Sock Monkeys (2)

Finally got around to finishing Sock Monkey #2, the blue one :).

So, I've loved monkeys for as long as I can remember, and while I've always liked sock monkeys simply because they are monkeys, I've developed a new love for sock monkeys in the recent years. I think it's because they fall into the old fashioned and vintage category, I like things that fall into that category.

Well, last year I found a pattern for home made sock monkeys on Pinterest, which you can find here, and I knew that I just had to try it!! So I did some searching and found some striped socks with colors I wanted. It was a really difficult process to find some that I was willing to pay the price for. If you want to know my searching methods, you can read about in my first Sock Monkey blog post.

Anyway, so I made a sock monkey. And it turned out okay. But since I really have almost NO experience with sewing, I was pretty darn proud of my sock monkey. I actually made 2, but I didn't finish the second one. And it ended up laying in my room looking like a Mr.Potato Head that had fallen apart. (I had basically done everything except attach the limbs and stitch in the mouth.) A couple weeks ago, I FINALLY got around to finishing it. And even though I've already posted once about my first sock monkey, I decided to go ahead and post again to show them both off. Because like I said, even though they aren't perfect by any means, I'm still pretty darn proud of them :).

So, just to recap, here is my first monkey. Isn't he just so cute?? :) Well, he's cute to me anyway, lol.

Here is my second monkey!! He's blue!!! (Can you tell this is from my Instagram post, hehe. #picstitch)

And now, here are both of my monkeys together, where I keep them on display perched on the window sill in my room. (They get along pretty great ;) . )

Now that I've made 2, and learned from my mistakes from each, and there were several mistakes on each, I've decided that I don't want to stop here. I want to make a real, original, Rockford Red Heel Sock Monkey. Which I've actually wanted to do from the start. Unfortunately, Rockford socks are expensive because of their vintage quality, i guess you could say. 

Lucky for me, I stumbled across them ON SALE on an online store!!! And so I snatched up the opportunity!! I got a better price per pair of socks if I got them in a 2 pack. And since I do love my sock moneys, I thought to myself, "You can never have too many sock monkeys!!" (Besides, if I only made one more, then I would have 3, and I don't want one to end up being a third wheel. So it's better to have 4! Right??) But then I saw that they not only had brown socks, they also had BLUE and PINK!! I don't like pink though, so I couldn't care less about those. But they had BLUE socks too!!! Blue is my favorite color!! (Along with green of course). I could resist. So I got 2 pairs of blue and 2 pairs of brown. And then I saw the pattern book, also on sale, and I knew I had to get it!!!

So this is what I ended up with!!

However, the book has patterns not only for monkeys, but all the Rockford Red Heel sock friends. Dogs, squirrels, elephants, bunnies, cats, horses... and more!! So I have a plan!!
I will make a brown and a blue monkey. And then I will make a brown puppy, and blue elephant!!

I don't know when I'll make it because I'm currently in the middle of a t-shirt quilt (my first quilt!! not including my rag quilt, which I don't count because no 'quilting' was involved.) But once I make them, I will definitely post them to share with you!!!

P.S. If you want to check out where I bought my Rockford Red Heel socks and Pattern Book, I think it was a website called 'Embroidered for Baby' or something similar to that. Just google it and I'm sure you can find it!