Sesame Street Beans Hack

Little Chrissy & the Alphabeats with Grover

A reader pointed out to me that I said I'd post pics and pattern pieces for the Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats dolls I made for my daughter for Christmas. Aaaand I can't find the pattern pieces. *sigh* I'll have to redraft them, but in the meantime, here's a look at what I did and how.

The dolls are a mix of hand and machine sewing.

Each piece was marked with how many I had to cut of each color. The folded part of the top shoe piece shows where I made a dart, to get the right shape of the foot. The chest piece shows the center, where I cut a slit to insert a small triangle of white to show the undershirt the characters are wearing under their collared shirt. The collars were triangles I sewed in, I did not make a mini collared shirt. I also didn't make a pattern piece for those.

I used Grover to approximate the pattern pieces since he's "naked" and I could see all the seams clearly. I should have made the eyes larger, since my Alphabeats look a little terrifying, but my daughter loves them and has not stopped talking about them, and the others she wants, since Christmas. (No, really, she won't stop.)

Little Chrissy only has black dots for eyes, and I used a pipe cleaner to make his glasses. Hair for the dolls came from samples purchased from http://www.fabricempire.com/faux-fur-fabric.aspx. You can also see the little dart in his chin that I made to round out his face more.

Completed shoes and one completed leg.

I made the shoes first. Those were filled with plastic beans once the legs were sewn on, and the legs were filled with polyfill not quite to the top. I sewed the belly and butt pieces so I had front and back sides, then pinned the legs into that (right sides facing) so that when I turned it right-side out, the legs would be securely sewn in.

The legs are quilting cotton, patterned to look like denim.

This was the first lower body I made, before I figured out a better way to sew the legs in.

Once the torsos were sewn on, I filled the butt part with beans, then more polyfill. The arms were sewn into the body pieces, and contained no beans. The only parts containing beans are the shoes and the butt.

The heads were sewn together, then sewn on once the torsos were attached to the lower bodies.

Closeup of the pink guy's face. He was the first one I made, and a little lopsided. You can sort of see the dart in his chin.
Except for his face and hair, he's done.

I made the noses from circles of felt, gathered sort of like how you make a yoyo, only on a smaller scale. Little Chrissy's nose is an oval, so I used an oval instead of a circle. The eyes are circles of flannel with Fray-Checked edges, the pupils were added with Scribbles fabric paint, and Fabric Fusion (fabric glue) to attach them. The mouths are just rectangles of red felt sewn into the seam.

They're not perfect, but I'm proud of them. I know better how do do things, what worked and what didn't, etc. And that's a good thing, because she's already written her letter to Santa asking for Dr. Thad and the Medications. (And Mick Swagger and the Cobblestones, and Little Jerry and the Monotones, and -- lord knows why -- The Grand High Triangle Lover.) When I do make all those guys, I will take better photos and try to do a decent tutorial.