Check out the felt cake I made at Etsy Labs Faux Felt Cakes With My Candy Castle craft night. It’s a bit vampire-esque mixed with Americana!
Download the instructions and pattern from Etsy’s page. :)
You are currently browsing the archive for the plush category.
Tags: america, beads, blue, bon-bon, cake, etsy, fake, faux, felt, food, frosting, heart, kitiya, labs, my candy castle, pom pom, red, ribbon, vampire, white
Here’s one last post for the last day of the month. Lately it’s been hard taking photos because it gets dark at about 4pm. By the time I’m ready to take photos there’s no light outside so this time I decided to use flash. I think it worked out well for this occasion. Gracie looks so cute on top of our “bear” blanket, which is so soft!
Gracie’s hoodie comes with a ladybug or ladybird as it’s known in Europe. This is Gracie hanging out in bed. See how the blankie is making her sleepy, very sleepy…
Tags: bear, bed, blanket, dark, flash, gracie, hoodie, ladybird, ladybug, Lauren, mars, monkey, photos, rainbow, sleepy, sock, time, winter, yellow
This is my newest baby sock monkey, Mochi. She’s almost just that, a sweet rice cake with black bean curd. Yum! This Mochi is not for eating though…she’s made for snuggling. :)
Mochi sock monkey wears a lime green hoodie with monkey design and monkey ears. Her hoodie also comes with pink and blue striped long sleeves to keep her warm. The monkey ears on her hoodie are the smallest I’ve made. They’re so cute, I want to touch them!
Mochi Baby Mars Sock Monkey was made as a custom order. For more info visit maribel.etsy.com.
Tags: baby, custom, cute, ears, hoodie, mars, mochi, monkey, order, sock, sweater
My newest custom sock monkey, Frizbee, is bright and colorful. He’s very special too because he’s made from odd socks. His Rubik’s Cube like body comes in blue, green, yellow, pink and purple mosaic squares while his arms, ears and tail come in rainbow stripes. His hoodie is wacky too with a blue and red split colored front and a gradient effect on the back of the hood. After all Frizbee was inspired from a mix of Robert and Kristjen Mars Sock Monkeys so they’re very closely related. They’re like brothers!
I borrowed the Rubik’s Cube props from our guest from the UK! He came in good timing. Thanks Steve. ;)
Tags: bright, colorful, cube, effect, frizbee, fun, gradient, hoodie, mars, monkey, mosaic, odd, rainbow, rubik''s, sock, socks, split, squares, stripe
Earlier this morning, I released the new batch of Mars Sock Monkeys I’ve been secretly working on for the past month. One noticeably big change about these new monkeys is that they wear sweatshirt fabric hoodies, which I spent a lot of time perfecting so that they kept their original appeal. To celebrate the Fall and Halloween seasons, I chose warm and earthy colors for them to give these new sock monkeys a nice festive look.
These 10 hooded companions are the beginning of a new era of sock monkeys for Maribel Made! Just like their original ancestors with knitted hoodies, these little guys are also handmade by me so you know they’re made with great care and quality products. :)
These and more Mars Sock Monkeys can be purchased online on Etsy. Remember, not one sock monkey is alike so if you see one you like grab it before it’s gone!
Tags: ancestors, appeal, autumn, beginning, care, celebration, change, color, companion, earthy, era, etsy, fabric, fall, festive, generation, halloween, handmade, hoodie, knitted, launch, maribelmade, mars, monkeys, new, original, product, purchase, quality, realease, season, shop, sock, sweatshirt, warm
It’s been about two years since I made Shayla, Juan and Paul. In 2007 I had a full-time job, I did freelance design work and contributed to a startup I helped co-found with my boyfriend Toby called Musicmobs. In the end Toby sold Musicmobs to Last.fm and we moved to London! That was great, but before all that happened I felt extremely burned out. I craved a way to express myself creatively without being in front of the computer 24/7.
One day a friend gave me a postcard that showed how to make a sock monkey. I didn’t gravitate towards it immediately but I did start thinking more about sock monkeys and how they were made. My curiosity and desire to put my hands to work got me started on my whole sock monkey adventure! In fact, this is the sock monkey tutorial I used. Once Shayla, Juan and Paul were finished I thought they were missing something so I decided knit them sweaters.
Now that I’ve been building my sock monkey army I thought it would be fun to go back and update one of the very first monkeys. Shayla’s original sweater was what started it all, but it was definitely rough around edges. I thought since she was one of the first that she needed a nice new sweater. I think she likes her new clothes. :)
Shayla Mars Sock Monkey (Then)
Shayla Mars Sock Monkey (Now)
Tags: design, history, last.fm, makeover, maribelmade, mars, monkey, musicmobs, shayla, sock, startup, toys, web
Isabelle is my first “monkey” sock monkey! I made her from a pair of socks with little colorful monkey heads. I followed the monkey theme and put a monkey head on the front of her cream hoodie, which I added matching monkey ears! I also made her a cream flatcap. It kind of changes her personality a bit when she wears it. It’s like she’s a Gemini. :)
Tags: cosplay, cream, design, ears, flatcap, gemini, head, hoodie, isabelle, maribelmade, mars, monkey, personality, sock, stripes, sweater, theme
Henry was inspired from Eriko, the first sock monkey I sold! Eriko is a boy, but Henry is a girl. I like girls with boy names (it reminds me of Lady Oscar). The thing I love the most about Henry is her doggy print. I got these and another pair with monkey faces! For her hoodie I tried to mostly use lavender and yellow, but I did add a small pink heart to accent the pocket below.
