Friday, January 18, 2013

You Had Me At Hedgehog

Em here, so I am hoping by now you get the feel that I am a huge animal fan. I love them, all of them, and that is probably the reason I am in the Biology field. 
I am also hoping by now you get the gist that I have a hedgehog. Her name is Gypsy, and besides my sweet husband, she is my whole world. 
That girl is spoiled rotten...crazy hedgehog. 
For those of you saying "What the heck is a hedgehog?!" (much like my friends an family), here is a picture!


Sweet Gypsy, I never forgo an opportunity to show her off ;)
So there you have it, a hedgehog, these were taken a few days after she came to live with us, she was about 8 weeks old. She is much bigger now, and well very  moody, but that is a common hedgie trait so it is just one of those things you just have to take in stride.

When Melodie sent us this Pinstrosity I was instantly in love, and while she thinks it turned out awful I think it's adorable!Check it out!

The Original
http://maker-land.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/hedgehog-pincushion-tutorial.html

Adorable right?! I love the texture of the fabric she used, and I love that she made a cute little girl hedgehog with a bow :) Here is Melodies take on this Hedgehog pin cushion!

The Pinstrosity

I think that is super cute! I love all the multicolored pins that are the "quills", I think it is simply adorable! Here is what Melodie had to say about it though:

"...Honestly, 2/3rds into making [this], I couldn't stop laughing because I could see how much of a FAIL this was becoming.
And now I love my Pinstrosity because it's so ugly and ridiculous-looking! The original was so cute....

I absolutely wanted to make this really cute hedgehog pincushion to replace my old, boring square-shaped pincushion. How hard could it be, with the right instructions ? Well...
First, she advises to use faux fur or towelling. I used and old brown towel thinking "It's going to be fine and cute, no problem".
But I wanted a bigger pincushion than this one... and I didn't have a printer to print the pattern. You see where this is going ?
I put a sheet of paper onto my screen to trace the original pattern, then made it bigger using the well-known "that's probably about right" method. I could see I had already lost some of the shapes, but I still thought "it's going to be just fine".

For the rest... I think the picture speaks for itself. I think the worst (and funniest) part was choosing the eyes and nose that were the least creepy given the very limited choice of beads I had.
Yes, yes i know, it's still pretty creepy. It looks at me with its empty eyes while I sew, crying "I want to die now". But I still like it because it reminds me of all the terrible Pinstrosities I've seen on your website..."


I think that her creation is unique and very cute! Considering that she made this without a pattern on hand, and then adjusted it to the size she wanted I think she did awesome! 
There are a few things that I think would have perhaps helped her out besides the obvious printing out the pattern, and having it be the same size as the pattern.
-Eyes and Nose, I know the original used small beads but I think she could have gotten away with just using black thread to create eyes and a nose. 
-Ears, physically speaking, hedgehog ears are pretty small compared to their body (baby hedgehogs are the exception to this, they have to grow into their ears). Melodies ears are a little big considering the rest of the body size, but I think it just adds to the charm here.
-I know she didn't like the towelling she used, but I think that the pins being the quills is fun and quarky, in fact she has kind of created her own pin on this one, and I might just follow suite and make one based off her  alterations. I will keep you posted on that
Thanks Melodie!
I do have to say that this little guy reminds me of a cartoon character but I can't quite put my finger on who it is...anyone have any clue? First person to figure it out gets a metaphorical Shiny Nickle (A real honor in my family). 
So give it your best shot! Also, has anyone made some fun hedgehog crafts?! I am always up for hedgie crafts of ANY sort. I would love to hear/see them! 
Happy Friday Pinstrosipeeps!







19 comments:

  1. Could it be Pikachu? Or Sonic the Hedgehog? I think it's adorable!

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  2. Both pincushions are adorable, though I have to say, I'd love to hear more about Gypsy! My husband & I have been seriously researching hedgehogs but don't know any people in real life who have them.

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  3. It reminds me of Ren of Ren and Stimpy.

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  4. Yes, he absolutely is still cute, even if it's a different cute than the original pin! Emilee, I think you're thinking of Oswald - at least, I sure did when I saw the (not) Pinstrosity! The other two characters it sort of reminds me of are Steamboat Willie and Felix the Cat, but Oswald is definitely the closest resemblance.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_the_cat

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  5. Being a sewer--Melodie did a great job --- I think he's adorable."Stuart" comes to mind as the cartoon character.Love your blog,Betsy

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  6. Rocko from "Rocko's Modern Life"?

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  7. Oswald was my first thought, too.

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  8. My Twitter friend turned her Hedgie (whose name escapes me) into a stegosaurus! https://twitter.com/GeekyLyndsay/status/263811403788451840

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  9. The face kind of reminds me of one of the Stitch or one of the other aliens from Lilo and Stitch.

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  10. He looks a little bit like an Animaniac.

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  11. Maybe "Zero" from Nightmare before Christmas? It's the visible black-on-white stitching and the big ears that have me thinking that.

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  12. Makes me think of the Angry Beavers. I think both versions are totally adorable.

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  13. He looks like a hedgie version of Stitch!

    Cute, in a goofy way. I like it.

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  14. Its totally Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life...
    http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/34267861.jpg

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  15. I actually totally love the Pinstrosity version of this! I think it's so cute, cuter than the original I dare say. :D

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  16. It reminds me of the big rat they made in An American Tale... I think it was called the giant mouse of Mintz (or something like that). :)

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  17. I was really excited to see this post as I had taken a stab at this project as well. It was much more difficult than I expected and the first time it was so small it was extra difficult to work on. I tried it a second time and was able to work out some of the problems I had before, but it didn't come out super great.

    http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w83/momo-kitty/Projects/Hedgehogs07.jpg

    http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w83/momo-kitty/Projects/Hedgehogs09.jpg

    The second one had a much cuter face shape. I gave myself a bigger seam allowance, which helped a lot. I'm new to sewing and I think the hand-made nature of this pattern is especially difficult.

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