A Scary Lion

Beadboy2 saw me working on Maggie Rabbit a while back, and wanted to make his own doll.  After some thought, he decided on a lion, because he was researching lions in school.  I had him draw a lion on paper, and then I copied the shape of the body onto a piece of gold felt folded over, and sewed around it on the machine, leaving a gap:

I turned it right side out and had Beadboy2 stuff it. I tried to get him to stitch the opening closed, but he was afraid of poking himself with the needle; in hindsight I should have used a blunt tapestry needle, which would have pierced the felt adequately.

Next step was the face.  Again I had Beadboy2 sketch one out, and I cut out the shape from the gold felt, along with an oval from tan felt for the mane.  I helped him embroider the eyes, nose, and mouth (this time I remembered to use the tapestry needle so he would feel more comfortable with it), using the stitches to attach the face to the mane, and then I had him make vertical cuts all along the tan oval to make the "hair."  He snipped another piece of tan felt to make the tail, and I wrapped it around a skinny length of gold felt (doubled) to make the tail. (I forgot to take action photos of these stages.)

By this point Beadboy2 was itching to do something else, so I attached the face and tail myself.  He's quite proud of it.