Tag: Coraline

 

I’m happy to say that my crocheted Coraline was finished in time for my daughter’s birthday.

Wait, I take that back… She was complete, until I decided to go in a slightly different direction.

In the book Coraline by Neil Gamon, Coraline raves about these day glow green gloves that she sees at the store. Her mother was taking her shopping for school uniforms. 

And could I have Day-Glo green gloves to wear, and yellow Wellington boots in the shape of frogs?” asked Coraline.

Coraline’s intrigued by the gloves, and keeps pestering her mother for a pair. After all she’s looking for individuality, a way to stand out from others who’ll be wearing the same drab uniforms. In her mind, these gloves will do the trick. I’d have to agree. By the way, in Coraline the movie, the gloves are multi-colored. 

The more I thought about my daughter’s crocheted Coraline; the more I realized she would definitely choose lime green pants over black! And while her mother might not have allowed her to have such a bold color, I would…

And so I frogged the black pants, and crocheted lime green pants.

I read Coraline years ago, so I’d already created my own image of her years before I saw other artist’s interpretation of Coraline. While I think other artists have made some amazing Coraline’s, I wanted to add my own spin.  

In Coraline the movie, she wears a messenger bag, and so I crocheted this one. I wanted to crochet a backpack, but my daughter was insistent that it be a bag. So, I listened to her request. I’d wanted to make something for her in bright pink, since I think Coraline would be all over that, but my daughter said, No!

This was a very simple bag to create, and it reminded me of a messenger bag that I’d made in the early 1990’s. It wasn’t knitted or crocheted, but I did sew it. Odd, that I haven’t thought of that bag in years. Then again, I’ve designed/sewn hundreds of items. There’s no way I’m going to remember every single item I’ve made. That sewn messenger bag was my favorite “go to” bag. It was made out of corduroy, velvet, and strips of leather. I carried it everywhere, and it received a lot of compliments. I wore it so much, that it eventually wore out, and I had to toss it, but not before I saved a scrap to use in a pillow I was creating.  I have lots of great crafting memories.

Regarding my crocheted Coraline, I opted not to do crochet individual fingers, this time… Time was a huge factor, but I will be making crocheted fingers with my next crocheted human amigurumi.

I still have a few minor additions to this Amigurumi Coraline…

My daughter is insisting that I add freckles; I believe I’ll embroider them on her face. I’m also going to add something to her hair. I’m just not sure what. I’ll most likely have to reread parts of the book, perhaps then Coraline will tell me what she wants. 😉 And… I’m wanting to add extras to the messenger bag; I have a few ideas that involve embroidery and beads, so we’ll see what happens.

If you want to make your own crocheted Coraline, please visit Sharon Ojala of Homemade Obsessions and  check out her free crocheted Coraline pattern.

This week is flying by, hard to believe its Wednesday already. Not too many work in progresses to show today, that’s because most of my projects are complete!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to feature them and my amigurumi Coraline in Finished Object Friday. I’ve missed the past two.

But, back to Work in progress Wednesday…

Coraline is one of my favorite books by Neil Gamon…

By the time I discovered Coraline, I’d already read numerous books by Neil  Neverwhere, MirrorMask, American Gods, Angels & Visitations… are just a few that I read. I love his writing style, and although Coraline is considered a children’s book, the dark plot kept me hooked, so much so that I finished it in one sitting.  That’s not the first time I’ve done that with one of Neil Gamon’s books.

Towards the end of last week, I did a search for amigurumi and Coraline. Makes sense, right? I’ve only been making a ton of amigurumis over the past few weeks. Might as well start checking out amigurumis based on some of my favorite book and gaming characters, right? My search led me to Sharon Ojala’s lovely site, and her crocheted amigurumi Coraline. More on Sharon, including links to her free patterns, at the end of this post…

I really loved Sharon’s Coraline, and started making my own… uhm well my daughter’s  amigurumi Coraline towards the end of last week. I wanted to deviate from the free Coraline pattern, but my daughter requested it be similar to Ms. Sharon’s, ok I can do that…

Since my daughter was enamored by the Coraline she saw, I dug up my worn copy of Coraline and gave it to my daughter to read. She loves the book, and has almost finished reading it. Since she started reading it, she now carries the unfinished Coraline with her, when I’m not working on it.

