Thinking Outside the Box

It is not always easy for me to make little toy animals in unusual colors.  I tend to always make them look like the live animal.  I decided that for this play set, I would think outside the box.  I wanted to make them with bright, bold colors fit for a little girl.  The mat itself looks more boyish, but it is for a girl.  I thought that by making the animals more girlish in color, it would be more appropriate.  I made one that looks more in the boy colors, so that is going to be the boy animal.  The others will all be girls.

Elsa the Elephant looks much like the elephants on the mat in color, except for the bright pink ears and feet. That is my girl thing for this animal.  She also has yellow tusks, rather than the usual white.  

Geraldine the Giraffe looks more like an anteater with her long thin nose, but she looks nice in purple.

Zee Zee the Zebra seems a little sad to be pink and white instead of her usual black and white, but pink is nice for a girl.

Madeline the Monkey is ready to eat her banana as she swings on her ring of the play set.

Terrance the Tiger is the boy animal of the collection with his blue stripes and feet.  He looks like a Denver Bronco or Florida Gator in color, just not in species, since he is neither a horse nor an alligator.

This shows the animals hanging from the sad looking arches.  I need to adjust these arches just as I did the last set.  Since the arches are bigger around than I have used in the past, I didn't realize that I would need to make one shorter than the other.  I need to take apart the end of the under arch and cut off about four inches or so to allow the upper arch to have room to stand without pushing down on the lower arch.  It isn't hard to do, but it is a pain to get the end sewed back up when the arch is in the sleeve.  I will also have to raise a couple of the loops because even the shortest animal, the elephant, cannot hang from the lowest loop.  It is sitting on the mat in this shot.  Just a little more work to do to finish this project.  Hurrah!!

I know that I thought I would be done with the things for this third baby, but as I said before, I seem to never quite be finished.  Actually, I will be finished with the baby things when I get the arches fixed, but I want to make one more thing to give at the shower for this baby.  She will have an older brother, just three years old himself, and I never like to make things just for the baby.  I plan to make him a dinosaur pillow.  At least, that is what I think I will make.  I will have to check it out tomorrow.  I have made the pillow once before for my grandson, Jackson.  It is really cute, but I don't know if that is what I will actually make.  I might find something else that I want to try.