Hello there
Everyone!
Cy Bear back again with two weeks missing in between! One was - as ever - a technical hiccup: the other
Isobel started to do this post, and found she then had filed the photos for the finished
Toy Cats destined for
MsVS and the family in Tulsa somewhere on the computer - and couldn't then find them for including here! We're hoping that we can conclude the story this time around.
Our last post ended with the hope that I'd be able to start telling you about the Cats - then called The Memory Cats. These were the result of a commission by MsVS, daughter of Cuddlies Friend and Designer, MrSS who sadly died earlier this year. Isobel hadn't realised that he'd been living on borrowed time, so when the event took place, it was a bit of a shock. Not only had MrSS been the "go-to" designer for Cuddlies for whom Isobel didn't have a pattern, but he'd also become our Best Buyer - by far, as he seemed to buy all the new models of our Clerical Bears - who can be seen here - https://www.etsy.com/shop/coldhamcuddlies?section_id=27506818 - but also had been responsible for introducing his daughter and her family to the Cuddlies, as well as his Mother.
The first Cat Head, as well as two of the 4 calico cut out bodies
Anyway, MsVS contacted Isobel in the early summer and asked if she would be prepared to make a Memory Cat if she sent us some of her Dad's favourite shirts to make them with. After a battle to get the right price for the package sent to us in the UK - from Tulsa, Oklahoma - the fabric eventually arrived, and we were able to get started on the commission.
As Isobel deactivated the order when it was completed, she's unable to give me a photo of the fabrics to show here. It consisted of two shirts (one blue and one sports shirt in a lovely green colour, and a bit of a family joke fabric consisting of material with lots of yellow ducks - the kind that kids play with in baths). Once Isobel understood the significance of the last item, she had great fun deciding exactly how to incorporate the ducks (which faced in all sorts of different directions on the material) - once she had unpicked both shirts so that she could use the fabrics without seams getting in the way. (That wasn't an easy task, because both items were well constructed - and she also had to try to save some decals that were incorporated on the two shirts as well).
While undertaking the unpicking task, Isobel decided that instead of doing just the one Cat - as she had already decided - she was going to make the Cat using at least two, if not three, of her existing Toy patterns. As she could think of at least 4 close family members who might like to be eventual Best Friends with the Memory Cats (MrSS's Daughter, Grand daughter, Son and Mother), she began to plan her attack on the fabric and go for the full foursome.
First to be cut out was a Lady Cat using the green shirt for the Cat's skirt. (She decided she would make two Girls and Two Boys, and leave the Family to decide who would get which cat). The Cats' Faces, Paws (hands and feet) and Tails were to be made with our Grey Premier Plush fabric - which is lovely and soft and most recently used to make our Elephant Toy
- https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/825844254/
She then cut out a similar number of Ducklings to be added to a Blue Skirt (with the lady Cats having Tops made with Blue or Green, depending on which Skirt one was looking at). The Gentlemen would have a similar colour choice - and you can see what I mean by looking at the then headless Cat Boy Toy below. MsVS had stipulated she didn't want Shoes or Boots, but Furry Feet and Paws, and this Isobel set out to provide. The Snoopy decal was delicately prised off the Blue Shirt when she was unpicking the shirt seams. Where appropriate, she used the Lucky Ducky material as linings, which she backed with thin interfacing, as the fabric was a lot thinner in weight than the two shirts.
You can see the first Boy Cat's clothing a bit better in the photograph below. All the Cats' arms were made so that they could be moved once finished - giving the eventual Best Friends as much opportunity to arrange their own Memory Cat to suit the eventual spot where they would spend their forthcoming lives.
When the heads got cut out and sewn, no matter how she tried, Isobel couldn't help feeling that they didn't look as much like Cats as she would like - even though the pattern she was using most was said to be from a Cat Puppet! That may have been because the Grey Premier Plush didn't really lend itself to looking like the desired animal, but in the end, Isobel decided to carry on carrying on - because whatever she did, none of them would necessarily look like each other - which was the effect she was trying to achieve.
This is how the
First Cat Toy looked when finished - we decided that a dark blue satin waist band gave the Toy a good completed look,although she also definitely needed something around her neck too.
A photograph of the first completed pair shows the Boy's jacket closed by using a popper (under the gold button), because we felt it would spoil the jacket if Isobel made a button hole with which to close it. Also, the Lady Cat now has a neat white, embroidered collar to finish off her outfit.
Then
Isobel turned to the other two
Cats she had in mind, alternating the fabrics to get different tops and bottoms, although she felt the Green material made the better trousers. The decal on this
Girl's top was taken off the original Green Shirt fabric - and has a horse depicted on it.
MsVS's family are keen horse-people, so she was keen to include this item in the
Memory project
(it was originally off the Green shirt - a Ralph Lauren product). The waist band, this time, is provided by a matching pale blue satin ribbon tied in a bow at the back. The skirt and waist band are sewn in, and the finishing touch of a felt collar was added, because both the
Girls' necks looked a little bare without something there. The collars have embroidered edges, picking out the main colours in their outfits.
Isobel felt that all of the Cats needed to have their own tails, so she made all four of them furry ones to match their head and limbs and they ended up looking like this.
The Cat with the Green Skirt can sit down - and actually prefers to do so. The Blue-Skirted Cat is not able to do so, because Isobel forgot to do the necessary seams to enable it to do so! (We're not sure what the speck is in the photo here - because all the Cats had soft furry ears on the outsides, with a grey lining for all ears to complete the look).
The
Memory Cats, as they were called when they left us, lined up for their final pictures before each were individually wrapped and fitted into one of our biggest postal envelopes - nice and snugly. They travelled quite fast this time around. (
During our relationship with MrSS there had been times when Toys had gone for longer journeys than intended and one nearly being returned, because the wrong Zip Code had been provided to Isobel!). They were picked up from their local post office, after the postman had initially not been able to deliver them - and were given a seal of approval from
MsVS's daughter, who was originally intended to get just one.
While she looks like she's happy to love them all, we now await to hear which family member gets to house which
Grampy Cat - as they have now been named now that they are arrived in
Tulsa, Oklahoma. (
Technology is once again intervening, and not allowing me to copy and paste them from their original Facebook files. We'll work on the problem over next week, and show you some of the photos then).
Until then, I'll sign off for this week,
Your Friend,
Cy Bear.
An Important announcement follows:
- MrSS and Isobel had originally crossed paths when he contacted her to make a series of Tiger Arm Puppets about 5 years ago - and he then gave us the patterns for us to use for all our Arm Puppet Toys in the Shop. So you see why Isobel is so grateful that she was given the chance to make these Memory/Grampy Cats for the Smith family. MrSS has been a large part of the reason that this week, COLDHAMCUDDLIES is able to announce that we have now made 200 Sales from our Etsy Shop since we started (and that doesn't count all the sales we've made OFF LINE - at craft bazaars and other events in the same period). We're looking forward to making many more as the months go on - but meanwhile want to thank EVERYONE who has supported us since our start in September 2010.
