Ann Wood’s Very Nice Mice

Ever since I stumbled across Sew A Softie Month and made up a super cute reindeer, and then followed that up with a very sweet bear, I’ve been hoarding pins for my next project. I’ve detailed my lack of sewing experience before, but I have found if a project calls for inexpensive materials I’m pretty willing to give it a go since if it doesn’t work out I don’t feel too guilty about trying something new.

So this pin

ended up being my selection for the Pinterest Challenge for April. I could not resist the idea of making my very own “very nice mice”.

The Pinterest Challenge is a blog hop hosted by Erlene at My Pinterventures, and the goal is to help crafters actually MAKE some of the pins they’ve put on their various Pinterest Boards. Of course, if you NEED more ideas, feel free to follow mine!

I have to confess that I ended up making this little mouse twice. The first time I used some leftover felt from a previous project, I didn’t read the instructions carefully before diving in, and I rushed, which left me with a slightly wonky character who will forever need some support to stand correctly, and you have to avert your eyes when looking at the long scar I gave him down his left side. Turns out I didn’t understand how to do the ladder stitch correctly, and that leftover felt was too stiff to turn, and I didn’t get his arms on right. 

But he was so ugly he was cute and I wanted to try again. 

So this time I bought new felt that was a little lighter.  I also learned from the first go around that my hand stitches weren’t tight enough so when I turned it right side out they showed.  So I used clear thread. One more trick – although I really love tiny things, I enlarged the pattern a bit to make it a little easier for me to work with. As long as you enlarge all the pieces of a pattern equally (which is easy when it’s a printable PDF) it works, although be sure to not make your new size larger than the material you have on hand. 

I still kept him pretty small though – the wine cork in the photo gives you some idea of his scale.

Since I actually had gone through all the steps the first time, I wasn’t caught off guard by parts I hadn’t read in the right order, and this one came together quite nicely.

I did veer off the instructions a little bit the second time, but on purpose. I haven’t really figured out how to add in the facial feature stitching when it’s all stitched closed, so I added the eyes, nose and mouth before I stuffed it up.  Ann does have a video tutorial on how to hide the knots, but I wasn’t sure I could work it, so I took the easy way out.

I’ve also found a small system for keeping my projects from getting all over the house while they are being worked on. The cardboard flats that canned food is stacked with at Aldi make great sorting trays – here’s my mouse project in progress:

You can see it holds my pattern pieces and in progress sewing all in one place, easy to transport to whatever room I’d like to be working in. I think I need to craft up a pin cushion since my greatest fear is that Mr. SuzerSpace is going to “discover” a pin one of these days when he least expects it. 

I definitely recommend trying out Ann Wood’s pattern and making your own tiny mouse.

To join next month’s #pinterestchallenge, click here to sign-up ⇒ May Pinterest Challenge

Let’s meet this month’s Pinterest Challenge hosts!

Erlene – My Pinterventures  •  Jenny – Cookies Coffee and Crafts Lynne – My Family Thyme  •  Pili – My Sweet Things T’onna – Sew Crafty Crochet  •  Julie – Sum of their Stories Erin – The DIY Nuts •  Roseann – This Autoimmune Life Beverly – Across the Boulevard •  Kristie – Love My Little Cottage Ali – Home Crafts by Ali  •  Cherryl – Farm Girl Reformed Leslie – Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After •  Terri – Our Good Life Lauren – Mom Home Guide  •  Joanne – Our Unschooling Journey Shirley – Intelligent Domestications  •  Gail – Purple Hues and Me Audra –  Renewed Projects •  Kristie – Teadoddles •  Alayna – Alayna’s Creations Marie – The Inspiration Vault  •  Susan – Suzerspace Lydia – Lydia’s Flexitarian Kitchen •  Terrie – Decorate and More with Tip  Emily – Domestic Deadline •  Marci – Stone Cottage Adeventures

This post will be linked up at some of these great locations.