Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Happy Cones

Since I’m in the middle of a couple projects (unfortunately nothing too new & exciting, sorry), I figure it’s a good time to catch up on some old projects I’ve been wanting to post. It’s just so hard to write about the old stuff though when I’m so excited about the new stuff! Now seems to be a perfect time.







I made these little guys (18 of them, if I remember correctly) as a Christmas/New Year gift for my coworkers a couple years ago. We work in a construction department, so safety/construction cones seemed like a perfect idea. I put a note with each one on their desk that said “Have a safe & happy New Year,” because they’re happy safety cones. :) Yes, it’s corny, but they are just so darn cute!

I haven’t the faintest idea now of where I got the pattern for them, but found it online somewhere. They were surprisingly easy to make, although it did struggle with the first few since it was my very first non-flat, non-blanket project. Working “in the round” was a totally new concept to me & took some getting used to, but after the first couple were finished, I had gotten the hand of it.

The flat bottom on this one is a little bigger than most of them were. I didn’t like the size of the square in the pattern (too small, if I remember correctly), so I just kind of winged them after a bit. The pattern called for using stuffing to fill the cone, but I found that it would poke out between the stitches when I sewed the bottom on, and just generally didn’t like the way it filled the cone. Instead, I used (new!) knee highs to stuff before sewing on the bottom. I made the cone much more firm & sturdy, and didn’t have the problem of poking out between the stitches. Plus, since they’re not white, they couldn’t be seen between the stitches like the white stuffing sometimes could. Win-win!

I found another pattern recently that uses the same shape as an ice cream cone, so I may try making those sometime too. What I really want to try is making a mini version (not that these aren’t already small) to use for a keychain.

I almost forgot to mention what happened to my little happy cone. :( I kept it in my car on my instrument panel. There was a perfect little spot where it didn’t block the view of any of my gauges, but was right where I could see it anytime. One day I came out to my car, which hadn’t been driven in about a week, to find Kleenex torn up & strewn across the floorboards in the back seat. We had apparently gotten mice in the garage & they had decided the best nesting material was in my car. Unfortunately, they also decided my little safety cone was also good nesting material, and ate/torn up most of the bottom. I still can’t figure out how they found it up on my dash, but hate the thought that they were crawling around up there. Needless to say, I haven’t put a new cone in my car, even though I know for a fact we got rid of those mice.

Side note – yes, I realize I need to find a better place to take photos. My kitchen counter, pantry door, and bedspread aren’t the best backgrounds, but for now I can’t find anyplace better. I’ve thought about doing them outside, but I don’t have a great place there either, & I don’t want to risk stuff getting dirty. I’ll come up with something.

Until next time…

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments, I appreciate each & every one I get. I do try to respond to most (if not all) comments, but that's hard to do if you don't have an e-mail in your profile! :)