An Elephant from “Stuffed Animals”

It feels like a lifetime ago that Abby Glassenberg put out a request for pattern testers for her book “Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction*.” Soon after, I was stitching up this cutie-patoot elephant. I was thrilled to death with how he turned out, but I had to keep him a secret until the book release (which was this week)! Two-ish years of keeping quiet about a project? Do you realize how hard it was? It nearly killed me!

A couple weeks ago, Abby sent me a review copy of her finished book and there is a lot to love about it, but I will just stick to three reasons for now…

#1: My Kids Love It

My children have been enamored with Stuffed Animals since it showed up in my mailbox. This book has a habit of disappearing from my sewing table and showing up in my children’s beds. The pages are being ripped and torn from the constant thumbing.

The “Mommy, please sew this!” list has grown to record-breaking lengths. I might as well plan on sewing 4 of everything in the book.

#2: The projects are all flipping adorable. every one.

Ram Featurette from Stuffed Animals from Abby Glassenberg on Vimeo.

Seriously. A RAM! Gah! I die. As I flipped through this book, I kept muttering to myself “This is amazing! This one too! I love it!!!!!” I’m glad the kids are excited about the projects, because I want to sew them.

#3: Your head will explode with technical knowledge.

I don’t buy craft books just to parrot off some cute projects. I buy them to learn. The 52 lessons Abby included with the 16 projects teach the why behind the clever construction techniques so that they can be applied to your own designs. After reading through her lessons, I am more than a bit tempted to rewrite my Pajama Eater pattern to make the leg attachment even easier.

One more thing…

To give this book a fair review, I was going to complain about the lack of seam allowances on the pattern pieces. I am lazy and would rather not go through the trouble. But then I learned that you can download and print off the pattern pieces from the publisher’s site. AWESOME! Lazy Jodi is very happy to not have to trace off pattern pieces. It more than makes up for the lack of seam allowances.

Thank you for delighting me and my children with this lovely book, Abby!

Guess what? To celebrate the book release, Abby is giving away two softie-making kits and entry ends soon (Fri, 1pm EST). So make sure pop over to her blog and enter!

Disclaimer: I was given a review copy of this book. I was not compensated for this review. Some links in this post are affiliate links.