Ballerina Sock Monkey

This ballerina sock monkey was made for my niece Macie, who is just 4. She is a tiny (her mom says she is not even on the growth chart) little red-hed with a chirruppy, perfectly-articulated little munchkin voice. She's adorable and sweet.

I made a ballerina sock monkey for her, because I wanted something with soft colors and all sweetness and huggability. (She does not like little, yappy dogs or scary-looking animals -- like the turtle her cousins caught and kept in a cardboard box under the deck).

Note the little toy bunny this sock monkey carries. Her tutu and slippers are off-the-shelf doll clothes. Her top and hat are made from an old pair of my socks. I just cut and rolled the fabric -- nothing easier! But I thought it was to nice effect. I was tempted to use the other sock to make leg warmers, but sock monkeys kind of have their own built-in leg warmers with the white part of their legs. So, I forced myself to keep it simple, and I'm glad.

Construction Notes:

With this monkey, I think I finally solved my eye problem. I bought some felt that was JUST the shade of the creamy part of the sock, and used that for eyelids. You still get a little of the froggy effect with the lighter colors, but I think, with time, I can mitigate that with changing the shape of the eyes and getting embroidered eyeliner or lashes on the lid. I did the more child-proof eye construction -- sew on the base, glue the wiggly eye onto the felt, then glue the felt eyelid onto the wiggly eye (with intense gun-glue which is clingier than a psychotic girlfriend).

Also, with this monkey and the cheerleader monkey, I got into a new accessory -- neck ribbon. I saw this concept mentioned in several of the older, classic instructions. If you tie some yarn around the neck, the sock monkey looks a little less like a football player on steroids. At Michael's craft store, I found a little display called "bobbin ribbon". I think the bobbin part refers to its little small shape, because it surely would not fit in a sewing machine bobbin. Anyway, this ribbon had several colors, patterns and sayings on it. I bought several. The ballerina monkey's ribbon says "Imagine . . . " on it. The cheerleader (previous post) says "Best Friends".

Cheerleader Sock Monkey, for Miah

This cheerleader sock monkey is for my spirited niece, Miah. Whenever I think of her, I think of her in motion -- skipping through the house, shooting across the pool, laughing and flitting about. So, I wanted her monkey to be reflective of that energy.

AND, she informed me, with her missing front teeth "I was in cheerleading classes!"

This was the first monkey I made for a child that I have witnessed the child's reaction upon opening the gift. I was nervous. In this age of electronics and mass-produced toy lines made for every popular T.V. show and movie character, could a child appreciate an unknown character hand-made from a pair of socks?

Well, the answer is yes, but differently. It's a little slower appreciation (not the big ooh/aaah at initial opening, but a nice building appreciation). Miah took the doll out of its wrapping and examined it. When I told her there was a prayer inside it for her, she immediately started feeling around in the stuffing for it. (Of course! Why didn't I think of that. It might be fun to put a small object inside and have the child feel for it and guess what it is). When her younger sister opened hers (next post), she was attracted to that one more. (By the end of the night they had switched). During the course of the evening, at various times Miah noticed things and commented on them (like, "hey, there's another sock monkey!" from my collection. Then I showed her mine and told her why I made them the way they were). She was also intrigued with the "made from socks" concept.

At the end of the night, when she and her family were leaving (the kids all jammied up with coats and boots over jammies), Miah was clutching her sister's sock monkey doll. "HOW do you make them?" she said to me, with just a note of awe. "I will teach you sometime," I replied, much gratified, and thinking that that is the true gift of the sock monkey -- a shared experience built on love and the age-old gift of creating.

Dress-up Sock Monkey, for Katja

This is a sock monkey for my sweet little niece, Katja. She is a beautiful little girl with dark, silky curls, and has an interesting story to her name. Her parents spent a summer in Norway before she was born. One of the stops they made was a museum which featured the work of Edvard Munch (you know, the Scream guy). Anyway, the second floor contains painting of a woman named Katja, and they were intrigued with that and brought the name home with them.

Little Katja has diverse interests. I intended to make her a "dress-up" monkey -- one that you could play with like a doll and put on different clothes and hats, etc. And that's what she is, but every time I look at her (the monkey), that old 70s song goes through my head -- "Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say, he was a-meeting you here today, to take you to his mansion in the sky-ahhhhhh". So, I think some where in that pair of socks was a crazy lady dying to come out (but darn happy about being crazy!), and it must somehow be Katja's destiny to own her. Who am I to question the fates?

Classic Sock Monkey, for Nico

This sock monkey was made in the classic style (just a cap) for a very special little boy named Nico, my nephew. Nico was born on 7/7/07 (thus the number on his heart). He and his family have faced a lot of struggles just getting him born and keeping him strong (he has a hole in his little heart), but he is doing very well, and will have corrective surgery in the spring, and he is much beloved by his big sister and the rest of his family and extended family.

I'm hoping this monkey will get as many hugs as I'm sure he will give to Nico. And each one will be blessed with my own special prayer for Nico, which floats in his chest. I printed his prayer to the right here, with the monkey, as I am sure he wouldn't mind the publicity (being so young and nonverbal and all).

