Turtle Doorstop

During a conversation with my niece about her wanting an Avengers bag, and my younger sister wanting a sock owl (blogs to come) it was revealed that my big sister wanted a turtle doorstop. I decided that she should be careful what she wished for and that I would make her one. Turtles unfortunately do not really lend themselves to door stop designs. They are quite flat and the way their limbs stick out they become a trip hazard. A tortoise could almost work as a doorstop,  if you tuck the feet in a bit and add the weight to the bigger domed shell, but a turtle was not going to work.

I decided that what I needed instead was a doorstop decorated with turtles. If I am looking for a good durable fabric I tend to use calico, I find it a reasonable price and hard wearing and it is easy to work with. Initially I thought about dying it and then I realised that it was the colour of light sand. This made me decide that it would be a pretty design to put small turtles onto it as if they are making their way to the sea across the sand. I also made a conscious decision to omit any predators as that would make less of a pretty present! I used coordinating light green fabric for the sides just to add a contrast.

Before constructing my doorstop I stitched my design for my front sand-coloured panel. I drew some turtles using this guide. I then cut the whole shape out of light green mottled  fabric followed by the shell in dark green fabric. I then attached the shell using iron on interfacing. I blanket stitched the body onto the panel followed by blanket stitching on the shell. This meant that the top blanket stitch went through 3 layers of fabric. It did make it harder to stitch but also made it all more secure. I embroidered the shell details on using back stitch.

For the base of the doorstop I used a cube design that I found here, keeping the dimensions the same. I adore this tutorial; not only is it helpful with a lot of pictures but it has a very chatty style and feels personal, and it turns out I also think she is funny when she's over tired! I made a couple of small changes. Instead of Velcro I used a zip at the bottom and instead of a zip-lock bag I made two pouches to go inside; the top one was filled with stuffing and the bottom filled with rice. This made it lighter to post and means that she can still take them both out and then squish them back in after washing. I was pleased with the result - it was about as classy as a turtle doorstop could be and she seemed happy with it too.

Turtle doorstop.