Fairies

Gnomes have been my focus in my etsy store for some time now. This past January I added wands and crowns for some more variety of imaginative toys. But, still something was missing. I've always wanted a counterpart for the gnomes - elves seemed too similar, mermaids too different and fairies too delicate for knitting. Then Mamajudes on etsy had a sampler of plant dyed doll hair yarns (mohair and boucles) for sale and I thought maybe I could give fairies a try.

Here are my first attempts

I used the braid around their head to help keep their hair sewn down.

In these first attempts I used the body from my standing gnome to start. Then sewed on hair instead of a hat and felt wings in place of a knitted cape. I gave them symbols on their chests to give them an identity and to balance the color and texture of the wings. So, there is a love fairy, sun fairy and a good luck fairy (you'll notice they are similar to my wands.)

Here is the "love" fairy, but she could also be a bleeding heart flower fairy.

You'll notice here that I sewed felt to the bottom to completely enclose
the fairy and making it more child safe.

I'd love to hear comments from all of you on how successful these fairies turned out and any improvements or changes I might make. Once an idea occurs to me I find it hard to see other possibilities that's why your comments really help me in refining a toy.