On a construction note: His eyes are my evolved attempt at baby-proofing. First I sewed 2 felt circles on where the eyes would go (lots and lots of little stitches to keep those babies on!) And then I glue-gunned the wiggly-eyes on to the felt. They seem to adhere so much better to the flat felt than the knit material of the sock. So, Nico will be my kid-tester to see if they are truly as little teeth proof as I believe. I'm sure his parents will closely supervise the consumer-product testing.

Biker Chick Sock Monkey

This monkey is a Christmas gift for Karla at Fox River Mills. She loves Harley motorcycles, so I had to make her a biker chick sock monkey. She's got a naughty word on the back of her vest, so don't look at the final picture at the end of this blog entry if you are easily offended or are one of my young or very old relatives.

Making the Sock Monkey

The biker chick employed all my best practices learned thus far from making sock monkeys. She is a size Large Rockford Red Heel Sock. She has my new ears. To make my new style ears, I cut them out as shown on the instructions. I put a very small amount of stuffing in, then I hand-close the opening with invisible stitch. I then sew an inner circle with my machine about a sewing foot away from the edge. Finally, I fold the two sides together and stitch them at the edges. This gives a smaller attachment point to the ears and gives them all the weird, bendy shapes you expect from ears.

And one last anatomical point I may as well make here (since Biker Chick already has a naughty word on her). I shall try to say this delicately, but I don't know if I can. I learned the hard way that one does not want a big stuffed tail. In fact, I've stopped putting any stuffing in them all together. They look nice kind of limp and skinny. I noticed in some of the things I read, the grandma-type ladies who have been making them for years mentioned that they were careful not to overstuff the tail. OK. Here's the thing. At best, the overstuffed tail looks like a third leg. Now think of the euphemisms for third leg. I realized this as I proudly posed my first sock monkeys for their first pictures. Sock monkeys sit. They're not big on standing. And, when you sit on a large tail, it naturally finds a place tilted upward a bit between the two legs. I scared myself more than once with this. Enough said.

Dressing the Biker Chick

For this one, I could not find a ready-made doll or bear outfit at the craft store. So, I had to sew!! If you read my earlier posts, you know this is a bit traumatic for me. But I had some help. Fox River sells a book called "How to Make the Original Red Heel Sock Monkey and Other Toys" ( we do not currently sell it on our website, but if anyone posts a comment here asking for it, I will make sure that we do). I found the book a little dated, slightly politically incorrect, but very charming, in a retro-I-found-this-in-my-grandma's-attic kind of way.

Anway, page 28 has 'Jackets and Aprons', inluding a sleeveless jacket I used for the vest. Page 29 has 'Pants 'N' Skirts", including chaps, which I used for chaps.

These were quite simple, and I didn't use the measurements, but just eyeballed things and laid pieces over my monkey. I used some more left-over beading and craft supplies to get the effect of studs on the leather. I affixed them to my faux leather with a glue gun (love that thing!). I couldn't resist using some of the letter beads I had to create a little word on the back of the vest. Karla and I have a running joke where we call each other this name (adults may also know this word as female dog), because, well, we are (Monday mornings especially).

Underneath biker chick's vest is a t-shirt I made from an old throw-away t-shirt of my husbands. I thought it should be kind of ripped and ragged looking, for a biker. I cut out a piece that had the word 'madness' on it, but just took the 'mad' part, as that is all that will fit. It had 'Iowa' on another part, so I just cut that out and sewed it on. (Karla works at the Fox River offices in Iowa.)

I used some faux-tiger felt to make a headband and found the perfect pair of little sunglasses to complete the outfit. She's so cute, I've been keeping her in my office instead of mailing her away. I decided I will have to deliver her in person.

Just to keep things in balance, I should state that she has a prayer inside her as well. This makes her just like Karla -- sometimes prickly and tough on the outside, but a real good-hearted sweetie inside (she will cringe when she reads that -- too sentimental for her tastes).

To conclude, I will leave you a picture of the Biker Chick corrupting the younger sock monkeys with her wild ways (and the picture of the back of her vest).

White Christmas and Green New Year Sock Monkeys

This pair of sock monkeys was created as a Christmas gift for the owner of Fox River Mills, John Lessard, and his wife, CFO, and Chief Environmental officer, Becky Lessard. Since Fox River is the manufacturer of the Rockford Red Heel sock, the sock monkey holds a special place in the lore and culture of Fox River. These two are "White Christmas" (the girl) and "Green New Year" (the elf boy).

Fox River's dedication to ecologically-clever manufacturing is the reference to "green" new year.

Some Notes about the monkeys' construction and packaging:

The monkey pair was made with one pair of Large socks and one pair of extra large (both John and Becky are very tall people, and I wanted them to have that look). I also wanted the "boy" to be a little taller than the girl, for that nice "couple" look.

Their clothing was ready-to-wear bear-wear from Michael's. I had to take a stitch here and there to affix the bear clothing to their more slender monkey bodies. However, I have to say that the tail opening in the red velvet bear shorts was ADORABLE with the monkey tail coming out. I have quickly learned that bright red is a wonderful clothing color for sock monkeys. There is something just perfect in the contrast of the bright red heel, the heathery brown and the baby-cream toes and uppers of the sock.

