The Affairs of Dragons

✨🎃 Halloween Giveaway! 🎃 ✨ Enter to win a little pumpkin toy made by me! To enter simply reblog this post.

8-foot giant squid pillow.

You’ll need:

2 yards of felt

1 yard of patterned fabric (I suggest a polka dot-type pattern so it looks like suction cups)

1 medium piece of black felt, 1 medium piece of white felt (for the eyes)

white thread, black thread and thread of the same color as the felt you’re using

pins

about 5 lbs. of stuffing

a couple big sheets of paper to draw your pattern

You can find many of these things down at the many places on Fabric Row, on 4th Street between Bainbridge and Catherine. Pearl, at 417 South Street, sometimes has stuffing if you can’t find any.

First, you need to draw out your patterns. Here’s a basic template to get you started, although most of the measurements are reasonably fudgeable. If in the likely event you don’t have any four-foot-long pieces of paper lying around, just tape a few pieces together.

Once you’ve drawn out your eight patterns, it’s time to cut the fabric. Pin the pattern to the fabric, laid flat, and cut out the following, leaving a half an inch or so of extra fabric around the edge of the pattern:

FOR THE ARMS: 8 felt and 8 fabric cutouts of piece 1

FOR THE, UH, LONGER ARMS: 2 felt and 2 fabric cutouts of piece 2

FOR THE BODY: 2 felt cutouts of piece 3

FOR THE FIN: 4 felt cutouts of piece 4

FOR THE HEAD: 1 felt cutouts of piece 6

FOR THE EYES: 2 white felt cutouts of piece 7 and 2 black felt cutouts of piece 8

So now you’ve got all your pieces ready, it’s time to start sewing them together. I did mine by hand because my sewing machine is busted and I get a kind of Zen buzz from sewing by hand, but if you have a non-busted one I recommend that you use it as it will be MUCH EASIER. You’re going to be sewing everything with the nice side of the fabric facing in, then turning it inside out to stuff it.

THE ARMS: (To make a quilted pattern that looks like suckers, see this other post). Pin together one patterned fabric piece 1 and one felt piece 1 (with the nice sides facing the inside). Sew down around the U-shape and back up, leaving the top open. Then turn the arm inside out, stuff it (it’s easiest to do both of these things if you sort of scrunch it up like you’re trying to put on a pair of tights, excuse the non-dude-friendly reference) and sew the top closed. Do the same for the other seven arms and rejoice in the fact that this is the most tedious part. Same deal with the two long arms, they’re just harder to stuff.

THE FINS: Pin together two of your piece 4s and sew together the curvy outer edge. Turn the piece inside out, so the seam you just sewed is on the inside, and start sewing up the other side, stuffing gradually as you go along. You should end up with a triangle-ish puffy thing. Repeat for the other two piece 4s.

THE BODY: Put down one piece 3, then place the two fins you have down with the point up and the curvy side pointing in, then make a sandwich by putting the other piece 3 down on top. Pin it all together and sew around the edges with the two fins still inside, as shown. Turn it inside out and move on to…

THE HEAD: So take piece 6 and the ten arms you’ve already done. Lay the arms, fabric side facing you, out with the arms’ top seams in a line half an inch from the top of piece 6. The order should be arm arm arm arm BIG ARM arm arm arm arm BIG ARM. The legs should be almost entirely covering piece 6. Pin them in place and sew a straight line through the individual legs seams to attach the legs to piece 6.

When you pick up the other side of piece 6, you now have something resembling a really weird untied hula skirt. Sew together the two 9-inch ends of piece 6 with the fabric side of the arms on the outside, and keep it inside out for the moment.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: Fit the open end of the body through the arms (still fabric side facing out) and pull the edge all the way through the felt cylinder so it’s even with the edge that DOESN’T have arms attached to it. Sew around the diameters of the head cylinder and the body cylinder to attach them, then pull the legs down over the head and you’re almost done!

Stuff the body, then seal it off by sewing piece 5 over the open end (even if you do have a functional sewing machine, you’ll probably have to do this part by hand).

THE EYES: Sew the black circles on the white circles and whipstitch the eyes onto the head. You do this last because you can’t tell where they’re going to end up on the end product if you put them on before stuffing the body.

This is DESIGN CUTS Free 2nd Birthday Festive Freebies Deal (this free deal EXPIRES in 4 days).  

As a massive thank you for all your support, we decided to bring you the highly requested festive themed bundle as a freebie. This collection includes vectors, graphics, backgrounds, patterns, mockup templates, cards and tons more. This bundle is not limited only to the winter festivities, and covers all kinds of celebrations, including Valentine’s Day, Halloween and all in between! Happy holidays!

I have personally bought several amazing bundles from Design Cuts that I use all in the time in Photoshop (prices are less than $30 per massive package/bundle, usually 80% - 97% off retail - the deals have a set number of days when you are able to purchase them).  

**You can buy past bundles from the past for 4 more days. The design community went crazy over one of the typography ones.**

*You do have to create an account and the files are QUITE LARGE.

This is so great for scrapbookers, photographers, graphic designers, web designers and print designers. These sets are designed for professionals by professionals but are easy enough for anyone to you who has a basic knowledge of Photoshop.This is NOT a sponsored post - I just love this company. Also, check them out on Facebook.

What is AMAZING about these bundles:

What makes these bundles great deals is that for almost all of them, including this one, extended licensing is included. You can use these items within commercial projects and items for resale - like tee shirts, logos, posters etc…

Full Deal Terms & Licensing:

This deal includes extended licensing. This means that as well as using these products within personal and commercial projects, you can also use them in designs/products that you resell. Here is some further clarification:

You can:

This deal includes extended licensing. This means that as well as using these products within personal and commercial projects, you can also use them in designs/products that you resell. Here is some further clarification:

You can:

Use these resources within personal and commercial projects, as well as items for sale. The resources must be used within a wider design though, and not comprise the entire design. This can include, but is not limited to posters, t-shirt designs, digital goods, merchandise etc…

You can’t:

Resell these files directly, or within items/goods where they can be extracted in their original form.

Sell a finished design where these resources comprise the entirety or vast majority of the design (i.e.: they’re used in a stand-alone fashion.) They should be used within a wider, original design.

Share these resources with others.

D.I.Y. BLACK AND WHITE GLAM PUMPKIN 🎃

Want to stray from you traditional orange and black Halloween decor? 

Then why not lean towards the forever classic black and white combo?! Just check out this D.I.Y. tutorial on how to create this glamorous pumpkin decor. 

Supplies:

Americana Multi-Surface Paint (in Black Tie)

White faux pumpkin from Michaels

Boo! rhinestones letters (Recollections brand)

Paper mache hat

Hot glue

Embellishments: ribbon & feather with glitter picks

Keep reading for step by step instruction!

Martin Kilmas Sonic