Kirky

It's my pleasure to introduce to you Kirky, the little brown dog! =)

I sewed Kirky this weekend using the Lucky dog pattern, which is on the front cover of the Softies book.

He's made from a pair of nice soft microfibre teatowels, with cotton ears and a little felt face.

Because he was going to live with someone even littler, I was super careful to make sure all the seams were sewn tightly up - I went around twice with a straight stitch, then just outside that with a nice tight zig-zag, and then trimmed along the seams with my pinking shears. Kirky's body is all one piece except for the ears so I sewed over those a few extra times too.

Kirky's favourite thing in the world (well, so far, he's not even a day old yet!) is his taggy blanket.



It was so much fun picking out cute bright fabrics from my quilting stash to make the squares for this! The plain squares are made from flannel, corduroy, polar fleece and the same microfibre as Kirky, and I picked out a bunch of different size and textures of ribbon from my collection so they're interesting for little hands to look at and play with. Again, all the seams were triple sewn, with straight and zig-zag stitches. Like the ears, the ribbon tags were stitches over several times on each seam, to make sure they're extra super secure.

It was also very satisfying to from having a stack of fabrics and some idea to actually handing over something finished to a little girl in just a weekend - you know, finishing is something I really struggle with here! =)

Also I really enjoyed finally making something from one of my (several) softies books - I plan on trying a couple more patterns for the upcoming Softies for Mirabel this year =)

Oooh, also, blogless Mary-Lou commented on my ANZAC biscuit post asking about what golden syrup is - I've heard it's near impossible to find in most parts of North America.

Golden syrup is a product of the sugar cane refining process. It's a little bit like treacle but much lighter in taste and colour - it looks like honey. I think there are a bunch of places you can get golden syrup online, including Amazon

According to wikipedia, in many areas of the US you can find King Brand syrup, which is a mixture of corn syrup and invert syrup and can be used as a substitute. Or, if you can find 'cane syrup' that should be similar, I think?

I found a recipe at 101 cookbooks which substitutes honey - I think the fact that this recipe uses brown sugar as well as white would also help give a bit more of that golden caramel sugary taste too =)
Good luck, Mary-Lou! I'd love to hear how you go! =)

xo