I did some experimentation with the eyes, because two of the sock monkeys I have yet to complete are going to an infant and a very, very, very early walker. Until they get past that teething phase, any non-embroidered eye is a choking hazard, as they can come off so easily. I pretty much still suck at embroidery (but I keep trying, and even got some tips from Karla at Fox River, who was shocked and dismayed that I lacked this womanly art -- if only she knew just how MANY domestic skills I lack!) I love the wiggly eyes. I just think they add so much personality to the cute monkey faces. Those of you of my age may remember the movie, Chucky. To you, I admit there is a slight ooky to the eye that suddenly moves when the monkey is still, but it's hard to imagine these soft creatures doing anything more horrific than hugging you if they were suddenly to come to life. So, my plan was to use a glue gun to glue a wiggly eye on to some felt, and then sew that felt on. In this way, you can have an upper eyelid too if you wish to lessen the wide-eyed innocence of the monkey. I had some success with this, in terms of securely fastened eyes. However, a couple of pointers: 1. Dark brown felt is going to make the eyes look kohl-rimmed, and may be a little too Bratz for some tastes. 2. Pale beige felt make the eyes look washed-out and a little froglike (this worked ok for an elf, but notice the arched eyebrows I gave him to make him look a little more clever). 3) Glue-gun glue dries VERY, VERY hard, so you don't want it to go out to the edges of the felt, or you'll have a heckuva time getting a needle through it to affix it to the face.

These monkeys were my second and third to have personalized, secret prayers within their stuffing. I just LOVE doing this! (see MN Love monkey to read more about this).

Finally, I had a lot of fun packaging these two up, as they had to be mailed to Iowa (I office in Minnesota). First of all, I took their pictures in various settings. I took them outside to the snow and posed them, and I also set them on our Christmas Tree (photo above). I then took the photos to make a card. If you've never tried this, it is SO easy. I use a simple package called the Print Shop ProPublisher, by Broderbund. I also posess (being in the field) the much more expensive Adobe Creative Suite, with Photoshop, Illustrator, etc., but I can get so much more done quickly in ProPublisher, that I use it for most of my personal stuff. (Mental note: Next year I should do a sock monkey calendar!) Anyway, I created the card and carefully posed/packaged the pair in amongst green tissue in a beautiful gift box I found at Party America. I got it off at the (very crowded) post-office today, and I hope Becky and John like them even 1/10 as much as I do!

Minnesota Love Monkey -- For Patsy

My MN Love Monkey was the first of my 2007 Christmas Sock Monkey Gifts to be completed. I might add that she was completed under duress while my husband tapped his fingers waiting to finish up the gift package for the entire family, so he could ship it off to California. Here she is.

I love my sister-in-law Patsy. She comes from Minnesota, and looks it. She is tall, slim, blonde and understated. She has a quiet grace. Years ago, she drifted down to Colorado and California and did the free-spirt thing, kicking off her shoes and vowing to keep things that way. But, she somehow ended up pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen, as does happen from time to time with free spirits.

Anyway, four wonderful, beautiful boy-children later, she is married to my husband's brother, still out in California, and presumably barefoot, and still tall and blonde and Scandinavian. So, I miss her and wanted to send her some monkey love for Christmas, and thus the origin of the Minnesota Love Monkey.

A couple of details about this monkey. Patsy is very creative and kind of all-american, core Christian values, etc. So, I wanted to go with the traditional monkey, with a cap made from socks and button eyes. I made the button eyes hearts and ironed-on a USA heart to reinforce the LOVE. I made the cap longer than traditional to look more like what we Minnesotans wear to stay warm in the winter, and embroidered (poorly, still!) MN, for Minnesota, on the cap.

Finally, with the MN Love Monkey, I started a new "thing" which I am doing with all my sock monkeys now. I wrote a prayer for Patsy, and printed it up on vellum and used scrap-booking scissors to make the edges all fancy. And then, I folded it up tiny and pushed it up through the stuffing into the heart-area of the monkey, where it will sit quietly and prayerfully for the life of the monkey, emanating my love, thoughts and prayers for Patsy. I think these prayers are pretty private, but I don't think Patsy would mind me sharing hers, just to give you the idea of the kind of thing you could do for your loved ones, with your sock monkeys:

Dear Patsy,
My prayer for you is that God will grant you even more strength and love than he has already generously endowed you with. I have always admired your grace. You deserve great joy.
Love, Janeen

Finally, I'll close with a picture of the MN Love Monkey cavorting about with the other Christmas monkeys. She kind of lorded it over them, as they are all still sightless (and many of them naked) at this point. Well, and she was leaving for California, so, can you blame her?

Theda, the Sock Monkey Flapper/Vamp

Finally, I create a sock monkey just for me! She is Theda, named after Theda Bara, the silent film star known as “the Vamp”. Here she is:



Why Theda Reflects Me

I home office. I work in the technology field, but I dream in literature and the arts. I am especially fond of the lifeworks of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and I love the Roaring Twenties, and all the ironic poignancy that we associate with the era, knowing the tragedy that was to follow. My office is done up so that I might work all day in the midst of my dreams. I have multi-wall murals of elegant flappers with Art Deco backgrounds and quotes from the Great Gatsby in swirls of art-deco smoke coming from the end of one flapper’s cigarette holder. Photos of long-dead people adorn the walls, and original editions of Hemingway/Fitzgerald serve as paperweights on my steamer-trunk side tables.

