I did a bunch of sketching before I decided what I wanted to make this year, and I finally came up with the idea to do my take on Hansel and Gretel, and their nemesis, the Witch.
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| Hansel |
Hansel and Gretel find themselves lost in the woods for days, and then suddenly come across a cottage deep in the woods that is completely made of candy!
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| Gretel |
Unbeknownst to them, the delicious looking cottage belongs to Wilhelmina Witch, who has an unusual favorite food...
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| Wilhelmina Witch |
In my version, Wilhelmina is a lot like the sharks in Finding Nemo: she is a recovering child-eating addict, who is trying to mend her ways. Will she be able to resist Hansel and Gretel? I wonder...
These were a lot of fun to make, and I really had a good time finding a bunch of cotton prints that coordinated but weren't matchy-matchy. Playing around with combinations of prints is one of the most enjoyable aspects of plush-making, I think.
I also wanted Hansel and Gretel to relate to each other but not use the same fabrics, so I chose yellow as the common element, and worked with that to choose the differing fabrics for each sibling. Both Hansel and Gretel have freckles, and are wearing the same shoes. I wanted to get the candy feel into them without it being too obvious, so I used rick-rack to add a "gingerbread" element, and the flowers on Gretel's apron kinda look like lollipops to me.
For Wilhelmina, I definitely wanted her to shout candy and treats, so I found a cotton print with all sorts of ice cream desserts on it for her skirt, and then I used the colors from that pattern to help choose the rest of the fabrics, keeping the candy theme in mind. She has a witchy light green fleece for her face and hands, and a definite candy pink for her hair. I made her witch's hat out of brown felt, with a lighter brown stitching over top to create the "waffle cone" effect. To add to the candy/treat elements of her look, I made her a large lollipop to hold, as well as mini donuts for the buckles on her shoes, and a pink shortbread cookie, chocolate chip cookie, and ice cream pop resting on her hat brim. To add some sparkle, she has a sparkly button brooch on, her dress has sparkly green rick rack trim, and the icing on the donuts is made from white sparkle felt.
If you are in the Seattle area this Friday, head on over and check out the show at Schmancy Toys. There are always amazing plush made for this show, and you won't be disappointed! If you can't make the show, but still want to see photos etc, look for #PlushYou! on twitter, and you can also see photos on Schmancy's pinterest, and facebook pages.