I happened to go through a major breakthrough with this sock monkey. I sewed what should have been the legs as the head and vice-versa. I did this so that the doggy faces appeared right side up. Yay! :)
Good things coming up ahead. There’s a couple of baby monkeys coming soon. I’ve also reached over 50 sales on Etsy! Thanks everyone!! :D
Tags: boy, dog, Eriko, etsy, girl, henry, hoodie, knit, lady, maribel made, mars, monkey, oscar, pouch, print, sock, socks, sweater
Meet Baby Phelan! My friend told me that his name means “little wolf”, which I think suits him perfectly since he’s like a little wild animal. :)
These photos were taken at a construction site right across the street. I don’t like the noise at 7:30 in the morning, but I have grown fond of these big machines living in front of us. I thought the site would make a good place to shoot a baby boy sock monkey. Boys will be boys after all!
For Phelan’s sweater, I really gave myself a good challenge with the design of the fire engine. I wasn’t happy at all with the knit results of the original fire truck design, which was angled, making it impossible to tell what it was. As soon as I changed the view of the fire engine the basic shapes of the body, windows and ladder looked much better!
Original Revised
Phelan’s Fire Engine hoodie
Tags: blue, boy, construction, engine, fire, little, machine, mars, monkey, Phelan, sock, truck, wolf
The first Urban Craft Uprising show I went to must have been December 06. I wasn’t doing much crafting at the time, but having the urge to made me curious about the Seattle craft scene. This year’s first Summer 09 Urban Craft Uprising was great. I guess I couldn’t get enough because I went both days! Meeting people opening day Saturday was fun and the 3d felting demo given by Moxie on Sunday was pretty cool.
There were also a ton of things I really, really wanted (in no particular order):
Maluhia Designs Japanese fabric purses, covers, etc!
Fox & Clover necklaces
Amy Hevron art
Wooly Bison bags
Spooky Mama Creations jewelry
Manmade Monsters t-shirts
Polymath Design Lab jewelry and home
Population One bags
Thea Starr Kanzashi hair accessories
Devout dolls and oddities!
Chikabird fabric pencil notebooks
Hasenpfeffer Incorporated dolls
Friends of Socktopus toys
Jessi Taylor jewelry
Cake spy illustrations
Berkley Illustration! art
Orange House Press. I think you get the idea. :)
These are only a few of the great products designed and put together by some very talented and dedicated people (some of whom I met)! The photos I took on Sunday are some of the vendors and artists that day. I know I missed many faces so sorry about that, but feel free to fill in the gaps by commenting or adding notes on the photos. Oh yeah, I was asked if I was selling at the event, but not this year. Hopefully I can showcase some Mars Sock Monkeys at an Urban Craft Uprising show in the future. I’m looking forward to December’s show!
Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching!
Kristen Rask from SCHMANSY
CJ (middle) from Lunaversoul
Libby from moth and squirrel
Tags: 2009, Amy Hevron, author, Cakespy, chikabird, craft, Creation Station, demo, demonstration, Devout, dolls, event, felt, Fox & Clover, friends of socktopus, hasenpfeffer incorporated, indie, Jenny Hart, Jessi Taylor, Kristen Rask, Lunaversoul, Made by Moxie, Maluhia Designs, Manmade Monsters, maribel made, moth and squirrel, needle, Orange House press, polulation one, polumath design lab, schmancy, Scrumptious Delight, seattle, show, Spooky Mama Creations, summer, Thea Starr, toys, ucu, ucuLittle Black Rabbit, uprising, urban, Wooly Bison
Recent Articles
-
Mars Sock Monkeys for Boys!
Here’s something the boys might like. This group of rambunctious sock monkeys were especially made for them. I used red, purple and yellow with touches of green, brown, blue and even pink! These sock monkeys with their boyish good looks are just as cute as the girls. :)
Shawn Mars Sock MonkeyNick Mars Sock Monkey
Tomie Mars [...]
-
Scrap yarn needle holders
With every move comes a new work space and some organization. I’m always looking for ways to repurpose anything so my bits of scrap yarn were perfect for making a couple of holders for my knitting and crochet needles.
The pattern is pretty simple. Once you have a starting loop, single crochet (sc) all around [...]
-
Seba, Mimi and Honty Mars Sock Monkeys
Meet my most recent rainbow sock monkeys, Sebastian and Mimi. Working with rainbow socks is great because there’s an endless array of color options when it comes to making the hoodie. I also found sock monkeys make great thank you gifts. You can also never go wrong with giving your girlfriend a cute stuffed animal. [...]
-
Fun times at The Martha Stewart Show
This week was a whirlwind! I got the opportunity to sit at the 1,000th show of The Martha Stewart Show! Actually, the Twitter section of the audience, which of course meant live tweeting from the show and getting some VIP treatment.
It was great to see one of my favorite chefs, Mario Batali, make pasta and [...] -
Steeking and New Knit Mars Sock Monkeys
When I first read about steeking, it was hard to imagine such an unconventional knitting technique. Wikipedia says:
“In knitting, steeking is a shortcut used to knit garments such as sweaters in the round without interruption for openings or sleeves until the end.”
But cutting holes in knit fabric? To leave openings for sleeves? Sounded crazy to [...]
