The Year of the Rooster

The Chinese New Year celebrations of my friends and neighbors reminded me of the March/April issue of Piecework I bought years ago, which had a cute little pattern for an embellished rooster for the Chinese New Year.  I didn't make it that year, though, so I hung on to the pattern.  Periodically I'd pull it out but it was the "wrong" year, and I'd wish I had patterns for the other animals (I even tried my hand at designing a dragon one year).  And what do you know -- it's now twelve years later and the year of the rooster again!  ... And I can't find the pattern anywhere.

While looking for it, I found a pattern for Chinese lanterns by Aimee Ray, from the SewNews holiday issue.  That would work, and has the added benefit of not being tied to any particular year.  ... But apparently I didn't save the templates that came with it.  So I winged it, sketching out a pointed oval about 12 cm by 5 cm and sewing six of them (cut from pale pink felt) to make a fat sphere-like shape. I stitched red flowers and gold stems on each side.  Then, scrutinizing the pictures from the pattern, I added red felt "caps" to the top and bottom.

The pink is much paler in real life

It's kind of wonky, so I suggest getting Ray's etsy pattern, a fancier version than the SewNews pattern.