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!

Sock Monkey

I love monkeys, and I love sock monkeys.

However, I've never had a sock monkey, and even though I've asked for one for several years for christmas and my birthday, I've yet to get one. Soooo... I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own sock monkey. :)

This is what he looks like.

Obviously he has a few flaws. As you can tell his right arm (the one on the left in the picture) had some stretching issues. And I sort of messed up around the mouth, which you can't see in this picture.  I'm an extreme beginner when it comes to sewing, so I sort of just guesses when I came to sewing on his extremities. But I managed. I think he turned out pretty well considering my lack of adeptness at hand sewing, and with him being my first sock monkey.

If you want to make one, go to this site, Craft Passion - Sock Monkey.  This blog has the pattern and instructions that I used to make mine own sock monkey. Her's look WAAAY better than mine, but I also am pretty sure she is an avid and pro sewer. (As in a person that sews, not a feces drainage system).

If you are looking for socks to find, good luck. I had a ton of trouble trying to find socks at cute as hers. The socks I used came from Zappos.com. But here are some key words to search/look for if you want to find wide-striped socks.

• crew socks
• rugby stripe
• color block
• wide stripe

P.s. I got to thinking about it, and you probably could use knee socks. If you didn't want an super gangly monkey, you could just not use the full length of the socks for the arms and legs. The reason I am telling you this is because it's easy to find cute/crazy colors and stripes in knee socks. When it comes to crew socks, thats a whooooole 'nother story.