I did about 20 test strips to come up with this mane. It's alternating rows of cotton strips with homespun, cut on the straight of grain, ironed in half, stitched down on the fold, clipped a little to make the curve then clipped a lot to rag.
I wanted to do something to make his mane fuzzy other than fake fur and since this was a first run, I did the mane on a separate piece of fabric and then attached it to the main quilt. If I ever do it again, I'll stitch it right to the quilt and follow the curves of his face. I don't like the look of him peeking out of a fairly round hole. And I've washed it 4 times and the homespun is still shedding. Has anyone ragged homespun before? Will it always shed? Plus it took 1 whole yard of each fabric for the strips and about 8 hours to make just the mane! Yuck!
His whiskers extend into and on top of his mane and even though I used a huge zigzag, the ragging is so heavy that his whiskers disappear.
Anyway..... back to the drawing board. He's going to have different eyes, a fake fur mane, possibly a different shape to his head. I DO like his body and the proportion of the huge head/mane to the smaller body. And I really like his tail. Curling it around his body and feet worked nicely!
NEXT!