Sheldon the Dinosaur Plush DIY

For about a year now, my friends and I have adored the Sheldon the Dinosaur comic by Amburgered. Sheldon is a tiny dinosaur who thinks that he is a turtle, and uses an acorn for a shell. Whenever I know one of my very close friends, Abi, is feeling down, I make a point of finding a recent Sheldon comic and sending it to her to cheer her up.

I decided that, because of this love Abi and I share for Sheldon, I ought to make Abi a little Sheldon of her own.

If you want to make your own, here's how to do it:

1. Download the pattern here.
2. Sew your four leg pieces to the leg holes on the inside body.
3. Sew the dart at the back of the inside body.
4. Sew the two outside body pieces to either side of the inside body piece.
5. Sew around the neck and head area and at the back, bottom area, making sure to leave a space for turning and stuffing.
6. Turn the body right-side out. Put the safety eyes in on the face and stuff. Close your stuffing hole.
7. Cut out your upper shell pattern.
8. Hand-stitch your shell (right sides together) as close to the edge as possible. Add in a small scrap of felt in the centre of the shell as the acorn stalk.
9. Stitch the upper shell to the shell base and stuff it.
10. Paint small Xs onto the shell.
11. Stitch the complete shell to the back of the body.
12. Take your own little Sheldon on adventures with you! 

I'd love to know if you also read the Sheldon comics, or see if you make a Sheldon of your own, so please leave your comments below!

Thanks for reading!

LDP x

Humans vs Zombies Sock Bandolier

My university is hosting a game of Humans vs Zombies in August, and since I'm only in first year, this will be my first time playing the game. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm not athletic enough to survive very long, and our game won't be using guns, so balls of socks are the only way to ward off the zombies. I decided that the best way for me to survive would be to ensure that I have socks within reaching distance at all times for protection, so I figured that the best way to do that would be to make a sock bandolier.

Want to make your own? Here's how I did it:

What you'll need:

• Nylon-like strap 
• Elastic (mine was 2cm wide)

What to do:

1. Start by deciding how long you want the strap to be by wrapping it around your body as you will wear it. Cut the strap and use a candle to burn the ends to stop fraying.
2. Sellotape the two ends of your strap together.
3. Stitch ends together and remove sellotape.
4. Stitch ends together and remove sellotape.
5. Mark along your strap and elastic where it will be stitched down. I marked my strap into 8cm spaces, with 1cm in between each space, and my elastic into 11cm spaces, also with 1cm between each space.
6. Stitch down the elastic to the strap at each 1cm gap, forming loops for socks with the elastic.
7. Stitch down a 13cm strip of elastic to the bottom of the strap in the centre of each 8cm space.
8. Flip each strip up over the main elastic and stitch it into the centre.

Fill it up with socks and be prepared for the impending zombie apocalypse! 

I'm simultaneously nervous and overwhelmingly excited for this game of HvZ - as I said, it's my first time playing, but I've no doubt it will be awesome.

Let me know if you make your own sock bandolier, and if you've ever played HvZ before and if you have any tips for my first game!

Thanks for reading.LDP x 

Live Slow, Die Whenever

For ages now, I've wanted a fox scarf. No, not a fox stole; there's something painfully morbid about having a dead animal wrapped around your throat. A fox scarf. I remember seeing the Lazy Oaf fox scarf a few years back (though it doesn't seem to be available any more) and absolutely setting my heart on it, loving the way it managed to be cute while still being slightly macabre. I remember it being out of my budget (everything is out of my budget) and reminding myself to make one in the future.

Fox scarves! Fox scarves everywhere!

1. Donna Wilson
2. Boondock Studios
3. BeeLicious Crafts
4. Lazy Oaf
5. Eugenia Kim
6. Prudent Baby (This one's a DIY!)

Although I do still want to make a fox scarf at some point or another, I decided to add a twist to this style. So, since we've established that my sloth obsession is no secret, I might as well carry on flaunting it, right? So much for "The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem".

What you'll need to make your own sloth scarf:

• Fur fabric
• Felt
• Safety eyes and nose
• Paint 

Steps:

1. Cut one long strip of your fluffy fabric , about 32-35 cm wide. I made mine as long as I could, using the entire length of the fabric. Make it shorter or wider to your own liking. Cut out a piece of fluffy fabric the size you want the head to be. Repeat this shape on another piece of fluffy fabric, then cut out a piece of felt for the face.
2. Paint the face using acrylic and fabric paints.
3. Ensure that the safety eyes and nose fit appropriately on the sloth's face.
   
