Meet the Gorilla Sock "Monkey"

Yesterday I made a sock monkey gorilla while Sleyed sleyed the loom, or maybe he was warping it. In any case, he was in his studio while I was in mine. I started off making a camel sock monkey using one of Katy Newfy's toys as inspiration. Her toy is a Lamiedoodle. I'd take a photo of her camel lamie, but she's slobbered all over it making it look less than photogenic. You can get the idea from this photo I found by googling images of a new one.

So, I set off to sewing. I made the body and limbs first and sewed a little stub of a tail on. When I made the head I realized it was the absolute perfect shape for a gorilla, so the camel, which had a tail, became a gorilla mid way through the project.

Then I sewed on the nose, which I had in reserve from playing around with fabric earlier, so I spose since I had the primate nose already and didn't really feel like making a camel nose to fit on a gorilla's head that it was easy to just turn the little guy into a gorilla. What to do about that tail though??? Monkeys have tails; apes don't! I don't know how many times I have told students that and here I am making an anatomically incorrect gorilla!

When I sewed the ears on I screwed up big time. I made the cut in the wrong place, sewed the ear on in the wrong spot, stepped back and looked - totally asymmetrical in a seriously unappealing way. Her face was also smooshed on one side. Not cute. Well, I suppose if you don't mind that your sock monkey looks like she needs cosmetic surgery or was in some horrific motorcycle accident, I suppose she was cute.

I decided to cut the ear out and reattach it elsewhere. When I did I had to sew up the hole. Her face became even more catawampus. The ear eventually got on in a decent spot, but the poor little 'rilla ended up with a mooshed face on one side. I think she's still pretty cute. She's got some flaws, but hey "imperfections" in this lovingly handmade toy are a testament to her character!