This was the world into which I wanted to bring my own sock monkey. The sock monkey itself, made from Original Rockford Red Heel ™ socks, manufactured by Fox River Mills, symbolizes for me my current endeavors. As an I.T. consultant, I do a lot of work for Fox River Mills and I have come to love that business. It is a small, family-owned-and-run business located in Osage, Iowa. The business has been around for over a 100 years. It is a traditional all-American business that reflects the values of its owners. The socks they make are high-quality, cleverly-designed foot-wear for active, outdoor, and sportswear. Great attention is paid to having sustainable environmental practices. A whole product line is devoted to socks made from corn. All socks are made in the U.S.A., providing employment in the rural heartland for many families. A portion of all profits from the women’s product line is given to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. A portion of all the Good Earth Line (corn socks plus) is given to 1% For the Planet. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. It’s a tough world out there currently for small American manufacturers, when many of the big competitors have gone offshore with their manufacturing to China or anywhere you can get cheap, hungry labor and no governmental restrictions on environmental practices, trademark protection, etc.

The sweet, homey little sock monkey symbolizes all this for me. So, Theda is a way for me to bring my two worlds together and create a visible reminder of the things I cherish and am striving to nurture.

The Construction of Theda

Theda was my first experiment with the extra large size of the Original Rockford Redheel ™ socks. My previous four monkeys I made from the large size, which I was told was the size to use. This was fine for Theda, as flappers, in the Art Deco world, were often painted elongated to emphasize an elegant line without much concern for reality. In general, though, it creates an elongated torso that isn’t necessarily attractive in proportion to the arms and legs. Certain monkeys may feel otherwise, but that’s my opinion.

Theda’s body was assembled quickly, now that I have some monkey-making experience. I stuffed her lightly, so she would have that slim, long look. I also placed her mouth fairly low to give her a nice, high forhead. I knew I wanted to have black hair cut in a bob with bangs, so I wanted to make sure there was enough room for all that. For the hair, I cut open the toe and put a bunch of looped yarn in. Then I seamed it shut. I had a lot of yarn, and apparently my seam missed quite a bit of it. But, no problem, I just reattached the unattached with some black embroidery thread, and it looked perfect. It works best for me to make the hair much longer than I intend it to be, and then give the monkey a haircut after the full face is finished.

I spent extra care on Theda’s face. After reading Everything’s Coming Up Sock Monkeys, I wanted to try stylized eyelashes, which look just like a child’s drawing of the sun’s rays coming out of the sun. They’re unattached, varying lengths, and they look really arty to me. For Theda, I did these just under the eyes. I was going to try embroidered or button eyes on my next monkey, as this was the other common convention I saw in all the older sock monkey dolls, but something about that bright, wide-eyed look seemed wrong for the bored, world-weary flapper. (Besides, I still have a whole bag left of glue-on wiggly eyes, and it is an essential trait of the sock monkey doll to use common materials already on hand). So, I glued on some wiggly eyes, and then cut long, droopy eyelids out of felt and tacked those on, half-way over the wiggly eyes. I am very pleased with the effect. I did the nostrils and mouth just the same way as all the others. Everything looked great, so I decided not to mess with it any further. The sock monkey’s face should be simple, in my opinion.

Dressing Theda

And now, the very fun part of making a flapper – dressing her! For my first four monkeys, I bought material with sports’ logos to make football jerseys (which I still haven’t done!) But, here we are, between seasons in Minnesota, and I have stacks of clothes and bins out putting away summer and bringing out winter. As always, there are things the kids have outgrown (and me too!), as well as things that are just too worn, stained or out-of-style to give away. This got me thinking. What fun to have a little piece of you or your child live on in a sock monkey! Since they are so small, just a piece of a garment will work. Sleeves have a nice shape to them to make a sock-monkey something (and saves some on the sewing!)

For Theda, I wanted black satin and lots of beads. What I used was a lacy, black half-slip I bought in my twenties, but still have in my lingerie drawer (dreaming of being that size again one day!) What was kind of fun about this is it had a cut-away section in the front that was all edged in black lace. I cut out a chunk which included the lace cut-away, and seamed it up in the back (at the top and bottom, leaving the middle open for the tail). I left the elastic in on top, and just pulled that up on Theda to right under her arms. Even though it was a half-slip, it was still way longer than Theda. To finish it, I just started making folds and gathers and stitching them in when I found a look I liked. I stitched on some beads (I have a LOT of these laying around -- when crafts go wrong!), and had a couple of hanging strands of beads over the front of the dress. I also made a little headband out of a piece of ribbon and attached a string of beads to hang down on one side. Soon, she was looking perfect, and I decided to stop and not mess it up. I finished her off with a red boa strand slung over one shoulder (Michael’s).

I am especially proud of the back of the gown. I think the red butts are so cute, and I am quite sure that these cleavage-free beings would have shown off their red butts in their evening-wear the way we show off cleavage. I used gold thread (Lord only knows what I bought that for 20 years ago!) to stitch together the back seam, stopping just below the red butt/tail area. I had also found a pair of black Victoria Secret underwear in my lingerie drawer with a tag still on it (that size dreaming thing again!) that had a black dragon fly pin on them. I saved the underwear for myself, but took the pin and pinned it on to Theda’s dress just above the tail. It was stunning! (See below)



The End.

