Product Spotlight: Soot Sprites, Tribbles, and Calcifer

I'm hoping to be able to spotlight some of my favorite products here as well.  These three are very similar.  They practically follow the same pattern with few differences.  I figured highlighting all three in one post just made sense.  These products are all available to purchase at my Etsy store.  The patterns are also available.

I am a fan of Hiyao Miyazaki films from Studio Ghibli.  My favorites are Howl's Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro.  In My Neighbor Totoro (as well as Spirited Away) there are little creatures that hide in dark places and are associated with dirt and soot.  These adorable guys are known as soot sprites. I had decided that I needed to make some stuffed soot sprites, especially for a friend of mine who adores Totoro.  I spent some time researching several patterns before coming up with my own, and then I spent some more time finding the buttons I wanted.  What I needed were googly-eyed buttons with a sew-on back.  Shortly thereafter my first soot sprite was made.

After seeing this little guy, my friends and I decided that a tribble must happen next.  We are all Star Trek fans, and making a cute tribble was inevitable.

While working on my tribble, I was pondering my movie selection for something to watch while I worked.  Howl's Moving Castle caught my attention, and I had the idea to make a Calcifer.  He is the best character in that movie with the best lines.  After perusing the yarn available, I decided that Calcifer needed not one but two different colors.  This made him a bit bigger than the others, so I needed bigger eye buttons as well. (The first draft looked really weird with those itty-bitty eyes.)