Phobias Vanquished

Several months ago I posted about my abject failure with regard to making a Sock Monkey. My sock monkey looked like a faceless demented octopus. It also had to have emergency surgery after I accidentally clipped it a new butt hole by accident. Eventually the whole mess went in the bin after I tried to unsuccessfully suffocate the monkey in a plastic bag because I thought that was the kindest thing to do with something so hideously ugly. This left my dreams of being a sock monkey maker to the stars in tatters. It also left me with two pairs of socks that I had no freaking idea what to do with since I don't wear socks.  Eventually Sara's aunt took pity on me and told me to send the socks to her and she would see what she could come up with. Personally I think it really upset her to see me trying to suffocate an innocent monkey in a glad bag. 

Sara came to visit on Sunday (more about that later) and brought this gorgeous sock monkey which looks  a million times better than anything I ever could have knocked out . Some people are so talented and generous. That would be you H  and I can't thank you enough . Little P is going to flip out when he gets to cuddle this. 

Check out those arms and legs ...they go on forever. Did you know that if you buy long socks you don't necessarily end up with a bigger sock monkey - you just end up with one with the longest limbs of any sock monkey EVER. I think that gives him a ton of individual character. Nobody else has a sock monkey that is masquerading as a Daddy Long Legs spider.  

On Sunday Sara took her life in her hands and committed to teaching me how to sew zips. Thank you Sara for being the bravest person in the known universe. 

Sara loves a challenge. My phobia about zips has been well documented. I've been bleating on about not being able to sew zips for at least 20 years and I think I've read every single tutorial ever written on the subject and still couldn't put on my big girl panties and sew one of those suckers properly.

Not any more. Are these the most gorgeous zips you've ever seen ? 

Voila! One for me and one for Little P.

And then I got really brave and made this little back pack type doodad which has a really long zip in it but was actually incredibly easy. It was following the pattern that made me want to pull my hair out. 

Started with this pile of nothing

And ended up with this !

 I did it !

It remains to be seen whether I can do this when Sara isn't here giving me step by step instructions....stay tuned because I'm going to give that a crack this week. There could be swearing. And crying. And flinging of half finished zipper-less pouches. Between now and then I'm going to bask in my success.