her vision

About a month ago, we were at the BYU Museum of Art. As I cannot resist a museum gift shop, I was perusing their offerings. I saw a wool felt stuffed elephant that I thought might be good for Bella's birthday, since she is quite the elephant lover. I should say here that I studied the elephant for a few minutes, contemplating whether I might be able to make one instead. I decided that I could not, and so I bought it.

Eva wanted to make a gift to send to Bella, one that was elephant-themed as well. She came up with and rejected many ideas, only to settle on a stuffed elephant. My protestations that we were already sending Bella a stuffed elephant were heartily ignored.

At first I thought she would draw an elephant profile, we could cut two and sew them together, stuff, DONE.

But noooooooo. She didn't want it to be 2D. She didn't want Bella to have to hold the elephant the whole time she was playing with it. It had to stand. I was quickly getting in over my head but I didn't have the heart to crush her gift-giving dream.

She drew a pattern. (I love the scissor marks.) It needed to have a bracelet, a striped trunk, a bow, a fringe-y tail, and heart-shaped ears.

I started cutting out the pattern, and she freaked out: "Wait! That's not really the shape of it!" Oh dear.

So I sketched a pattern based on the grey elephant that we bought. (Ours is like its special needs baby sister.)

I had never made a stuffed animal other than a knitted kitty. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. She didn't care about any of that. She badgered me into following this project through to completion. She was the designer and the overseer of every step of the process.

The poor girl has splayed feet and has difficulty standing with all of her appendages on the ground at once. Her trunk is crooked.

But she has a fringe-y tail, a bracelet, a striped trunk, a bow, and heart-shaped ears.

What can I say? The girl has vision.