IMMOBULUS!! - Pesky Pixie Problems Solved

Yep, our house is infested with cornish pixies, again! 

We've had a couple requests to make a few more pixies inspired by the Harry Potter books/movies, so we got to making some improvements while we were at it.  We'd been having some frustrations with the eyes and wings.  We chose to use two colors of Alova Suede Cloth for the bodies.  We made a few minor alterations to the hands, feet and body shapes and decided to use fabric covered wire for the antennae.  The eyes were the most trouble. We couldn't find any more of the acrylic ones we had used in the past.  Then, just recently we discovered a fabric store that sells the larger 19 and 21 mm eyes. But, they were only in brown. So, I ended up using the dremel tool to grind off the brown irises as best I could. I found the 21mm were easier to remove completely.


She cut all the pieces and sewed them together while I helped to turn them, attach the eyes, stuff and hand sew up the opening.  Then, she attached the jointed arms and legs while I sewed on the heads and made them each wings.  So happy to have figure out some wings for these!  And, they are so simple!  I'll get to that more in a bit.   First, here's a pic of each one.  (Of course, they each turned out different as usual.)

Pixie #1 - Wizzopuff 



Pixie #2 - Fizzbang



Pixie #3 - Dizzleboom



Can you believe these were all made from the exact same pattern?!  :D  We haven't given them names, yet.  Daughter just helped named them for us.  Now, for those WINGS!


I made several attempts at them with different materials trying to come up with a light-weight wing that light would pass through.  You may remember  glimps of my glue on wire attempt back here.  I've also tried cellophane, tissue paper, mod podge, tulle and something called "Press and Seal". Each one had different plusses and minuses.



But the best wings I came up with were made with packing tape and a laser copy. It's an image transfer technique I've experimented with a long while back. The wings seem just barely stiff enough not to need wire support.  I made two separarte pieces for the upper and lower wings. And sandwiched a pin back between them. I'm still working to conceal the pinbacks a little better. 


That's all for now!  Mom also experimented with some more polar fleece and even flannel pixies that I will post more about a little later along with an eye experiment.  You may not hear from me for a while, though.  We've got a few events coming up this next month.  But, I'll be back in full on crafting mode in November.

UPDATE:  Now you can own one of our pixies or make some using our Cornish Pixie Pattern/Tutorial available in my Etsy store (mieljolie).