Amigurumi - My Sailor Moon adventure

What the hell is that word and what in God's name does it mean?

Amigurumi (pronounce am-e-goo-roo-me) is using crochet (or knitting also I believe) to make stuffed dolls/figures.

I discovered this around the end of September/beginning of October when I became interested in making toys for my dogs. It looked fun, albeit complicated.

When I started, I was terrible at it. And I had no idea what I was doing. But I kept at it.

In late October, I was finally matched with my little sister, Zoe, through Big Brother/Big Sisters.  Turns out, she is big into anime. While I like anime, it isn't my favorite, but Jamie loves it so I am familiar with the culture. Anyway, her favorite anime is Sailor Moon. I'm pretty familiar with it, however I had never actually watched any of it at the time.  For those of you who don't know - this is Sailor Moon:

Being me, I wanted to do something to "impress" her. I'm really not so great with kids, and I wanted to make her something that might help me win her over so to speak.

So, I played around with google and found this:
Sailor Moon Pattern - Ravelry

I loved this pattern. And it taught me a few things about my craft abilities and limits.
1) I can work in the round as long as I have stitch markers.
2) You always need more fiberfill than you think.
3) Safety eyes are IMPOSSIBLE to find
4) Felt is the devil.

I hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE felt. I hate how it cuts. I hate how it stitches. I hate how it feels. It was the bane of my existence with this pattern. I have since learned that if a pattern calls for felt, I will either crochet whatever it was asking for using yarn or use embroidery thread instead. Felt blows.

Anyway, here is my one, absolutely awful picture of this pattern.

I am currently working on ways to modify this and will post better pictures of the product when I finally do finish. I will also post my modifications.

After posting this picture to facebook, I received a string of comments on how much people liked it. I even received a few comments asking for additional sailor scout dolls. :) Zoe also loved it and asked if I could do Sailor Chibi Moon (the pink one).

For a first attempt at amigurumi, I felt pretty good about it.
However, I hate the felt work (ribbons, tiara, hair covers). I hate the skin tone. And I hate the eyes. The skin color took me the longest to find, and I still don't like my current solution for the eyes.

But more on this in later posts.