Meet Miguel. He's made from 100% hand dyed wool felt from Winterwood toys, a company based in Australia. If anyone knows of any other suppliers of wool felt here in Aus, please let me know! Lincraft and Eckersleys here in Canberra only seem to stock acrylic felt. Winterwood toys stock a variety of colours, available individually or in themed lots: "animal colours", "earthy colours", "rainbow", "skin colours" and "spring". They also have commercially dyed felts.It was the first time I've worked with hand-dyed wool felt (It makes a difference!), and it was beautiful. Thick, soft, dense... I even liked the uneven colouration from the hand-dying process.
I also bought the book "Sew Soft Toys" from the nice folk over at Winterwood toys.
It has some great patterns in it, including the camel. I had to reduce the pattern size to 75% to fit on the 20x22cm felt pieces I ordered (I ordered the "animal colours" set, you can see them in the top photo). I didn't add the seam allowance, opting to use a blanket stitch to sew the pieces together, which worked well. Good for a lazy winter's evening!
