Boo Gets a Promotion

Of all the Super Mario Bros characters, my daughter seems to have a special place in her heart for the villans. My daughter is sweet as can be and adores animals, so the thought of a mean old plumber attacking turtle-esque creatures seemed inhumane (even if the dragon-y Bowser did capture the princess...she simply has more compassion for the animals than the spoiled princesses of the world). She also was attached to the flying Boos. These round ghosties are quite shy and if you look at them they will cover their eyes and stay put. But turn your back on them for one moment and they'll quickly sneak up on you! They may not be an animal, but really, they are kind of ☺adorable☺.

So for Christmas she got a Boo. Using wolfdreamer's clever pattern, I made him in a super soft acrylic white yarn and he was squishy and snuggly. I had used sticky backed felt for the eyes and the mouth was sort of a disaster of red yarn I tried to fashion into a mouth.

Boo as he was first made

At first he got played with often, but it wasn't long before the eyes would fall off and even though I'd stick some new ones on they too would fall off and eventually he got played with less and less. Yesterday I found Boo stuffed into a corner of the bed, forgotten, eyes missing and I thought to myself ...  
Boo needs a promotion.



My first improvement was to give Boo some proper eyes. I have found that sticky-backed felt is NOT  a great invention for a toy that actually gets played with. So I busted out the normal black and white felt and sewed on some eyes that should stay put.

Next, I dealt with his mouth. I make no exaggeration when I say I am not a perfectionist when it comes to embroidery. My hand stitching always turns out for the best if it's on the underside of something you'll never see. Now, I can get the job done, but...it's not pretty. Thus Boo's first mouth. So, it was back to the felt pack to make this better. I didn't even bother with taking out the red yarn, but rather cut out the mouth and teeth and secured them to hide my first attempt. I decided to not make the extra long tongue, and instead sewed the teeth onto Boos old mouth and left the red part of the mouth to hang down in a tongue-like fashion.

Now Boo had had to put up with a lot, so I made his promotion complete when I introduced him into royalty with a proper crown. Small diamond shaped blue felt was sewn on as jewels and....

King Boo

his transformation is complete! He's a lot more "put together" (as a king should be) and should be able to withstand some more love and play from his adoring playmate!