Misconceptions, Goshes and Moving On

So, having previously jumped in to making 4 sock monkey dolls, I now am suddenly seeing sock monkeys everywhere, and everyone is giving me information on them. I discovered I had a few misconceptions, and also that I totally underestimated the magnitude of the sock monkey phenomenon. Let me take a moment and clear a couple of these up.

First of all, pioneer women did NOT make sock monkey dolls. The Rockford Red Heel ™ sock was not made with the red heel until 1932. There was a popular wave of sock-monkey-doll making in the fifties and in the seventies (and now maybe!) This point is to clear up my little fantasy of the granny in the rocking chair in front of the fire making sock monkeys after all the chores were done. We’re talking more like June Cleaver making sock monkeys.
There is a beautiful book, put together by Bonnie Krause Connelly called Everything’s Coming up Sock Monkeys – The Art History and Business of the American Sock Monkey. You can buy this online at http://www.inmyowndreampublishing.com/bookInfo.html . It’s a coffee-table book complete with beautiful photos of sock monkeys and sock monkey art (YES! There is such a thing!), combined with interesting facts, essays, letters, etc. It is really a clever, amazing little thing. My favorite story was one of a book store that had burned down. While the sock monkeys, which had previously adorned the shop windows, were being cataloged and thrown into a dumpster (along with the books), some people came along and rescued them, gave them a bath and started making their own sock monkey dolls. Eventually, this collection (from a couple of roommates) was split, and one traveled across the country in the backseat of a car, etc. etc. So many people have put their hearts into these limp and sassy little creations. Anyway, there’s much, much more in the book, and I highly recommend it. I will try to get some of the historical information onto the Fox River Mills website, the current maker of the Rockford Red Heel ™ sock monkey sock.
If you search on “sock monkeys” at www.google.com you will find a huge number of hits! There are collectors, crafters, people who sell sock monkeys, people who sell sock monkey art, strange sites that have a mythical, science-fiction history of the sock monkey – and the list goes on! Many of these collectors and sites are captured in Ms. Connelly’s book. The truly uninteresting find (for me) is a mass-manufactured sock monkey doll (imported, probably from China) that you can buy at Target and Amazon.com. These are NOT made from the American-manufactured, original Rockford Red Heel ™ sock. Frankly, I find this an insult to the personalized craft of Sock Monkey Making. You will find Fox River’s Site, and other E-tailers that carry the Sock Monkey sock. In fact, Fox River will help you find a store near you that sells the socks, if you prefer to NOT buy online (http://www.foxsox.com/Catalog/SockDetail.aspx?ID=6851&c=BROWN%20HEATHER ) I have made it a personal mission to get foxsox.com to host a kind of “Sock Monkey Central” that pulls all this information together and allows you to buy the things you need to start sewing! I’ll report on that as it unfolds.
Finally, I need to report that I have neither clothed my sock monkeys nor made any new ones, but hope to get the chance again this weekend. I am feeling newly-empowered by all the looking around I’ve done. Really, the charm of the sock monkey is all the individual, unique and sometimes crazy touches. I’m all for non-commercial accessories now and letting my creative side loose. I’m looking forward to my next doll!

Finishing Freak, Plus Assembly Line Sock Monkey Making

October 19th, 2007

Friday morning dawns (and we snooze along for many hours) until it is a reasonable time to get up on another day off work and school. I am filled with sock-monkey fever, and itching to get back at it, but my husband has taken the day off work as well, and we planned to do something fun as a family.

It is gray and rainy again today. The boys, when queried, say it sounds like fun to just stay home and play together – a little monkey-making, a little dart-gaming, a little Madden 07. It is agreed. AND, there is a vociferous ordering of monkeys between the two boys. They need a whole team to play in the MFL (now a new popular term in our house) as well as two coaches. But soon, the pressure on me is relieved when they find they can attach the Velcro stick-ons I got to their existing stuffed animals, and have Bananas lead the way. This is good. I am pretty sure it will take me the better part of the day to give Freak some limbs, and create one new sock monkey for each of them (given that the domestic chores just kind of continue on relentlessly).

My first realization about the motivation of monkey-doll-making women in the early 20th century. Housework is boring and relentless (no doubt much more so without the modern conveniences). Making monkey-dolls allows one to exercise her creativity, while ostensibly meeting the needs of the family (kids need toys to play with!) And this gives you the motivation to hurry through your chores to make some time to do the fun stuff!

OK. To get things moving, I whip out two socks and do the fast part – a couple of seams for the legs. My sons stuff the torsos, and then they are able to go on their way while I work on the appendages. Today is assembly-line kind of stuff. Yesterday, I learned the basics of making the monkey. Today I will focus on making the monkey efficiently.

But first, I feel an obligation to Freak. There is one thing about Freak I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog. Since I had sewn his legs on the wrong half of the sock, the head-area was open on top. Also, late in the day yesterday, I had run out to Michael’s to get some accessory-type stuff, and thought I’d buy the “Red Knitting Yarn” mentioned in the instructions. I thought Freak was an ideal candidate for adding monkey hair.

