Making Hugh the Hound
As soon as I saw Hugh the Hound, I just knew that I would be making him at some point! He’s a bit
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I ordered a Make Me Hugh the Hound kit from
Having already made Luna and Alfie Rabbit, I wasn’t feeling too nervous about making Hugh. Like the rabbits, most of the body parts are over-sewn together. The construction of the legs and body is slightly different, as the legs are fully poseable (similar to Luna’s arms) but the instructions are easy enough.
Table of Contents
Sewing the head for Hugh the Hound
The head though……now that required a little bit of head-scratching!!!! A few things I did (sometimes as a result of some un-sewing!) which might be useful are;
- Tacked the side head on the upper head before sewing in place with a blanket stitch on the machine as this gave me much greater accuracy.
- Hand sewed the nose in position, leaving a 1cm overlap, as per the pattern. On the underside of the flews (jowls) I used double thread to sew the little roll of felt in place (to help give the nose shape) and each corner of the nose down.
- Used a long pin when pulling the nose into position to try and get it just right before sewing, using the tail of the doubled up thread! I found that trying to match up the two corners of the nose (that were sewn down in the previous step) on the underside of the mouth gave the best result.
- When securing the nose in position, try to not to pull the threads too tight. Even though I thought I hadn’t, it still looks like there is a slight dimple on one side so I would be more careful at this stage next time.
- I wasn’t entirely sure from the instructions on how to sew up the neck so that there wasn’t a gap left between the neck and the lower jaw. Eventually, I ladder-stitched one flap in position, before folding the other flap over, going back over my stitches and down the neck. This seemed to give quite a neat finish.
Inserting the foot pads for Hugh (and Luna Lapin’s Friends!)
I thought it might be worth adding a few pics of how I sew the foot-pads as it seems to be one of the steps people find a bit tricky. I’m not sure this is the recommended way, but it’s what works for me!
- Fold the foot in half lengthwise and place a pin on the centre line at each end.
- The foot-pads are ever so slightly narrower at one end, so you want to make sure that you are inserting them both the same way. Fold them in half – heel to toe – to identify which end is narrower.
- Decide which way round you want to position the narrow end of the foot pad, and match the
centre pin with a foot seam. Pin in place. - Repeat at the other end of the foot.
- With the foot-pad facing up, start sewing halfway down one of the sides, using a scant 1/4″ seam allowance. Sew slowly around the curves, re-positioning the felt if you need
to until finished. - Turn the foot out.
Other tips for sewing Hugh
When adding the legs to the body, I actually snapped the elastic thread whilst trying to pull them together! Nightmare! My top tip is – if you have someone to hand – ask them to squeeze the legs together whilst you’re knotting the elastic. That way, there’s not as much pressure on the elastic and two pairs of hand definitely make this bit easier!
Making clothes for Hugh the Hound
When it came to dressing Hugh, I was going for an artists vibe! The dungarees for Freddie Badger from Sewing Luna Lapin’s Friends seemed the basis of the perfect outfit. I used a cotton-linen mix fabric that is loosely woven and I’m not sure that Hugh has the same body shape as Freddie
I made the dungarees up as per the instructions in the book and tried them on Hugh before adding the facing and the straps. They were huge! To get a good fit I made a few tweaks;
- Hand-stitching the hems for the pockets, although I think this helps to add to the artist vibe!
- Took another 1/4″ off the front and back centre seams (but did not adjust the crotch).
- Left a 1″ hole in the back seam for the tail to go through (I tried the dungarees on and eyeballed where this should be placed!!!)
- Took approximately 1/2-1″ off the height of the front and back bib so that they fitted properly. Reshaped the back to get the right shape at the top to attach the straps.
- Joined the facing all the way around except across the top of the back bib. I then placed the straps on to figure out how exactly where I should sew them in position before finishing the seam (if I were using a cotton fabric I might have gone for trial and error but this fabric was not very forgiving!!!).
The final touch was a little Liberty Scarf with a hand-rolled hem (partly because it was a tiny piece of fabric and also because I was finishing it in the car on the way to the party!!!). There are excellent instructions for how to do a hand-rolled hem here if you would like to do the same.
Have you made any Luna Lapin and Friends yet? They are quite addictive I have to say and I do love personalising them….how long until I make another do you think?!
S x
Today’s sky::: beautifully sunny and blue skies.
