These fishies have been on my to-do list for a while. The inspiration came from a day this summer when Love Bug pretended to fish, except she was fishing for play food since we had no fish and she was using her ribbon wand as her pole and line. I know I had to make a fishing set. My Black Friday door-buster fabric (flannel for really cheap!!) was just the motivation I needed to get it done. I wanted to make lots of colorful fish to catch and this is how I did it.
Using a fish shape I liked from Google Images, I traced and cut out 18 fish.
Those 18 fish were then sewn together and trimmed down.
Once they were all turned right side out, I used embroidery thread to hold a magnet in the mouth part of the fish.
Then the fish were stuffed, sewn closed and then embellished with embroidery thread, acrylic paints and permanent markers. I used a little glitter paint because I knew Bug would love it.
For the fishing poles, we gathered some sticks on our Thanksgiving day walk and I wrapped the base of it with twine to hide sharp edges but also because it looks neat. I sewed two magnets into a little pouch to use as the hook. Of course, I did want it to look like a hook but I wanted successful fishing more. Function beat out form. Everything was strung together on a line attached to the pole. I made the lines long just in case the fish hole was deep. :)
These fish make me grin like the Cheshire cat. The colors, the embellishments, the whole set!! Part of me wants to string them up on a garland just so I can see their bright colors each day.
Love Bug loves the set and has spent quite a bit of time fishing off my work table. Sweet J is not too into it yet. He thinks the fish poles are for hitting things and yelling “Ha-yah!” and he likes to make his sister squeal by stealing the fish from her. Oh well. I’m planning on doing a bit of fishing myself. I think it will be a nice peaceful activity with a bit of a challenge.
I’ve had this Dr. Seuss rhyme playing over and over in my head while I made the fish so I had to set it up.
Now I need to make one of those ‘Gone Fishin’ signs for my door…. :)
Take care.