Again, my lack of crafting experience comes in to play here. I had no idea how one fixes the yarn to the head. So, I just tried something. I unwound a bunch of yarn and looped it around my hand in a loop-length of approximately how long I wanted the hair to be. Then, I jammed this into the opening (sock inside out) so the length was going down into the sock. I had to kind of spread things around to make it even. Then, I just seamed across the top in a half circle to get a rounded head, and flipped it back right-side out. Freak was then stuffed, crotch-closed and set aside. I put a rubber band around the hair to kind of hold it out of the way and avoid it getting tangled. The boys thought that looked cool.

So, today, the first job was to finish Freak. Here are the things I learned from finishing Freak:

· I wanted to try sewing on a Pom-Pom to the toes. (My boys refused that on their monkeys, but Freak was MINE). Freak has a bit of a cloven hoof, from having the toe of the sock for his legs, so the pom-pom was a little ominous-looking, rather than festive. What I did to attach these (in the absence of knowledge) was to take a couple of stitches through the tip of the monkey foot, for anchoring, then push the needle through the middle of the pom pom, where it seemed to have some substance. There isn’t a lot of accuracy possible here, as you have to push that baby pretty hard, so I was worried I was just going to have ugly-looking threads all over, but these somehow disappeared as well, so that was very cool. (I suppose when you pull the stitch tight, it pulls to the bottom of the circle of substance, and the little cloud of pom hides it???)
· I tried embroidering Freak’s mouth before sewing it on to the torso. Don’t do that. It just looks dumb. I later re-embroidered it after it was attached and stuffed. You get a nicer 3-D effect. Freak does have arched eyebrows, which give him a knowing air, that I like, and I bit of world-weariness. I have a couple of photos here of completed sock monkeys, and they have slightly center-lifted, one-slash eyebrows. Those look friendly. Of course, there’s the angry eyes opposite, which I haven’t yet tried, but I’m sure would have an evil effect. Later in the day, I tried a straight across one-line eyebrow. I’m sorry to say that it looks a bit Pyscho, which is what we ended up naming the monkey. But, more on that later.
· The biggest experiment with Freak was the hair. I finger-combed it out, for even disbursement. Then, I cut the looped ends to make it more hair-like. Probably, a nice, even trim, and perhaps a stitch or two to fasten in place, would have given a debonair look. I didn’t do that. I left it all different lengths (for wildness) and did not fasten it down (as he seemed an ideal candidate to want to do some Jack-Black-like head rolls while jamming on the guitar, and I wanted the hair to flow freely, in that event). I then pulled three yarns from each side in front of the ears and made a tight, little braid on each side. I tied off the ends with itself and trimmed the loose yarns. This looks very cool. Sometime I will try braiding the whole head in tight-little braids for a dreadlock look, which sound potentially very becoming to a monkey with arched brows. Bottom line: Hair is fun for the maker. Seemed to add no value for my sons, however. Children more interested in their grooming might feel differently.

And next was the finishing of the other two monkeys. They would become Psycho and Coach. There were very few creative learnings on these two monkeys, other than the importance of face and ear placement to the general character of the monkey. However, I did have some process learnings:

If you wanted to do this in bulk (say you are making Christmas presents for your 15 nieces and nephews, like I will be – we’re Catholic), I would separate the tasks into 1) initial-seaming, 2) cutting, 3) stuffing, 4) closing (crotch and ends of arms, tails) and 5) finishing. Finishing could be further separated out into limb-attachment and facial attachment/embroidery.
Initial seaming is quick, easy and pleasant. This would be a good job to farm out to an older child you are teaching to sew.
Cutting requires a small amount of skill, as the seams are hard to see and it is easy to cut into them. However, a diligent or fastidious child could probably do this. Turning the fabric inside out can be done as part of this task as well.
Stuffing is a good task for school-age children. I did notice that stuffing does determine some of the character of the monkey. My son really beefed up Coach, which is probably appropriate to a football-coach. But the over-stuffing makes him look a bit stupid, as he is thick-necked, pot-bellied and fat-thighed, but that might just be me, given that those are all the evils I fight against in my own body.
Also, you might find that giving the stuffing task to a child requires some extra stitching up in the crotch area, as too much pull on the fabric makes the yarns separate. I find the stitching up kind of pleasant work. Is this what women used to do when they “darned” the socks? That is a lost art in my family for at least the last three generations.
I did the closing (except crotches) of all the parts, and then set them aside with the unclosed torsos. I then found I had a basket-full of work that could be done in any well-lit, comfie part of the house while I participated peripherally in the general chaos of my family. This part I picture being like the pioneer woman in the rocking chair in front of the fire at night with her family (who are sharpening knives and reading books and telling stories, or some such things). For my part, I was on a sofa in the basement while my boys and husband played Madden 07, Dart Tag and Monkey League Football. I really enjoyed it. All I needed was the basket of body parts, a spool of thread and a skein of embroidery yarn, and my pin cushion, with the requisite pins and needles already stuck in. (Keep in mind that I am usually the type to be hidden away from the noise with a book in hand, or hovering over my laptop in my home office.)

Making my First Sock Monkey

October 18th, 2007, later.

