Meet "Hope"

When I won the lovely box of Coats threads for my comment on the "Threads of Feeling" exhibition at the Foundling Museum I just knew that I had to make something in keeping with the exhibition and the foundlings.  My token isn't suitable to be pinned to a page of a ledger for hundreds of years, it has no reason to be, but it is apt.

Why a camel?  Well, the camel remains largely unchanged and adapts itself well when faced with the most severe living conditions.

The first pair of boxer shorts came my way when, after just a couple of wears, they were torn (probably more due to user error than substandard goods) and I felt the fabric too good to part with.  Within a year or two I had accumulated 8 or more pairs.  Fabrics from the clothing of my own family and having laundered them day in, day out over a number of years - as a compilation I would recognise them anywhere no matter how long I had been parted with them.  What better fabric to use?


From the Coats collection, Duet 100%  polyester thread has been used to stitch the patchwork and then camel together.

Every cloud has a silver lining so my token has some decorative stiching on the patchwork of the inner legs in silver Alcazar again from the collection.  The same thread is also used on the tail.

 
Shisha mirrors to ward off evil.  Actually they're large sequins which are a little more flexible for a stuffed object but the purpose is there.

The hand embroidery threads, beads and sequins were items I already had and the stuffing is from a pillow that I'd bought to use for making a cushion pad.  The buttons on the tops of the legs were from the shorts so nothing was purchased new.  Everything used, apart from the machine threads won, was already in my home.

I nearly forgot to mention that there's a good bit of DNA evidence that he's "mine" too.  There's many a hand stitched item that ends up with a speck of blood here and there but this one had more than a speck.  Pushing a large need from a button on one leg through to the other leg it went right through my thumb and quite a bit of blood escaped before I'd realised it was bleeding.  I used reputedly the best thing to remove it, the enzymes from my own spittle ............ it's still a bit noticable so I'll have another little go later. 

There are those, at home, who think he is more an interpretation of a dinosaur and has the neck of a serpent but, hey, this is my intrepretation and my new attempt to not be so self critical of my work in public lol!

Lastly, he's called "Hope" because there is always hope .............. nobody can take hope away from anybody.  Thankfully I've never been in a position where I've had to contemplate leaving my babies at the foundling hospital but he's my token "token". 

Edit:  Just realised that in my eagerness to take pics and get him put away I forgot to stitch in the mouth.  I shall get onto that now.
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