Anyways, I joined my mother-in-law, Wendy's Ravenwood Whimzies Blog Hop and you can click the link to go to her page and check out all the other wonderful blogs in the hop too if you haven't already!
For my post today I have a pattern for a piggy ornament I came up with myself. It was inspired by a resin ornie I saw a year ago in Hobby Lobby and that got my mind a-movin'. Hee hee. I think pigs are adorable and I couldn't resist.
Please bear with me as this is the first time I'm writing out directions for a pattern. I've made patterns before but they were for me alone, I was able to figure out what I was thinking when I did it myself (even if it took a few tries!)
Ok to start out you first need this pattern. Click on it to make it larger, save it and print it to a 8 x 11 in. sheet of paper.
Next trace the pieces onto a piece of muslin or even felt if you desire. I had a scrap of coffee-stained muslin hanging around when I made mine so that's what I used. Don't cut out these patterns on the lines once they are traced, but rather sew ON the lines and cut the shapes out afterwords. Start by taking the main big body piece of the pig and go from right ABOVE the leg all the way around until you hit the other stop line. DO NOT SEW THE LEGS! We have another step for those. Now cut out around the main body piece.
The next step is to take the two leg pieces and sew the straight long line FIRST, leaving an opening to stuff in the end as the pattern shows. Once you have done that, cut out the leg piece.
Open the leg pieces on both the pig main body and on the smaller leg pieces and overlap them. You will sew them together this way. If the leg pieces don't perfectly match up, don't worry. When I did this I found the smaller leg pieces to be a tad bigger. Just sew as close as you can to the edge. When you are done, turn the pig inside out so he looks nice and stuff.
When you are done with that, whip stitch the opening closed.
Sew the ears on doubled pieces of muslin and leave a small opening so you can turn them inside out.
Now sew on the ears. You actually want to put them somewhere near the middle of the head. Do what looks right to you, but this little pig is actually a lot of head. Have a look at my example to see what I mean. In the future I might put the ears a tad higher up but I think overall I like where I placed them.
Now for details! I used a bit of twine-covered wire to make a curly tail and cut a teeny hole in the back to stick it in. I held it in place with a drop of hot glue.
I also took a small scrap of felt and cut a triangle hat and sewed it together. I took a few fabric scraps and stuffed the hat so it stayed upright. I glued this on the head then found a small piece of fur to glue on for trim.
Add small bead eyes.
Because I made this for my husband I added a little star on a wire and put that in the front of the head (much like an angler fish). You don't have to do this, it's just an inside joke in this house.
Now simply add a string for hanging and put this little guy on your tree!
And now for the recipe. Back when I was a kid, we tended to have these amazing sugar cookies with maraschino cherries and white chocolate chips around holidays (especially Christmas). They are a delight and I hope you will enjoy them too!
Vanilla Chip Cherry Cookies--(I come from a big family of 10 people so this is the halved recipe)
Ingredients:
-10 oz. jar of maraschino cherries; drained
-2 tsp. cream of tartar
-1-1/8 tsp. baking soda
-3 cups + 3 Tbsp. of flour
-2 sticks butter, softened
-1-1/4 cups sugar
-2 eggs
-1/4 tsp. vanilla
-1-1/4 tsp. almond extract
-1 bag Nestle Vanilla Chips
-Additional 1/2 cup sugar
Drain the cherries and chop them up in food processor. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and flour.
In mixing bowl, beat the butter and 1-1/4 cups of sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract and mix.
Gradually add the flour mixture. Mix in the vanilla chips and chopped cherries on low.
Cover and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Put the additional 1/2 cup sugar into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.
Scoop out a rounded tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Set aside and continue until all the dough has been scooped and rolled into balls.
Add the balls, 12 at a time, to the sugar in the Ziploc bag. Seal the bag tightly and carefully shake until the balls are coated with sugar.
Place the balls onto baking sheets that have been lined with parchment paper, or lightly greased with shortening. Place 12 cookies on each cookie sheet.
Bake for 8-12 minutes, until they are lightly browned.
Cool the cookies slightly before removing them from the cookie sheet.
Yield: 40 cookies
