FO: Slugbert the Garden Slug

In all my gift making frenzy of the past few weeks, I found myself with all my current gifts finished and a free evening of movie watching with my husband. I didn't really feel like working on my Emelie sweater, and I also didn't feel like spending who knows how long picking patterns and pulling out yarn for my next batch of gifts. I needed something quick and fun - luckily the Indie Gift-a-Long put an idea in my head that filled the gap perfectly :)

I've always wanted to make the Garden Slug by cheezombie, but never got around to it. When I saw it was one of the eligible patterns for the GAL and that I had the Garden Slug (Flat Version) pattern in my stash, it was the perfect excuse to finally show some slug love :) Meet Slugbert!

As the pattern title suggest, this pattern is knit flat and seamed together - honestly not my favorite construction method (I would have preferred in the round), but the pattern was given to me and I do not look a gift horse in the mouth :) It came out great even with the seams. Also this pattern comes out bigger than I thought it would from the pictures - mine is 6.5" long, 5" tall and 3" wide.

I made my slug using Vanna's Choice in kelly green, cranberry, white and black - all from my stash. The pattern suggests you use poly-pellets in the body to make him stand up - I had never thought of it, but I'm really glad the pattern mentioned it as I'm sure it would just flop over without them. As usual, I put the poly pellets in knee high panty hose and tied the nylon off to make a tight sack, then put the whole thing in as one piece. I'm always paranoid that a baby may get their hands on this sometime and I don't want to be responsible for any choking hazards. The panty hose solves this worry and keeps them all at the bottom so they don't redistribute themselves over time. The rest of the body is stuffed with poly-fill. The pattern has you use size 3 needles, which makes for a very tight fabric. Honestly you would be ok with slightly larger, but for my first go I just followed the instructions.

Here's his seam - not bad, right? The only place you can see it is in the angled area - I used a mattress stitch so the top part is invisible. I love his little tail, lol.

So, there you have it: Slugbert :) It's a really fun pattern, and the face is so expressive! I can definitely see a small army of slugs in my future...