Operation: Crumb

During the holiday period, I thought it would be fun to take my mind off the Ottawa snow with another bout of frantic sewing and stuffing, and this time I used a slightly different source as my inspiration.

For the past six months I have been creating a comic strip based on the Star Wars universe, more specifically Jabba's Palace, and one character has been the driving force of many of my jokes - that character is Salacious B. Crumb.

You can see some of Salacious's misadventures over on the official blog for the comic strip - Turning to the Dork Side.

I began my attempt at a life size Crumb with the usual raid on my local Fabric Land store, and found the perfect light tan velour for his body and some black for his beak and claws. I also found some plain black buttons for his eyes and some crazy orangy-pink fur fabric for his hairy bits. Now I was ready to start!

As always, I approximated the panels and shapes I would need (I don't use much in the way of an exact science) and cut the templates out of plain white paper.



As with the cuddly Yoda I had made previously, I hand-stitched the panels together inside out, then turned the forms the right way out. You might be able to see some extra panels I put in the base of the head and torso to give them more shape.



The ears were then stitched together, and secured to the head with connecting pipe-cleaners - no stuffing because I wanted them to be floppy.



Once I had all the pieces stitched together, I could begin to stuff and assemble them. By this point I had sewn his eyes in, and I was really enjoying the ragged look to the stitching where the fabric had frayed slightly - this gave him a slightly 'scruffier' look!



Here you can see the pieces stuffed and ready to be attached to each other. The finger and toe nails were beyond fiddly, but turned out OK in the end.



Salacious waited patiently while I prepared his fur for his collar, top-knot and tail. He sits really well because I made a bean bag for his belly filled with acrylic beads. Just plant him and run!



And here he is, Salacious B. Crumb, as seen in Turning to the Dork Side.



I hope you have enjoyed my latest romp through the world of decidedly dodgy sewing, please feel free to drop me a line - I'd love to know what you think!

Cheerio!