I feel so good to write the second blog on the same day after the lapse of seven days. Well, why is this creation no. 15 and not 14? The previous one was 13. If I had to skip a post, it should have been 13 instead of 14! But it's not about superstition. I started something as my 14th creation which is still to be completed. But I managed to complete something that I started after that so I am posting that first. For those who like stories may refer to my previous post and you will know what my soul has been through for the past one week. ;)
So let us begin the story of a new undertaking...
If you thought I was talking about something as awesome as "The" game of thrones - I am not. I am talking about a simple tic-tac-toe which has taught me a couple of interesting things. The idea was to create a base on which my plushie crosses and knots would lie. The base would be divided into 9 squares as usual. Ideally 9 plushies would be required to complete the game but since it is not fixed whether it begins with a cross or a knot, we have to consider all the cases and create 10 plushies. Instead I created 4 crosses and 4 knots would be sufficient to determine the outcome of the game. Pretty simple and organised so far. However with this idea, the concept of "quick and dirty" went right out of the window.
TLDR; The base needed some stitching and I optimized the number of plushie crossed and knots I would need.
I was considering fabric glue for making the 'X' and 'O's. But with that glue dying on me, I had to give it a pass and go the hard way - stitching :( ... Very boring, very tedious and very very long drawn (pun intended!).
Where were the real challenges? With plushies, there is no guarantee by how much the dimensions will change when you start stuffing it - all my plushies are slightly different despite of starting with the same dimensions. I had to do some functional prototyping to get the shapes and sizes right and created another 3-4 plushies to make what I had in mind.
Just to give you some idea of the kind of challenges I faced while preparing this game:
1) Threading the needle around twice for each plushie. Having long threads are difficult to manage.
2) Estimating the size of the plushies after they are stuffed. They contract by 1/2 an inch after stuffing them fully.
3) Trying to cut circular holes in felt because felt becomes very thick on folding and affects the symmetry of the shape.
4) Stitching from inside the holes for the inner circumference of 'O'.
5) Entangled threads! Especially if they would form a knot while you are taking your stitch.
6) Lots of stitching - The edges of the base, the 4 lines on the base to divide the area into 9 squares, 4 crosses and 4 knots.
(I am writing this to provide help to anyone who might want to do something similar to what I did.)
With this, I present to you, my simple little game that taught me patience and perseverance ;)
I have had a good experience creating these. This project has taken my quality of production one level up!
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