Sarah the Plane

So I have made a lot of toys for children, but even moms need a little fun too. The mother of the two children who I made the monkey's for, requested an airplane for her very own. She is pilot herself so it only made sense.

Happy to have another crochet project, I set about looking for a new pattern to use. I found this one on Etsy for Red the Airplane by Melissa's Patterns. I had wanted a pattern for a plane that looked a little like it could have come from the movie Cars, so it worked well.

I used a different color scheme than showed since I wanted it to be a girl airplane. I used a blue color from Bucilla yarn that I had inherited in a large bag of yarns. It looked like a full skein and I liked the color (which the label said was called "7") so I used it for the entire body and top parts of the wings. I used a light gray that I had leftover for the under side of the wings and the outside of the turbines. For a little detailing on the eyes, the rudder and the turbines, I used Lion Bran, Cotton Ease in Charcoal. A little white yarn for the eyes and a pair of black safety eyes (these a bit larger than the ones I normally use) finished out the list of items used.

Shapes finished. Some assembly required.

For the most part I followed this pattern verbatim because it was so easy to follow. The few changes I made were cosmetic. On the rudder, I used three colors rather than two. And when changing colors, I used a back loop single crochet rather to make the color lines cleaner. I made the tops and bottoms of the wings separate colors.

Under carriage.

I also used only two turbines because it seemed ok with just the two. I also decided to ditch the eye shape from the pattern to make one more like in the movie. The main body pattern is such a good shape. It has a visible slant to the area for the eyes and decreases in a really logical way.

Finished.

My eye shape pattern:
chain 14, turn and skip first chain from hook, sc in next 13, chain 1, turn
sc in each, chain 1, turn (13)
sc in each, chain 1, turn (13)
sc, hdc, dc, 3dc in one, dc, hdc, sc, hdc, 2dc in one, 3 tc in one, 2 tc in one, dc, hdc
then I kept going with slip stitches around the outside edge of my work from the end of the eye row all the way to the other end. Fasten off.
I then attached the charcoal yarn to where I fastened off and did a few slip stitches and a few single crochets over where the eyes were placed to give it a kind of eyelash/brow look like from the movies. Kind of wish I had only done sc, but it's too late now.

Another note, instead of stuffing the wings and rudder, I cut up a tissue box and inserted wing shaped cardboard pieces in between the two crochet pieces that formed each part. If this was for one of her kids, I would not have done this, but she said it is mostly to sit on her desk at work and be cute, so I am not worried about her having to wash this toy.

Time for departure.

Overall, this pattern came out super cute and was fun to make!
Total project time: 10 hours
Pattern level: Easy