here’s one I made earlier :: blah blah pocket monster

I love Donna Wilson. I love her products, I love her brand… I even love her outfits. The thing is, try as I may, I just can’t convince the boy that we should spend £70 on a cushion, not even a 100% lambswool, knitted in Scotland, grey with ebony robin, 40cm x 40cm, comes with a duck feather cushion pad, Donna Wilson cushion.

So imagine my joy when I spotted this Donna Wilson Make Your Own Monster kit in the Design Museum Shop! And for only £15! This is what was inside…

Now, I think this product is a very clever idea. These are essentially waste products – offcuts and left overs from other Donna Wilson products. Instead of throwing them away, Donna has created a whole new product with them, at minimal cost. Helping the environment, her profits and my ability to get my hands on a Donna Wilson product for a lot less than £70 – it’s a win-win-win!

The first step was to carefully cut around the pre-sewn monster body, about a centimetre away from the stitching all the way around.

Next I turned the monster body inside out (or the right way round) and filled it with the stuffing – and amazingly it all fit in there!

Then (with my very basic sewing skills!), I sewed up the hole, and voila, a monster body…

Now the fun begins. The next step is to use the bits and bobs provided to create eyes, ears, nose(s), legs, arms etc. Luckily, there were a few ideas on the box to get the creative juices flowing…

I tried a few different options before deciding what my monster was going to look like…

I decided to turn my monster up-side-down to give him legs and use some of the offcuts from cutting out the body itself to give him ears and a tail…

I found some buttons in my travel sewing kit that I used for eyes and used the spiky blue bit of felt from the kit as hair…

And then finally I made him a little pocket from Donna Wilson’s famous ‘blah blah’ fabric, to keep his spare parts in. And the Blah Blah Pocket Monster was born!

You may also enjoy:

• here’s one I made earlier :: graphic design with Anthony Burrill
• here’s one I made earlier :: yellow owl workshop
• here’s one I made earlier :: screenprinting
• here’s one I made earlier :: cyanotype