So apparently there is a tradition of having a Collie dog as a mascot for the Texas A&M college. If you would like to read more about Reveille
click here. I of course, following my own tradition of offering crochet toys to expecting parents, was asked to try to make a crochet one for their first baby girl.
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| Reveille VII with cape. |
After scouring the internet for a pattern and not finding one I liked, I saw a few images of this pattern for
Abbey the Border Collie by
NattyPat. I really liked the overall look and thought that with a few minor changes in color that it would serve my purpose.
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| Cute face no? I liked the addition of the eyebrows. |
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| From the side. |
I used the same dark Toast brown color from the
Dalek I did earlier and a creamy soft white. The head and body was a breeze to make. At first I was a little sad that the pup was so small overall, but once I got into making the mane of fur, I was really happy that it was not bigger. That would have made this project take forever!
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| Sitting up with removable cape. |
I had a little trouble with the legs at the top, trying to make sure that they would pose right, but I think I got it in the end. The second thing that troubled me was the embroidery on the face and toes. I am a total novice at embroidery! I've only ever used the thread to make friendship bracelets as a girl scout. It took me a long time to figure out the face markings and eyebrows especially. I do feel like after this project, that I learned a new skill though!
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| Underside, so you can see the mane and embroidery. |
I then used the same brown from the body, a slightly darker gray brown and the white yarn to make the mane. I tried to follow images of collies to see how the colors fade into each other. I then made her a quick little cape like the dogs wear, with the Texas A&M logo embroidered on it.
Total time to completion: ~18 hours, due to novice embroidery skills, looping yarn for mane and follow up trimming and grooming (seriously)
