Gustaf Glovedog

introducing Gustaf
He lives with Schmeebot. He's a very debonair fellow, made of white gloves and sporting a microfibre knit scarf - apparently these garter stitch long-ways scarves are all the rage these days.

Gustaf is inspired by this book on the left (that is all about stuffed animals made from socks and gloves) - and is decidedly less Snoopy shaped (as the cover model is) and is more Spuds McKenzie-esque. I suppose that's my handling of stuffing for you - and short of tacking his ears down, they were never going to behave as the floppy ears on the book's cover model. Since I don't believe in unnecessary procedures, I opted to leave his ears as they were - perky and excitable looking.

ISBN: 4579110617

Gustaf is made from a pair of nylon gloves, and is handsewn (tho if I was ambitious to make a lot of Gustafs, I suppose I'd break down and do a bunch of seaming using a machine, leaving the finishing to be done by hand). Challenges included getting stuffing into his extremities without making them terribly lumpy (and he is a little lumpy - I suspect Mr. Cover Model is too - in any case this is why Gustaf is photographed from the waist up), getting his head stuffed and seamed (I think I'd baste the cut ends of the knit fabric the next time, as the fabric developed several runs that made seaming a little interesting) and getting his eyes set right. I opted to use stud eyes on Gustaf along with a spare button for his nose - because his eyes were such a challenge to set (and not re-doable once the backings were on), I think I'd go with buttons the next time. Definitely a fun little creation, and not terribly time consuming either!