Have a great weekend... with your very own Zak.

photo courtesy of Leo Patrone

Back in June I started hanging out with the Children Kids crew as some kind of project manager. I love being in the studio with them and since I can't illustrate, animate, compose music or even use Photoshop very well I decided to use my sewing machine to introduce Zak to the world.

(You may recall that he has since been featured on a fantastic sewing blog.)

I got the idea from the top seller on Etsy. The Black Apple sells these great and simple handmade dolls, along with a lot of other cool paintings, prints, cards, and the like. Her Etsy shop is on hold until she moves from Georgia to Oregon so you can hang out at her blog in the mean time.

She was also featured on Martha Stewart's show not too long ago. So I made a tutorial for Zak, very similar to hers. If you decide to make your own Zak, this video will be helpful, although Zak has one more layer since he wears a shirt and pants instead of a dress.

Here's my first sewing tutorial ever. The pattern pieces should be enlarged 200%. If you have trouble sizing your Zak the way you want him to be, just email me and I'll send you the original PDFs.

Materials Needed:
white felt
flesh colored canvas or cotton
orange cotton (ours has a little bit of stretch)
denim (ours came from an old pair of Micah's jeans)
poly-fil
rice
sewing machine or thread and needle (we used a machine)
Black Paint and thin brush

Pattern Pieces:
enlarge 200% after clicking on images


How To:
(click to enlarge)




*Please note that these dolls (much like our cartoon) are not intended for children. Who knows if they are safe or not? I don't know how "they" decide these things, but we didn't ask "them" so we don't know...