a Teumessian fox

I haven't entered any spoonflower contests for a long time, because I've been busy with other things (editing and revising mostly) but this week's contest really inspired me and I started doing bits and pieces a few weeks ago and finally finished my design just in time to enter. Every once in a while spoonflower has a cut-and-sew contest, which means, instead of just designing a pattern, you need to design a pattern for a three dimensional object as well. This week its stuffed animals, more specifically, mythical stuffed animals. I've always wanted to design a pattern for a stuffed animal, and have been playing around with ideas (and a few small prototypes) for years, so this time I finally started turning some sketches into drafts into prototypes into a finished design. I like it when I spend a lot of time on something over the course of a few weeks and feel like the finished product is what I had envisioned at the beginning.

Here is some of the process:

I ended up making three different prototypes, changing the shape of the pattern or the way I put it together each time.

As you can (hopefully!) tell, its a little fox. I was looking for mythical creatures when I started and came across a fox that inspired me - the Teumessian fox from greek mythology that was turned into the constellation Canis Minor.  I was also inspired by the foxes that live behind our house. Sometimes you can see them sleeping beside the train tracks in the sun.

Once I had the pattern finalised I transferred it to the computer and started the fun process of adding colour and design. I also designed a little dress for the fox to wear. 

You can see the finished design here, where it will be for sale soon. I ordered a quarter yard of the fabric on linen-cotton canvas and am eagerly awaiting it so I can sew the fox with the real fabric and then write a tutorial for anyone who wants to buy the fabric and make the fox. So, more soon hopefully! 

Be sure to check out the other designs in the contest and vote, it starts tomorrow.