Failure

Behold, the Sheryl doll. During day camp this summer, for a counselor gift, I attempted to make a miniature version of the real Sheryl (yeah. you're welcome for the shout out. what great publicity...) The idea was excellent. We were going to create tiny, stuffed versions of each counselor. I bought felt squares at Beverly's, I had the stuffing, and everyone would have clothes that resembled their real wardrobe. Brilliant, right?

So I was planning on giving her a yellow shirt, a pink cardigan, and skinny jeans. I sewed the entire doll inside out, planning to flip it the correct way later. Then, after, I would add hair, a face, details on the clothing, a camp scarf, actual legs, stuffing, etc.

I never got that far.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, felt is very thick. So thick, in fact, that it cannot be flipped inside out when it is sewn in to skinny shapes like... necks. I tried to shove the head through the neck for about half an hour before getting frustrated and asking my mom to help me. It took about another half hour. My mom grabbed a chopstick and jammed the head through the hole. The felt had been pulled and forced in way too many ways, so it looked kinda messed up, and I would have to redo the seams in the neck, which broke while we were pushing the head through. But at least it had a head. Success!

And then I remembered, "Hey... these arms are kinda skinny too. They're skinnier than the neck, and the hands are chubby. I wonder if those hands........

crap."

Failure.

Complete failure.

Sometimes I wonder why I still have this thing. I mean... it's ugly and does not resemble a human in any way. Plus, usually, in my family, we hide our failures. Anytime we mess up, we pretend we didn't. We burn all the evidence that we ever tried. Like, we don't really bring up the time my mom accidentally vacuumed up some purple yarn, undoing half of the afghan my brother had almost finished crocheting. We just show people all the afghans that he has completed. But, for some reason, even though we don't bring up any of our other failures, no one in my family has forgotten about this doll. Every time we need something to remind us that we're not perfect, that we fail and mess up too, we bring it up. We remember shoving a chopstick up its body just to get its head to peep out of its neck. We remember how pathetic it looks, and how the hand is still stuck inside its body. I could never throw this thing away. Big failures like this are good to have around to remind us that we don't have it all together. Plus, it's really funny looking.

But as a side note, I made these for Christina for Secret Santa using the felt that I bought for the counselor gifts. I needed to redeem myself after that felt disaster.

Tote bag! I stole the owl from the print used for the lining.

Hair clips! I bought a bunch from Chinatown and then covered them in felt. This time, I did not flip the felt inside out. What was I thinking when I decided to flip it...