but I couldn't fill up the elephant*

The doorstop pattern was the tipping point for me with Lotta Jansdotter's book:  I liked, upon flip-through, quite a lot of what I saw (though at the same time, a lot of what I saw wasn't SO different than what I'm seeing in a lot of the new hip crop of sewing books, yes?), not to mention the book is a lovely object in its own right, but the doorstop (well, & I really love a couple of the pockety bags, too, but they look much harder to whip out) really sold me on the book, not least because the door to the kids' room is hinged the wrong way or whatever it is that causes it, in its natural state, to be either open or shut.  Thus, the doorstop seemed the perfect solution for the desirable partially-open state, plus it seemed the perfect project for the half yard of lightweight elephant canvas I'd gotten from superbuzzy, which was wonderful but not very...practical for the kind of stuff I mostly do, in its half-yard canvasyness.

Also, the picture of the doorstop in the book?  Cute, hard-working doorstop + saucy sauntering back end of a cat?  Clearly, my house would be much improved with a doorstop like that.  Also, in a bit of foreshadowing, please notice how jaunty & well-stuffed the doorstop looks, while at the same time managing to not look like it has the density of a small neutron star composed of fabric & dried beans.

Ok, so, perfect.  I spent the evening a couple of nights ago cutting & sewing, all went smoothly, I had just enough elephant fabric, etc.  The pattern is easy, the only tricky part is making sure the corners all match up.  Which I did.  The only thing, though, is that in the end, my doorstop looks like it ate the doorstop in the picture, & had room for the cat, too.

It's not that it's the wrong size (following the pattern got me a thing that's the advertised size), it's just that I didn't really think through what 7 x 8 inches would mean in real life (this is common for me; I'm regularly surprised at things being much larger/smaller than they looked in the picture).  The directions call for filling it with five pounds of dried beans -- now, I realized that my mistake was picking up five pounds of dried lentils & not thinking about the weight/volume situation, but even so, after I raided my pantry & swapped out some bigger beans for the lentils, it still took approximately one million pounds of dried beans to fill the thing, & by fill I mean "fill," since I didn't have enough beans to stuff it/was scared of making it EVEN HEAVIER & it has since presumably stretched, so things are pretty saggy all over.

Then I thought that maybe the cat in the picture was a giant among cats, making the doorstop look dainty in comparison, so I tried bribing my own (not small) cat with food to strike a pose.

Are you kidding?  Get that freakishly GIANT THING away from me, she says.

Anyway, as I was chasing the cat around with it, I noticed that the seams are starting to look dangerously stressed out (this is in part thanks to my kids, I'm sure, who cannot resist anything with a handle & so this  doorstop is not exactly living the staid life of your average doorstop) so it looks like I've got some reconstructive doorstop surgery in my future.  It's a fantastic concept, & I really love the shape & the handle, but the little elephants would like to carry a few fewer beans, I think. 

*Points for getting reference to semi-obscure Dan Zanes song.  We have tickets to his show on Saturday!  I am as excited as the kids!

Comments

[erin]

my mother-in-law and i just discussed last night how there was no way that five pounds of beans was going to fill that doorstop...

[Melissa]

hilarious! maybe it would have looked smaller with mice instead of elephants?

[Michelle]

Thanks. I needed a laugh.

[Tara]

What a great idea - but it lends new meaning to 'full of beans' (sorry, couldn't resist)

[Anina]

I think it's a perfectly cute-looking doorstop, but it does sound really heavy. So now the door will have to be open all the time????

[Kathleen]

We're going to DZ, too. I didn't even ask the kids if they wanted to! Lockily, they're almost as jazzed as I am!

ps - I like the doorstop. and the elephants remind me of a certain ex-pat we both know!

[little special]

This really made me laugh! Thanks for such a funny post. The doorstop still looks great though, i love your choice of fabric, those elephants are fab! xx.

[craftspring]

That is so funny I am crying. My kids are worried about me.

[Séverine]

it reminds me of those awful suss cousins patterns, where the photograph is no way what the pattern is knitting. the pattern delivers what it promises, but apart from the photograph, I mean. and hello.

[Blair]

I love the fabric you chose for the world's largest doorstop. What did we really do wrong? Are you telling me nothing, we just followed the instructions for this mammoth thing? I worked on mine and made it smaller, but it distorted the cute shape a bit. I kept imagining my kids using it as some sort of weapon being the original size, flinging it at each other in a fit of rage.

[Michele]

Oh man that really made me laugh....thank you!

[Amanda]

Weeellllll, giant-ness notwithstanding, it's a lovely doorstop in some very cute fabric. I was getting a bit of vertigo early in your post, wondering whether the orange/white cat was overly large, or the chair in your shot was mouse-sized. White kitty looks supremely unhappy about her situation.

[Nancy]

my mom just ordered this book for my birthday!
perhaps you and blair can re-write the pattern for me so when i make it- i won't pull my back out lifting it although i do carry around a 24 pound 1 1/2 year old

[wilsonian]

Oh. I don't think you need to fill it with beans. If you kept the beans in the bag you bought them in, put that in the bottom of the door stop, and firmly filled the rest with stuffing of some sort, you'd get the desired affect. Needs to be bottom heavy and 'look' full, but doesn't need to be filled, I shouldn't think.

[Starlagril]

I'm wonder if you cut the pattern to half the height, if it'd still be as functional and not as heavy? Seems like at half the side, it could still stop a door.
I love the fabric btw...

[Gianna]

I made something similar a few years ago and mice ended up chewing a hole in it to eat the beans. My solution was to use sand -- it's heavier, so you can make the doorstop smaller. And mice don't like to eat sand.

[Judi]

Empty the beans out, fold the bag into a square and stuff it under the door to hold it in position, LOL.

[michelle]

oh man, this post made me laugh. :)

[susan]

i have the book and i too love the doorstop. i think i will take the pattern to the copy shop and shrink it by, 25% perhaps???
do you think that would be good? the elephants are adorable

[susan]

i have the book and i too love the doorstop. i think i will take the pattern to the copy shop and shrink it by, 25% perhaps???
do you think that would be good? the elephants are adorable

[Rita]

Aloha,

I believe the solution here is trade out the beans for sand, and use some polyfill stuffing. This is actually what I do in my homebased business. I make doorstop geese, they are fun and funtional.

[ingrid]

Oh this gave me such a good giggle. I hope you resolve your doorstop woes.