I have purchased from www.foxsox.com a half dozen Rockford Red Heel pair of socks. Included with each pair are the instructions to make sock monkey dolls. I took two days off work, as my kids are off school for MEA. So, with excitement and trepidation, I begin. First, the sewing station. An ugly plastic table cloth goes over the game table in the library (think boxy, small living room converted by built-in book shelves from Home Depot into book-worm’s dream). Sewing machine (yes, of college fame) is located in cobwebby part of the basement and dragged upstairs. A dusting cloth is put to good use. Sewing box is retrieved (was my grandmother’s, who died in the seventies) and memory slowly works to remember what the different parts are for.

I pull out the instructions that come with the sock. I need 1 pair Rockford Red Heel socks (check), stuffing (one more trip down to cobwebby basement finds an open bag, last-used, no doubt when Oliver North was in the news), and Red Knitting Yarn (??) I don’t have this, but, studying diagram, do not think it will be relevant to a basic doll.

Pleasant surprise: 10-year-old son is really interested in making a sock monkey with me! It’s raining out, and a cozy day seems to be unfolding!

Being the analytical person I am (note how the first four letters in that word are “anal”), I study the instructions carefully, as well as the socks themselves. 10-year-old son becomes a bit bored at this point and leaves to play video games with his twin brother.

I take a deep breath, and tell myself “I can do this. I can do this”, and plunge in. I use a pink highlighter to mark where I want to do my seam, and I am off! (Problem: needle won’t go up and down, despite my checking and re-checking the bobbin and threading instructions. Epiphany occurs when I find an “oiling” section under sewing machine instructions. “If machine has not been used in a long time, oil all moving parts” (plus handy diagram) “Use high-quality sewing machine oil only”. NOTE: husband’s electric razor oil works just fine!)

And we’re off again! Two seams for legs go fast! I am feeling empowered! In admiring my handiwork, I notice that I had the sock upside down. 10-year-old son comes back upstairs to check on me at this point, and shows great sympathy over my mistake. I deliver some parental-propaganda about “mistakes ok; we learn from our mistakes; mistakes take us down paths we wouldn’t have otherwise discovered, blah, blah blah” Oddly, this propaganda becomes true later when cast-aside torso later becomes sock monkey doll number 2 – “Freak” (Or Costello, as I like to call him, in reference to the Elvis Costello song from the eighties, ‘Accidents Will Happen’). Freak has a very long torso and short legs, and a very tall, white forehead, but he’s kind of Rock ‘N Roll, and we like him.

A new sock, and legs are resewn and cut. Within minutes, my son and I are stuffing him, per the instructions, via the crotch area. 10-year-old Son remarks, “you know, if you were thinking about private parts and stuff, this could be kind of gross”.

Both son and I are very impressed to have a legged-monkey-torso within 5 minutes of beginning sewing!

The work involving the second sock (arms, tail, mouth and ears) goes more slowly than the torso. The instructions provide no details about finishing or attaching body parts. I’m sure this is no problem for a skilled seamstress, but, for me, it provides some challenges. Here is what I did:

After stuffing each individual piece, I turned the hole area fabric under to complete the seam, and then used my machine to stitch it shut. This was quick and easy, and looks alright, in my book, but I’ll try later attaching arms and tails with unseamed openings, and see if that rounded look makes a big difference. Also, next trip down to Fox River, I’ll look at the details of the sock monkey dolls there and see what they did, and report back.
For attaching, I just hand-stitched the pieces on both sides. Due to the knitted construction of the sock, the stitches just disappear, which is pretty cool. I used white thread on my first monkey, and that was just fine. But I made a note to buy an off-white that matches the creamy yarn of the sock, for future monkeys. Also, this hand-stitching has held up under some rough play, which you’ll hear about later.
On the ears, I seamed the two sides of each together and put a very small amount of stuffing in. I then turned that seam under and seamed on the outside just an 1/8 inch or so from the outside to make a semi-circle. This seemed to give an ear-like aura to the things, which I liked.
The face part requires the most labor. I tried to turn under the edges a little and then pin it on to the torso, before hand-stitching. The sock edges curl up a lot where cut, and this gets frustrating. However, once stitched on, with an opening left, the stuffing goes in easily, and the hole is also stitched up quite easily. Please note that where you place the mouth truly determines the character of the sock monkey face. So put your creative hat on during that portion. Also, the ear shapes and placement work closely together with the mouth placement in determining the look of the monkey.
The directions state “the mouth can be improved by a running stitch of either black or white across the middle of the lips”. This is true. I ran out and bought some embroidery yarn/thread. Since I don’t embroider, I just tried stitching in a way similar to drawing (which I know a bit more about that stitching). While I did this, I thought, “next one I’ll do the embroidery BEFORE I stitch it to the torso, so I have access to both sides”. However, stitching after it is completed makes a nice, 3-D affect as it draws the fabric in at the stitch and gives the appearance of an upper and lower lip.
I used tacky glue to glue on Wiggle Eyes ™ . (I bought a package of 56 20MM). I got all my accessories at Michael’s, but I notice the Wiggle Eyes list a website on their packaging: www.westsrimcrafts.com I went there, and you can’t order online, but they have online catalogs. NOTE TO SELF: do some online searching later for where/at what cost you can buy the materials required. Tacky glue works pretty well, if you gob it on. However, I have boys, and they are very physical with their toys. Be the end of this day, we had already replaced an eye twice. I am searching for a sew-on moving eye, but have not found one yet.
And lastly, the miscellaneous facial embroidery. I used Freak’s torso to experiment with embroidery. I really think the monkey face benefits from eyebrows, but my boys feel differently. The instructions note that, for very young children, embroider the eyes (presumably to avoid a choking hazard). I plan to make some future monkeys for some small nieces and nephews, so I will give that a try down the road. What I want to try is to use embroidery stitches to make a sketched-looking realistic eye (I love drawing eyes!). If I successfully do this, I will post a pattern for it in this blog, so you can embroider the eyes, even if you don’t draw. I find, during embroidery, that the disappearing stitches that I loved when stitching on parts, are really disconcerting when trying to embroider. I chose an embroidery thread that looked about the right thickness to me. “5” seems to be the measure, but the packaging doesn’t say much. “Cotton Perle” is also on there.
Unique touches: My 10-year-old wanted a football-playing monkey. So, I cut out two pieces of a football-like shape from brown felt. Then, I embroidered the white football stitches on it. We finished it with an embroidered “MFL”, for the monkey football league. The monkey’s hand got a stick-on Velcro circle and the football got the matching circle.