   
4.  Sew the two fluffy head pieces together, then turn right-side-out.
5.  Place the head where you want it to be on the scarf.
6.  Sew the face and head onto the scarf, and add the safety eyes and nose. Sew down the length of the scarf and close the ends, sewing foot shapes at each end. Leave a section in the middle open to turn it right-side-out, then turn and close.

Aaaaaaand you're done! Wear your scarf on any lazy day you choose. 

I actually wore this scarf to my first exam on Wednesday, because the exam hall we write in is freezing. He kept my neck super cosy while I concentrated on Linguistics. 

I also posted this scarf with one of my outfits on Chictopia, which you can see here. 

In other news, I am this week's featured member on my favourite website, Cut Out + Keep! Click here to read the interview. 

Thanks so much for reading!

LDP x

Map Backpack

For most of last term, I was lugging my university books around in a shoulder bag that just didn't suit academia - it was cute, but definitely not built to handle the battering of books which it received. Over my brief vacation at home, I decided that it was a better idea to invest in a backpack - but instead of finding one I liked only to meet someone else with one identical, I opted, as usual, for a DIY.

While the lovely Annika was moving house this week, I provided a guest post for her blog on how to make your very own map backpack.

I've received loads of compliments on it already, and I've only been back for a week, so I'm incredibly happy with how this turned out!

I'd love to see your version if you try out this DIY.

LDP
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Sock Sloth

I can't be certain why, but recently, I've been slightly besotted with sloths. I don't know when or how this started, but seriously, have you seen how cute baby sloths are?! (Spoiler alert: they're really freakin' cute).

One of the first noted occasions that this obsession showed its prominence was when I found this picture:

I don't even know where I found this, so I don't know to whom I ought to credit it.
Blame the internet.

After I'd finished making my "Thrift Sloth" jokes, I happened to be looking around the Sock Dreams website for some inspiration for the sock-craft contest that Cut Out + Keep is currently running, when I stumbled across these:

Look at them! Just look at them! They are incredible! Exclamation mark!
Also, you can find them here.

These gave me some much-needed inspiration for a contest entry. I would make a sock sloth!

(I also wrote a tutorial on how to make your own, so keep reading for that.)

Moustachioed Goat

Over my last six weeks at university, I have been watching a lot of the show Community. And by "a lot", I mean unhealthy dosage a lot. Now, for those of you who don't know the show, the second episode of the first season ends with two of the main characters rapping in Spanish. I can guarantee that if you haven't seen it, you cannot possibly conceive how incredibly awesome it is. Therefore, if you haven't seen it, you should watch it here. And if you have seen it, then I've no doubt you'll watch it anyway.

Now, because of this Community-obsessed state in which I've been wallowing, I, naturally, took it upon myself to make something Community-related. This is a bit difficult, considering that the show has actors rather than animated characters which would be easier to convert into crafts. So, I made a goat with a moustache.

Unfortunately Cameron Diaz was unavailable, so I made his moustache out of felt, just like the rest of his body.

It was pretty simple to make this cute little guy, but if you'd like to make your own, you can find a full tutorial, as usual, over on Cut Out + Keep.

In other university-related news, I essentially abandoned my photography project thanks to a to-do list constantly clawing at my sanity. I'm now at home for vac, and I'm only returning to Grahamstown next Sunday, so I'm enjoying some crafting time while I can before the work starts up again - which is going to be fairly soon, as I still have vac homework to get done.

LDP
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PostSecret

As the first assignment for my journalism course, we were required to create a PostSecret. Now, while I understand that the whole point of the exercise is for the secret to remain, well, secret, I felt it was something worth posting about, and that I'm not longer afraid to share.

As it's meant to, I think that the card pretty much sums it up. For my twelfth birthday, my mother bought me a sewing machine, insisting that it would be useful and that sewing was a good skill to learn. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I was never a particularly "cool" kid, and in the fragile social hierarchy of junior school, I just wasn't willing to risk my already low rank over a stupid, old-fashioned birthday present. A sewing machine? Really, Mom? I managed to convince any friend who asked that I "just got money", and whenever they asked how much, I mumbled something nondescript to avoid having to discuss the subject any further.

Now, as you can tell from this blog, I've come a long way since then, embracing my hobby rather than concealing it. I'm now proud of the fact that I can sew, and openly admit it to people - and, unlike grade 6 me would have expected, they usually seem pretty impressed. At the risk of sounding painfully narcissistic, I'm incredibly happy with the person I've become, and I'm glad, not only that I can sew, but also that I'm no longer afraid to admit it.

If anyone out there has a similar story, I'd love to hear about it and if you managed to overcome it.

LDP
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