I was really excited about starting this amigurumi project, making amigurumi animals, isn’t new to me, but I am new to making amigurumi dolls. Because of that, I’m having fun making Coraline. To be honest, I could have had this doll finished a lot sooner, but I’m taking my time with her, savoring the experience, and learning some brand-new techniques such as crocheting the legs in a different way than I’m used to, and crocheting actual fingers!

Thus far, my favorite part has been creating the face, and rooting her hair. I’ve done plenty of hair rooting, but this is my first time to hair root an amigurumi doll.

And here’s a closeup of Coraline. I wanted to embroider the eyes, but my daughter wanted buttons, and so buttons it is.

Coraline is almost finished. Coraline’s hair needs to be trimmed, and I need to complete her legs, boots, and create the arms, and fingers. I’m looking forward to crochet fingers, since I’ve never done that before.

Hopefully I’ll have this completed by Friday, perfect timing for us to watch Coraline the movie, again!  Yesterday, my daughter was sick, so she stayed home from school. We watched the movie, instead of waiting until Friday.

Will I make another Coraline? Of course, I adored the book, and have had fun creating the first Coraline for my daughter, but I want one for myself.

With my crocheted Coraline, I’ll be making some modifications with the Coraline I create; different hair, outfit, facial expression, I’m looking forward to making one for myself.

Where can I get the free pattern for amigurumi Coraline?

This pattern is a free design by Sharon Ojalo, if you haven’t checked out her website, Homemade Obsessions, you should. Sharon’s extremely talented, and friendly. I’ve enjoyed chatting with her via Facebook. In addition to the free amigurumi pattern for Coraline (which also has a video tutorial) Sharon also has numerous other free amigurumi crochet patterns, so stop on by her site, and check out what check out her amigurumi patterns.

Sites I’m linking too

1. Tami Amis WIP
2. Yarn Along
3. Frontier Dreams
4. Crochet Addicts CFS
5. The Crochet Way

The Other Mother, is a character that I’ve enjoyed in Coraline, sometimes I forget and refer to the book as “The Other Mother,” since that character was seared into my brain.

Over time, Coraline and The Other Mother have occasionally swapped roles when it comes to my favorite character from Neil Gamon’s book… The Other Mother was a bit off the rails with her approach, and she’s definitely evil, but even with those glaring flaws, I found her appealing.

With my old site; VeganMomma. I knew a blogger who went by the same name; The Other Mother. Of course… she was also a Neil Gamon fan, and as I recall, it’s something I asked when I first made a comment at her virtual home. By that time, I’d read many of Neil Gamon’s books. And so began our online friendship.  We visited one another’s blog, chatted via email, and clued each other on various authors during the time we corresponded; but that came to a halt, and I never knew what happened to her.

I wish I could remember her real name, but I can’t. I do know she lived in New Orleans, and I know her blog became silent shortly before Hurricane Katrina swept through Louisiana.

Whenever I think of  the book Coraline, or the character, The Other Mother, I do think of my blogging pal and wonder if she, her son, and her husband are fine. Some didn’t survive.

Crochet Coraline head

This afternoon, I had a chance to work on my amigurumi crochet Coraline; I didn’t get to improvise as I’d like, since the first Coraline that I’m crocheting, is being made for my daughter.  “Mommy, I want you make it just like Ms. Sharon’s!”

As mentioned in my earlier post, Sharon Ojala of Homemade Obsessions is the one who created this free pattern. So yes, with this first crocheted Coraline, there won’t be too much deviation.

I’ve always liked to root dolls hair, but this is my first time rooting a crochet amigurumi doll. The technique used is similar to what I’ve done in the past. I used a crochet hook to attach the “hair aka yarn.”

Crocheted Coraline: rooting Coraline’s hair

The face, is always the fun part for me, because I get to add a bit of personality to my crochet amigurumis through their facial expressions.

I really enjoyed embroidering the eyebrows and the nose.

It’s a shame you can’t really see the detail of the nose. I worked on that to make it look like a normal nose. I wanted to embroider Coraline’s eyes, but my daughter wanted them to be, “just like the pattern!”  So we used buttons. No worries, I’ll be making my own crochet Coraline, very soon.

Next up is embroidering the mouth, I’ll print out a few photos taken from Coraline the movie, and see whether any additional features need to be added before I start stuffing Coraline’s head.

Resource: Free coraline crochet pattern by Sharon Ojala of Homemade Obsessions