Here are the swans I made for the Quickie Farm Animal Swap and the bendy I made for the Pick Your Own swap (he was supposed to be a farmer but in the process of making him he turned into more of a summery dude, lol!)

The swans are the first animal I actually made from a pattern, and I had a tricky time with it. The pattern didn't fit well together; maybe I cut poorly (heheh - BIG possibility) or maybe it was a wonky pattern (my story and I'm sticking to it!). The bendy is about 3" tall; the swans come up to his elbows, more or less.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/tamaralv/P5303072.jpg

and

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e13/tamaralv/P5303071.jpg

aww..they are all so cute!!

I :heart: the swans... and that is one cute farmer boy ;)

Ditto what Selena said!! I'd date him :smooch: . Just kidding.
I do love the swans. They are just precious and don't look at all wonky.

Those swans rock -- and I get one <hee hee>!

Great job, Tamara!

Cute!!

I'm not seeing any wonky...they all look great! Way to go! :thumbsup:

Hehhe, thanks for the compliments on the swans. the pattern itself was off, so I did the whole "trim as you sew" thing that leaves them all a little different at the base, lol! Some modification was needed, and now I am all disillusioned about the magic of using a pattern ;) Are they *all* off?

Dannielle - I used your link for the colonial knots for a few of the swans' eyes. I am pleased with whatever the heck it ended up being - not sure if it was an actual colonial knot, but it was a knot, and it didn't look as weird as my french knots, so I am sticking to them (well, if I can remember how to do it, that is! lol).

Will someone please tell me the secret to nicely applying roving to bendies as hair without it looking so - nappy??? Nappy is fine if that's what you are striving to achieve, but in this case I was actually going for something a little different :lol:

I'm glad I shared those knots then! I have NEVER made a successful french knot. I'm left handed and I can't get them to knot ever.

Can't help ya with the bendy hair...except to say there's a reason I don't use roving. (I can't handle that kind of crafting stress lol)

The patterns I use aren't off. Oh yeah, I drew them :lol:

I think the swans are wonderful! I used the pattern from Feltcraft a couple years ago and my swan came out a bit wonky. The front piece doesn't seem to fit exactly right. Is that the same issue that you had?

The summer dude is really cute! :smirk:

I used the pattern from Feltcraft a couple years ago and my swan came out a bit wonky. The front piece doesn't seem to fit exactly right. Is that the same issue that you had?




YES! Well, I managed to find a way to make *that* fit, then the bottom fat piece gave me serious heartburn. The ovals are WAY too big to fit the rest of the pattern, in my opinion. I skinnied mine up to make them fit, but they were still longer than I had thought they should be. They seemed to go up the swan's tail when I pieced them together. At least now I have my own version of the pattern for future swans, and (THANK YOU!) some validation that it wasn't just me who had issues with it, lol!