Tiny dragons!

A tiny dragon has come to visit me!! He's already been joined by a red sibling, but I don't have pics of her yet ...... as soon as I do, I'll post them, too!

Created from Ldhenson's tiny dragon pattern, from her Etsy shop, these little guys are completely hand stitched. They only need about 1 1/2 sheets of felt (I used 2 colors, altho the pattern only calls for 1), altho you do have to piece the body & tail together if you use the sheets of felt instead of purchasing it off the roll. I just butted the two pieces up to each other and, using a fine needle & a single thread, carefully sewed between the 2 pieces. I sewed from underneath, into the center of the felt, without allowing any stitching to show on top, so the seam isn't very visible unless you look for it.

While they don't require much in the way of supplies - 1 1/2 sheets of felt, a couple of beads for eyes, a couple of chenille stems, a very small amount of stuffing, the 20 gauge craft wire for the leading wing edges, matching thread, fabric stiffener (I used clear craft glue, watered down a bit) - they also require good hand sewing skills, and *lots* of time & patience! I think I spent about 6 hours on each dragon so far.
The original pattern also has the front of the wings wired only from a little less than half way up the wing. The rest of the wing is shaped only by the hand-sewn ridges in the felt. When I finished this little guy, I decided I didn't like the way the wings tended to droop, so I went back & added some very fine copper wire to the rest of wing edges, and I'm much happier with the way the wings float now.

I also added some wire to the feet - the original pattern has the feet & lower leg stiffened, then glued together, but I didn't think that supported him well enough, so I added the wire.

But overall, I love this pattern. It was worth every penny.