Felt monster CYCONE says, “Eye see you!”

Making Cycone was a mini breakthrough for me. This little fellow is proof that as a crafter, you learn something new with every project. In an unprecedented moment in crafting history, I agreed to work on something with someone else, and actually really enjoyed it!

See, I’m sort of a crafting monk. I like working by myself. When I cook I’m often the only one wielding the wooden spoon/whisk/spatula. When I sew, it’s just me and the hum of the Singer. I mean, I can certainly craft with other people in the room, and can even talk to them as I flit about sewing, beating, beading and kneading. But I have to admit I have problems handing over the rolling pin after I’ve started a piecrust or watching my knitting needles in someone else’s hands on an unfinished scarf.

Chalk it up to my curls, I guess. In my culture, curly-haired people are supposed to be alabuton, an Ilonggo word that means “prone to unwarranted fits of sullenness.” This implies that my fickle moods make it difficult for me to work with anyone, especially when I’ve been seized by the malady called craft-itis.

But since I’ve always wanted to make a felt monster and didn’t know how to design one, I had to rely on someone whose needle and thread was a mouse and a computer screen. This meant turning over my felt and scissors to the Monster Maker tracing, cutting and shaping.

This design was the prototype. Felt Monster beta, if you will.

However, it was quickly decided that the design wouldn’t work, despite initial approval from the production team (me). The “tentacles” were too tiny. When the fabric was turned out, the little monster looked disturbingly unfinished because where there were supposed to be fun, tentacle-y appendages, there were sorry-looking stumps! Back to the drawing board, where a more basic conical shape was designed. (The nerd in me secretly liked the revised design better because it resembles a single straight quotation mark! I heart punctuation.)

After all the new pieces were cut (while I sat back and nervously bit my lower lip waiting for my turn at the project), I set about sewing the pieces together. Monster Maker stepped in from time to time to help stuff the body with fiberfill, arrange the facial features on the body and suggest some stitches and colors for thread that would deliver maximum monster effect.

It was WEIRD working with someone like that! But somewhere in the middle of all that needling (both figurative and literal), I realized, why hey, I can actually do this! I’m all grown up now! Haha.

Cycone’s first Monster Mission is to watch over little Noah. Here you see he’s doing a darn fine job! Hee.

I have a lot more felt left, along with the discovery that it’s never too late for an old crafter to learn new stitches. There will definitely be more monsters to come!

Many curly thank you’s to E. for being a monstrously patient craft partner-in-crime. We will one day take the felt monster world by storm. All their base are belong to us. Hehe.