When my dear friend, Hanie, told me that her house had been broken into earlier this month and many valuable items had been taken, I set out to make her something as my way of cheering her up. I’ve never really been good with words especially when it comes to comforting people, so I thought I’d just do what I know how to do… which is to make a toy.

You see, Hanie, is actually a damn good artist and like any good artist, you must have your own toy made for you. I stalked her page like a crazy cat stalking its prey from a bush pondered for a couple of days and saw that she had used this particular drawing of hers on Rogue from X’Men as her profile pic in her Etsy shop.

Hanie’s drawing of Rogue

Now, the making of the toy itself wasn’t too hard. And I so wanted to tell her as I was making this toy for her but I was also worried that it may not turn out so well, or I got distracted halfway and ditched the project altogether, so it was best to keep my mouth shut so that I don’t get her too excited and I don’t put myself under pressure.

I was pretty much winging it as I was making this toy. That’s why you can see one side of the boots have stripes that look ok and one that does not.

But I was under pressure. You see, half way making this toy, one of her favorite writers had passed away (that writer happened to be the great Terry Pratchett btw. If you have never read his books before, well… I feel sorry for you). Prior to her house being broken into, we lost the great Leonard Nimoy. So yeah she was bummed, we were all bummed with all these sad news we’ve been getting recently, and this was the kind of fuel I needed to finish up this doll as quickly as possible.

2 things I didn’t enjoy while making this doll – stitching the logo and making the doll’s hair.

Trying to stitch perfect circles is hard to do!! >.<

As a weave, I thought the hair was turning out ok. That is until I stitched it onto the head. I never realized what a slave I am to my craft until I did my doll’s hair. I mean, she even has more hair than I do!!

This way of making doll hair is too tedious!

Anyway, she ended up having waaaaay too much hair that her head was tilting backwards (despite me having put 2 cotton swabs in her neck for support). So I removed a lot of her hair (and that in itself is another tedious work). Her head still tilts backwards a little bit but it’s bearable.

I showed Hanie yesterday what I made for her and I am so glad that she is thrilled and that she loves this doll Rogue. I was so relieved 🙂

I may make another Rogue doll to put up on my Etsy store, so before I ship this baby out to my friend, I’m gonna take notes on what not to do on my next doll.

Hope you guys are having a productive week 🙂

p/s: You can also check out Hanie’s Etsy page for more of her cool work.