Library Kangaroo

 I made this Corinne Lapiere mouse back in June, finishing it while waiting at CMI Toyota for my car to be serviced. I wrote about it in my weekly blog back in June .As nice as it is I couldn’t see librarians getting excited about a mouse, however cute, as a library decoration given the time many of them spend keeping the real things out of their shelves.  This one is meant to have glasses. When I had trouble making these as instructed, I decided it was too much of a stereotype anyway. 

It did, however, set my mind racing with an animal idea that might appeal to librarians and also amuse young readers. The reading mouse will become a Christmas decoration.

I found and downloaded a free pattern for a felt kangaroo and enlarged it. I  then went shopping for grey/brown felt. Simela at Create in Stitch was very helpful. I ended up with a solid brown and a grey marle and began with the latter. The brown is yet to be tried.  

It took patience and concentration to construct. Thread proved a challenge. It was surprisingly difficult to get a good colour match. In the end an olivy green worked. My idea was to use the pouch to hold books.

I made the books more simply than those with the mouse. Instead of stuffing, I simply layered a piece of white felt between the coloured cover, one white piece for a thin book, three for a thick one.  The larger thin one was titled Skippy  and the smaller thicker one Grass.  

Simela helped me come up with the idea of the library bag. I toyed with a backpack, but it proved too complicated. 

Initially the library bag hung around the kangaroo's neck but finally fit across the chest and under one arm. I don't have a photo of that.

Even with the enlarged pattern, the joey is small. My idea was to place the joey in the library bag and the books in the pouch. They were made to be taken out and moved, on the assumption a child might play with them. In the end I attached the joey by a cord to the bag as getting lost seemed a high risk.

The hardest bit was weighing the base  to enable it to stand. I don't like useing rice for this purpose in case the animal gets wet. As I had done with the Penguin Doorstop some time ago, I used painted stones from the plant section of a hardware store. It works, but is hard to balance in this shape. The stones, padded with wadding, move around, overbalancing the kangaroo.

What is likely to work best are sinkers, from a fishing shop, which have holes and could be stitched in place. This one went to a library for assessment. It quickly found a use holding pages open in display books.

Yesterday, when the Embroiderers' Guild put out a plea for additional entries in the upcoming SALA Exhibition, I got out the felt and cut another one. It was a fairly rushed job, as I needed to deliver it today. I made a few refinements as I went. The cord on the library bag is a woven bracelet I made years ago in a class I have forgotten about.

I tethered the joey on a  long cord to the kangaroo, rather than to the bag.

The books are Skip and Emu (dictated mostly by the short deadline I had to make it!).

While the joey looks cute in the pouch,  for the purposes of the Exhibition, it rides in the library bag, along with Skip, while Emu  is in the pouch, handy for the mother to read.

I didn't have time to go out and buy sinkers, so it is once again weighted with painted gravel. Hopefully I can buy some sinkers soon.

I have delivered it to the Guild and given it the title Everyone is Welcome at the Library.  I hope it makes people smile.