Lamb Soft Sculpture - Part 5

Fiber fill folded into a small ball and clamped to hold shape.

I was so busy on Thursday that I did not get to post.  It was just one of those weeks with double stacked activities and appointments on a number of days.  Even with all of that, I am making a some progress on the lamb.  I hope to have the first phase of this project completed soon.  I would like to have this phase completed by the end of the week.  (Fingers crossed on that.)  The lamb is still in a very primitive state.  It should look a lot better when it is finished.

It is fairly easy to make a stuffed animal if you have a pattern.  There is a learning curve when you try to create patterns yourself.  What you want, and what fabric and fiber are able to do can be two different things.  Sometimes you have to rework things until they come out right.  In this case, it is the legs that have been giving me the most trouble. 

Front and rear legs of the lamb.

There is an old saying that the third time is a charm.  I had to remake the legs again.  I think I have fixed the problem this time.  The first time I made the legs the size was too small and the fabric so stiff that I could not turn the legs without tearing them up.  The second time I made the legs I realized that the were so thin that they could not hold up weight of the body without bowing.  The legs would either have to have some internal support or be made larger.  I opted for making them larger and straighter so that no internal support would be needed.  If this toy lamb to be given to a child, you would not want something rigid inside as it could injure the child if he or she fell while holding it.  So now I am onto the third rendition of the legs.  I may have needed to make them straighter, but I did not want to lose the overall shape of the leg musculature.  If the lamb turns out to be a bit bandy legged I have a fix in mind.  There is no way to really test whether the legs will actually hold the weight until they are sewn onto the body.  So we will have to see when I reach that point.

The first time most people try to make a stuffed animal or doll they say, "What happened?"  Most times the toy comes out floppy even if the entire amount of stuffing called for has been used.  There are some techniques for stuffing toys that some people may not know, so I will go into them here in some detail.  It may save someone from becoming frustrated with a project.  It is not as simple a project as it seems.

Polyester stuffing is fluffy because there are a lot of air pockets.  You have to get the air out of the fiberfill so that your stuffing becomes a solid mass that will support your project.  This is not a hard task, but it can be time consuming.  These directions are for smaller projects.  If you have a very large project you may have to do things differently, but they will work for most dolls and small stuffed toys if the opening for the area you are stuffing is only a couple of inches.

To get started, grab a shallow handful of Polyester fiber fill.  By a shallow handful I mean about as much fiber as will cover the palm of your hand.  Fold it in half, fold it in half again,  keep folding it in half until it is in a tight bundle that cannot be easily folded any further.  Ideally, it should not much larger than slightly more than a quarter inch larger than the width and length of your thumb.  Clamp this with a forceps hemostat clamp.  Stuff this ball of fiber into your project and release the clamp.  You can generally buy these clamps as part of a craft tool kit or tool store such as Harbor Freight. 

Next, use a blunt object to pat the fiber into place, pushing it as firmly as possible.  Keep packing in balls of fiberfill until the project part is solid.  You can purchase a tool for this, but most people use chopsticks that came with takeout or the blunt end of a skewer or knitting needle.  The main thing is that you do not want something sharp poking holes in your project.  This process takes a while.  I estimate that it took forty minutes to an hour to stuff each leg.  While you are packing in the fiber, use the stuffing tool to push one ball of fabric over another so that the individual balls are not making the project lumpy.  Massage and knead the fiber as you go along.  Once the piece is stuffed, massage and knead it some more.  If there area areas that just won't smooth out, insert a long needle such as a doll making needle and push the fiber around. 

How do you know when  you have stuffed a project enough?  It is almost easier to describe what you don't want than what you want.   You don't want the project to be floppy.  You don't want it so overstuffed that it is straining the seams.  And you don't want large lumps in the project.  Remember though, that generally the stuffing is the first layer and that most projects are going to have other layers on top of this layer.  It will never be perfect, so as Erma Bombeck used to say, "Don't sweat the small stuff."  Eventually, you will know the feeling of a well stuffed toy.  If you are not sure what that feels like, borrow a toy from a kid or check out the animals at your local toy department.  (Although people may look at you strangely for squeezing the stuffed animals.)

At this point in my project, the legs are still a little lumpy.  They need a little work.  But that is where I stopped on the project.  Next blog post will be about the head and body.  Check back on Thursday for the latest blog post.