I have a friend from Saskatchewan who is terrified of lobsters. I don’t really blame him, they are creepy sea-bugs. But it makes me send him a picture of a lobster every time I find one in the wild. And let me tell you, they find ME in abundance. If you look at our texting history, it’s all dark humour and lobsters. Anyway. I got this idea from a reel I saw back in January. While I’ve done a lot of sewing work in the past, I’ve never properly done applique, and for my very first try, I think this one came out amazing.
First step was to source materials. I knew I wanted it to have Saskatchewan on it, so we hit up two different Value Villages to see if I could find something suitable. I managed to find t-shirts and hoodies from every single province BUT SK, as well as many states and even the NWT. Ridics. The only thing I found that had SK on it at all was a Terry Fox t-shirt but the font was entirely too small. I managed to find this brand new shirt that said “Sometimes I feel ugly then I look at my brother and I am OK” which is funny on it’s own, but more importantly, held all the letters I needed but one – the C. Do you know how many letters are in the word Saskatchewan?? TWELVE. Anyway, it was a better option than buying 3 or 4 different shirts that had all the letters I needed. I ended up converting one of the Os to a C by cutting out the inside. I had to stitch around the C on a piece of black fabric so that it looked complete.
This pic is bad but 1. is the donor bunny hug (a hoodie without a zipper is called a bunny hug in SK and that’s the cutest thing EVAR). 2. was the shirt I got from VV. 3 is the fabric I already had on hand (I thought I’d craft my stash for this but I ended up buying most of the fabric. Sigh. Fabricland had a 55% off sale, so it would have been offensive NOT to). 4. is the new red fleece fabric. 5. is shiny fabric that looks like a mirror (confirmed by the Fabricland lady). 6. is Dr. Seuss fabric I’ve had on hand for at least 10+ years. Probably more like 15. 7. was new fabric I bought. 8. was new ribbons. Other things not listed: new buttons for eyes, fabric glue so I didn’t have to baste, and the wooden block to flatten seams. I used it more to flatten the fabric I glued down.
I free-handed the lobster, and cut out all my fabric and letters. I laid the gingham pattern down first, then sewed on most the lobstery bits. Then I sewed the mirror down, the antennae on top of that, then I made the razor blade out of the ribbon, and sewed the white fabric on the mirror and nose. I put a green straw in one claw because I couldn’t find any fabric with money printed on it. Last step was sewing the letters on. I wanted the stitching on the letters to look uneven and like a ransom note.
Looking at it now, I probably could have done a better job on the body (the second and third sections could probably have been bigger), but you’re your own worst critic and he loved it so I consider that a win.