This first finished monkey was a great success! (and this is to twin 10-year-old boys, so I can’t imagine the excitement of a younger, possibly female audience) A game was promptly developed which involved (among other, full-contact aspects) swinging the monkey’s arm back and flinging it so that the ball left the Velcro and went flying, starting the play. At bedtime, the monkey (now christened Bananas) was put to bed on the upper bunk with his own blanket and pillow.

One comment my son made earlier was “I like him because he smells like your hand lotion”. Because I lotion my hands every time after I wash them, and because the monkey-making went on in between meal-prep, cleanup, laundry and the usual assorted domestic chores (and I applied a lot of lotion), my lotion got worked into the yarns of the sock while I worked the pieces. It also occurs to me that, for my sons, the monkey had been imbued with the fun of working together on something, the choices/designing they got to do, and my stories to them about the history of sock monkeys (the little I know). So, in that monkey, there is scent and love and little memories. Pretty cool, huh?

To close out the day’s entry, I should note that Freak, at the end of the day, is still a torso-only with one poorly-embroidered arched eyebrow.

My Sock Monkey Crafting Journey Begins

October 18, 2007

I have decided my next adventure will be learning how to make Sock Monkey Dolls and, hopefully, discover during the process what exactly it is that has kept this unique American craft alive for nearly a century.

My credentials. In terms of crafting, nearly zero. I had one quarter of a 7th grade home ec class devoted to sewing, in which I produced a somewhat lop-sided elephant made of some god-awful seventies-fabric that must have been on sale at the outlet store. Also, I had a roommate in college that made her own clothes (beautifully) that tried to teach me to sew. I bought a sewing machine, a bunch of fabric and several patterns. (The fever of purchasing supplies!) Alas, nothing resulted in anything really wearable, and the box of material and unused fabric was sold 15 years later at a garage sale for two bucks.

My sock monkey credentials are somewhat better. I am an I.T. consultant who does a lot of work for Fox River Mills in Osage Iowa, the manufacturer of the Rockford Red Heel sock, used for over 100 years in making sock monkey dolls. Of course, none of my work has to do with the sock monkey. But, by osmosis, I’ve picked up something from all the sock monkey dolls that adorn the plant offices, the bins of socks I walk by on the plant floor, and the material we publish to the web site (now we’re getting on my turf!)

I am prone to the reflective, and this tendency is further reinforced by the periodic 2 ½ hour trip I make from my home in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, to the Fox River plant in Osage Iowa. This trip involves a lot of time on long stretches of Interstate 35, and then winding through the small towns and farm country of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa. Beautiful sunrises over wide stretches of corn fields, punctuated with prosperous-looking red barns, and the seasonal smell of manure fertilizing the rich soil evoke both thought and emotion (especially under the influence of some strong gas-station coffee).

(I am also prone to rambling, but let me get myself in check here). The connection here is that it has occurred to me that there is something about the sock monkey doll and the people who make them that is distinctly American. It is something to do with the innovation of early pioneer mothers making toys for their children out of the socks their husbands wore in which to do their hard work. It is also something to do with using the resources at hand, and not wasting. And it is also something to do with simplicity vs. high-tech. I see parallels with this and the Fox River Mills business itself. This is an American manufacturer, a family-owned and run business. Fox River has always chosen to keep their plant in the U.S., to conserve and recycle in their manufacturing processes, and to continue to innovate in their sock designs, rather than finding ways to produce cheap, low-quality socks in bulk and maximize profits. And to this day, they have flourished with this philosophy. However, there is enormous pressure within the industry to abandon this philosophy, as American manufacturers choose to outsource to countries with cheap labor, and no green laws. It makes it really hard for a company of Fox River’s philosophy to stay in business. My thought is that somehow the fate of the sock monkey doll and Fox River Mills, as an American, heartland manufacturer, are intertwined and similar.

I don’t know what the answers are, but I’m thinking that embarking on this fun, crafty adventure will somehow reveal it to me.

And, on a lighter note, here we go!