Leaping Lizards!

So my big sister commissioned lizards. Ask and you shall receive, says I. I started with this picture from her as a starting place:

Next, I found some tye-dyed T-shirts at the thrift store (of course), ridiculously cheap (of course). Started making sketches, and decided to put a fleece belly gusset on them. Then, with help from the little Sleepover Pals "buns" (from the Wee Wonderfuls book), I made those adorable eyes. The only stipulation my sister made about the chameleons was that their eyes NOT point in the same direction. I put some felt on top of the "buns", and they turned out really fun, I think!

I got really adventurous on the red chameleon and added a bit of daisy "doodles" (embroidery), which didn't turn out too bad. I was thinking of making a great big vine of flowers down the blue chameleon's tail, but I decided not to push my luck.

Next up, an iguana. Again my sister made only one stipulation on this: "make it so I can tell it is an iguana". No problem. Except - have you ever SEEN a real iguana? They are NOT cute creatures - no matter what anyone tells me. U.G.L.Y! Scary, even. So I WAS going to go with a cartoon-ish fabric and make it cartoony, but then I found this great green fabric and decided to give it a whirl. The spikes are made out of wool felt (a gift from my sister - thanks, e!)

Oh, and I'm still learning along the way. I drew these really cool feet on freezer paper and stitched around the paper, but I could NOT NOT NOT turn those dang toes! So I cut off the feet and made them out of the wool felt instead of the cotton - no turning necessary! I also embroidered a "tattoo" on one of the front feet during church. I found out that my mind actually did not wander as much during the sermon when I was stitching - even though I made my very first French knots ever. Yay!

Spunky and Sunshine LOVED playing with the chameleons. I just sent all of them off today - hope my sister likes them as much as the kiddos.