Meet Henry

When I first got to know boyfriend, he volunteered at our local hospital, and would occasionally make paper cranes to entertain visitors. I wanted to make him a stuffed something as part of his Christmas present, and I have a soft spot for Canada geese, so this goose-crane hybrid was born. It was the perfect combination in my head, because I would be working off a pattern I knew well by heart (ie. paper crane folding) while also incorporating a little bit of sewing to make it extra special. So, I found this fabric in a fat quarters basket of a fabric store downtown, and folded it origami style:
I ironed down the folds as I went, which helped make it look crisp and neat, but my limited ability to visualize and place appropriate seam allowances meant that I ended up making a tailor's strap out of the leftover fabric and sewing it along the wingspan so there were no raw edges on the underside. Once it was folded open, it looked like this:
From there, it was a matter of pinning everything in place and sewing it all together. I started with the neck and tail, using an invisible ladder stitch (I have no idea if this is actually what it's called but this lovely lady has made a tutorial for it!) and stuffed it with some stretched out cotton balls. Henry is completely stuffed with dollar store cotton balls cause I had no idea where I could find poly-fill down in Philly. It was actually kind of a pain to stuff the body because I would consistently overstuff it, and that would make the wing folds open up. I ended up understuffing a little until I had sewed down one side of the tailors strap before stuffing a little more into the body. I cut pieces of felt in the shape of the wing and slipped it into the wing space so that it would be more substantial, and then sewed down the wings with the aforementioned tailor's strap.
Perhaps my favourite part (and proudest achievement) was the felt head gusset! Having never made a 3D toy before, I embarked on a massive google search, and found this website. She has absolutely amazing tutorials for the toys she makes, and it made visualizing the process so much easier. I ultimately chose to do a pointed oval gusset on the top of the goose's head. And it actually worked! I loved how easy it was, although it took a while of poking with a tiny crochet needle to get all of the beak inside out. The white chin strap was an easy addition, and after that I just plopped the felt around the neck of the bird and sewed that baby down. And so, Henry was born! Honk!