A Lion's Tale...the tale of his mane
 

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!

oh my goodness..........that is soooo cute

Really such a wonderful job, I love him!!!!

He looks pretty cute!
I remember your original post. I was wondering if you could do a chenille techique?

http://sewnatural.net/FuzzyByFoot.htm

What a great lion! When you make something again you always improve the process but this is so cute, love the tail. Is he appliqued on a gray background? Could really imagine him on a jungle print.

PaperPrincess, it basically is a chenille strip technique, but I wanted a longer strip and the homespun absolutely disintegrated when I cut it on the 45* bias! So I cut wider strips and then clipped them like a rag quilt!
Emma, he's not appliqués on a background. I pinned him to my big ottoman to block him. He's actually a Lion shaped quilt! He's about 40" x 50".

You're doing a wonderful job. He's so cute!

very cute!!!!!

he's adorable. i used a chenille technique once on a sheep. the kit came with a stiff brush to use on the fabric strips [bias, 3-4 layers] before washing. it's a lot of work, but the results were worth it.

Aw, he is so cute! As far as homespun goes, no I don't think it ever quits shedding, I have a raggy jacket & trim it every few times it gets worn. Have you considered doing the old-fashioned yarn hair to make a mane? -although not sure how safe that would be for little ones. Or even just a different colour for the main with lots of swirly quilting, maybe? That's alot of time & effort spent for a mane.