Gimmie a M A S C O T

I was trying to think of an idea for my niece's 13th Birthday. I find this a difficult age to make things for. I had made her brother a ninja and her sister a husky so I was eager to go down the "soft toy with a twist" route. When she was little I bought her a fairy rag doll called Mary. At that point I would never have dreamed of sewing things like this for her, but I wanted something reminiscent of Mary, but personal and a bit different, and it needed to be quirky enough for her to like it.

For the past couple of years she has been part of a cheer and dance group based in the Midlands called ACES. She seems to be loving the mix of dance and gymnastics and is having a lot of fun with the group. I remembered seeing a photo of their mascot Molly and started wondering if I could make a mini Mollie. I realised I had a pattern in Sew Cute to Cuddle by Mariska Vos-Bolman (Fluffels) that I could possibly adjust to make it look like Mollie. I loved making the tortoise by Mariska Vos-Bolman  and I was eager to make something out of this book.

                  

                 Mollie the Aces Mascot

Mini Mollie - design modified from "Sew cute to cuddle" 

The pattern to make the doll is really well laid out and explained. The book has full size pattern pages to trace which is helpful and it is beautifully illustrated. As with the Melly and Me toys I used felt as I find it gives a lovely finish and comes in bright solid colours. I changed the dress colours which was easy and then all I needed to do was make the hair bigger and change the facial features. I found the doll easier to put together than the wedding Tortoise. The most complicated bits were as a result of my modifications. By making the bunches much bigger they are far more difficult to fit inside the head to sew it up which resulted in me ladder stitching part of the head closed. The face took quite a lot of time and rearranging as even the slightest change and it all looked 'wrong'. Mollie has very distinctive eyes ( I started to refer to them as "Pacman eyes" by the end of it).  There was a lot of pinning before I was happy enough to sew it, I layered the complicated eyes using felt. I was very pleased with the bows in her hair as they are made in the way that real "cheer bows" are.

Although she looks unusual without the context behind her design I was pleased with the outcome, I think next to Mollie she looks how I was hoping she would. My niece certainly knew who she was when she opened her which I was really happy about. I now have more characters from the book planned including some with more modifications.