Blue Willis

Years ago I bought a pair of brown corduroy trousers at the Westin at Hilton Head island. 

The manufacturer was a company called Blue Willis. It is one of those brands you find a specialty stores and I must say, the store at the Westin was one of those.

From the first day, I love them. I wore them and wore them and wore them out. Last year they were too threadbare to wear any longer. I mourned the loss and thought about remaking them, a la Kenneth D. King's method on Craftsy.com,  but when I brought up the subject, it was hinted strongly that they had not been the most flattering fit on me. Most likely due to the loss of stretch in the fabric. That said, it was decided that there would be no remake for them. Just darn and I have the perfect fabric! Oh well.

I couldn't just throw them away. Too much sentiment.  On the last trip from the States, I brought a pattern back with me from my childhood. A Simplicity pattern I had bought as a child. I made the red dog, without the protruding nose out of red flannel. It was stuffed with small cut up foam pieces. I remember it smelled good. 

The original pattern is long gone, but after years searching, I found it on Etsy. To test out the pattern, I first made it for my nephew. It is constructed using fleece and is stuffed with small cut up foam pieces. Like the original it has no protruding nose. When I made it I figured out why I had left if off the first time. The face of the dog is too long so when the nose is added, the nose looked out of place for the animal.

I wanted one for myself and now I had the perfect fabric. Scissors were taken to the trousers, cutting around the well worn areas. Where possible the grain of the fabric was used and some of the pieces were contrasted to give the dog interest. Interestingly  the corduroy had no nap So there was no problem cutting in either direction.The face was shortened by 1/2"  right above the nose dart and the nose was made smaller to fit the face. Lastly the label from the Trousers was unpicked and sewn onto the rear area of the dog. 

Blue as his name will be has blue eyes, The fabric used for his eyes is the wrong side of the fabric. If you look close at the picture you can see the trousers had a slight blue hue due to the back side. I do not have cut up pieces of foam here in France, but I did have a much hated memory foam pillow that was about to go to the equivalent of Good-will. Instead of being a solid piece of memory foam, the pillow was stuffed with cut up pieces of memory foam. As a bed pillow, was is not terrific, but as stuffing for the dog it would be great.

It is time to present Blue:

He sits up nicely

And he lays down well too.

The memory foam make a fantastic filler adding good weight and malleability for the dog.