Your Mama the Llama

I'm going to Peru in a week so I've got mountains, Machu Picchu, delicious cuy and practicing mi Espanol on my mind. I wanted to try creating a softie that uses a blanket stitch all the way around it so I chose the llama as my design for its simple shape and Andean ancestry. Also as a child I read that book "Is Your Mama a Llama?" a lot and I feel a special connection with these graceful beasts as my mother is in fact a llama.

First I cut out two llama shapes, and then an underbody shape so that it would have four distinct legs. I have no pattern so I just folded a piece of felt between the legs and cut to make the underbody and it ended up seeming too fat.

I just folded it in half again and sewed a line down the middle to thin it down a bit. 

Next I stitched an eye and nostril on each side of the llama faces. I did a quick practice of my blanket stitch on a scrap piece of felt. For the ears I cut out two roundish diamond ear shapes, folded them in half, and put a small gray stitch to hold them in place. 

Next I started stitching around. I just cut that heart out initially to make the shapes photo cuter, but I ended up liking the way it looked with the gray so I stitched it on his sweet little haunch! 

I stitched and stuffed as I went because I wanted the legs to be nice and full to help him stand up. I'm calling him Blanket after the stitch used and the child of the late Michael Jackson. 

Once completed, my associate Tobi asked if it was a donkey. 

Or a Lochness Monster. You be the judge!

The above photo shows how the underbody piece fit in there. It gave Blanket a nice 3D-ness, but his legs splay out a little bit, which gives him that "Lochness Monster" effect we discussed earlier. 

Self awareness.

I will leave you with this thing I learned while researching this article: a llama mating call is called an "orgle," a buzzing gurgle that the male llama or alpaca makes when he becomes aroused until he finishes the act. Hot.