem has arrived or at least if the old one lets me get to the internet.