My lion now has a mane! I tried a couple of ideas which just didn't work.. and then got my lightbulb moment :) I LOVE rag rugs... and I wanted my lion to have a nice chunky mane... so I decided to give him a rag-rug effect mane
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| I embroidered his facial features on, and added a couple of nice old dark slate coloured plastic buttons for his eyes |
Luckily I had a bag of Harris wool tweed remnants knocking around :) I picked 2 nice brown based pieces and fulled them in the washing machine. I have no idea how many tiny strips I cut from them, but there were a LOT. Each strip was handstitched in to place individually - certainly the SLOW way of doing it, but I liked the effect of having them placed iggledy-piggledy.. I couldn't do it all in one go, the sewing made my fingers sore.. so I spread it out doing a bit every 2 or 3 days whenever I had an hour spare.
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| He is just what I wanted with his raggedy-ruggedy mane.. |
He is one half of a pair of doorstoppers I made for MARCH. Last year my March doorstoppers were hares, this year it was a lion and a lamb.. from the old saying about March that it 'comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb'
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| Here he is with his 'other half' |
I'm planning to make him a brother as soon as I am able to track down some nice suitable tweed.. I am totally kicking myself after missing 2 gorgeous pieces on ebay last night.. I was watching 4 yards (perfect colours in 2 different designs) and I forgot that they were finishing! The vintage piece went for less than a fiver and it was lovely.. why oWHY did I forget to go bid?!
Anyway, I'm planning to take progress pics next time and post them.
Have a good weekend.. xx
