Hobbes

Squishy Hobbes toy made for a friend using this excellent Instructable by seamster. :D

I made this guy out of anti-pill polar fleece, polyester toy stuffing and poly filler beads (in the ends of the legs, arms and tail). The Instructable I used was very clear and easy to follow, although the creator is right about there being a LOT of hand-sewing involved! I made a couple of very minor changes to the original - the most obvious being the shape of the nose, but I also positioned the legs differently and used a different stitch in places.

Overall the project was a challenge because it's the biggest, most complex stuffed toy I've made to date. It's also the first time I've tried to mimic how something else looks (in this case, Hobbes' character in Bill Watterson's cartoon), so it took me a few tries with some things, such as the placement of the separate pieces and face in particular, until I was happy with how it looked. The most difficult part was placing and sewing on all the stripes individually, and this was also the most time consuming part...!

After a good couple of months (working on it on and off), the project is finally complete, and I'm really happy with the outcome. It was a lot of fun to make, too. Hobbes now lives with my friend up the other end of the country, so I'm even considering making another toy at some point so I can have one myself...