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Thursday, October 18, 2012

30 of this, 60 of that !!

I am well underway with the first lot of Christmas ornaments for 2012. These are my Tea Shop Elves. Now I usually show you heads and before you know it, they are complete ornaments. This time I thought I would show you what it takes for me to put things together. These elves are my own design and I think they will be so much fun in the tea shop and lets hope they behave when the lights go out at night…. you just never know with elves. Can’t you just see what could happen with 160 cans of loose tea….yikes…

After my design was all done, a sample made in muslin, and pattern pieces tweaked I was ready to get going. I make up an assembly line. In the case, I am making 30 of these. But do the math, 30 elves doesn’t mean 30 of everything…NO!!!!! For example………..

Heads and Ears… 30 heads, but 60 ears. Have you ever made more than one set of elf ears at a time. Try 30 pairs of them, tracing, stitching, turn right side out, sewing up the openings and for good measure, ironing them. Yes, I do  iron elf ears because I am not by any stretch of the imagination going to sew little stitch lines to define the ears. Nooooo, not a chance, so they all get flat ears, I might give them a bit of a touch up with a pigma pen in brown. See what I mean about lots of ears….

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The next thing is to consider their hair, elves have to have hair, they just have to.

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On top of that, they need a toque and of course a jingle bell. So 30 hair pieces, 30 toques (that I knit of course) and 30 jingle bells.

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Of course you know, that no self respecting elf would be caught without clothing befitting his standing, so in order to make sure they are well dressed but unable to squabble with each other about prints and styles, they all get the same thing. Polka dots. several sizes of polka dots, but polka dots none the less. 30 bodies, 60 arms….  Told you there was lots to organize.

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Once they are all together, they will of course need trims and such.

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To keep them fashionable, bow ties for all of them. 30 of those to and maybe a little bling in the center of the bowties…We aren’t sure about that yet, but no I did not make the bowties, I have to draw the line somewhere. Do check your dollar stores, I stocked up on these and now I don’t see them anymore, so glad I listen to my muse who said buy lots and buy them now….

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And we can’t forget about their little hands. I don’t need a bunch of cranky elves running around my workroom with cold hands, so mittens for everyone. 60 of those.

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I think that will make for a very happy group of elves and happy elves are very generous elves, they bring presents. So each one them will have a piece of candy to carry. ( I don’t think I will tell them that the candies are fake – not a good idea I don’t think….) If you’re planning to make a bunch of ornaments, after all the work you do to organize and make them, make sure you put a decent price on them for all your hard work.

I’ll be back with family pictures soon…

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2 comments:

  1. Aren't you tempting fate here Ramona with all those elves hanging about lol! Think you should hide things away before they hide your stuff lol! But I guess you have them well under control and they will be very obedient with you.
    Can't wait to see them come to life

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  2. Hi Shashi, I now have a basket full of stuffed body parts and heads...lol It's going to get interesting.. ;o))

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