stitch love // making a hamster out of a guinea pig

When my mom was growing up she had pet guinea pigs (a family fact you'll find in my book, Stitch Love), but when I was growing up I always had pet hamsters.

A few of my hamsters met with untimely ends (there are some good stories here!), and once my dad even revived one of my little pets. There was no mouth-to-mouth, but he did do some compressions and held that little guy until he came back!

Even with all my hamster tales, I decided to have a guinea pig, a Gleeful Guinea Pig, in Stitch Love. Not wanting to snub my tinier furry friends, I included a hamster embroidery pattern in embroidery gallery and right there on the cover. I also suggested that you could take the same pattern, shrink it down, and have a hamster.

The process is pretty much exactly the same as what is in the book, just smaller. When I made my little hamster, I printed the pattern at 50%. That's 50% of the full size download patterns (the link is in the back of Stitch Love under "Using Templates"). The circles for his head and bottom are 5 or 5-1/2 inches (a cereal bowl is perfect!).

I made the face, ears, and feet a little larger than 50%, tracing them directly from the book. In hindsight, I'd probably go smaller and make them a true 50% also.

And are you ready for this?

I'm a little behind on the trend, but my hamster is a perfect size to play with Tsum Tsums! He's just a bit longer, but as you can see, he stacks just like the rest! Being a hamster (and squirrel!) fan, you know I had to have Chip and Dale. Chipmunks are like, right in-between.

I picked them up on a recent trip to Target. My little sister and I decided that we needed them in our lives, and undoubtedly she'll be swiping my hamster friend...just like my other sister took the guinea pig!

Here's the fun part...after I made a mini guinea ham, I knew that I just HAD to make more. And the latest have a theme that I think you might just love. If you haven't picked up Stitch Love yet, this is a great time!