First Post, First Skirt, First Plush

[stretch.livejournal.com]

Hi crafters. You have no idea how thrilled I am to have found this community, especially considering the crafting journey I have recently undertaken. See, I've always been a fairly handy, creative person. I refinish my own furniture, I paint, I sculpt. I can hold my own in the craft-y department. But after a tragic 7th grade home-ec accident in which I accidently sewed shut the sleeve of the shirt that I was currently wearing and thus attached myself to the machine, requiring Ms. Morris to save me, I've been terrified of sewing.

Fast forward 15 years, and I finally decided it was time to face my fear, and used a well timed gift card to buy this bad boy. To say the least, it's been an experience. So I figured I'd show off my first creations.



My younger brothers (okay, and myself) loved How to Train Your Dragon so when I found this tutorial, I could hardly resist. I made the pattern a little bigger than the standard plush, so it would be a bit easier to work with on the machine. I'm not totally wild about how the eyes turned out (my first time with sculpty, too), but all in all I think he's kinda cute.







Toothless had me feeling ballsy, so I decided to try my hand at something I could actually bring out in the light of day. Just a simple tube skirt with an elastic top:







So, any good pattern suggestion for (slightly less fearful) novice sewers?