Secret Project Revealed - Cthulhu Blanket!

Last week, I got it in my head to buy a pretty little bobble for my friend Cat, who hasn't been feeling well lately. I went to etsy and looked up different cute Cthulhu items, when I saw a listing for a Cthulhu quilt. Without meaning to disparage that quilter's efforts, I thought to myself, "I could do something better than that!" So, I decided that I needed to.

Cthulhu blanket!

I pulled out my green fabric and thought about what else I needed. I stopped by Goodwill to look for some kind of fuzzy blanket for the backing. At first, I found a nice red fleece blanket, but then I decided to take a look at the bathrobes, just in case there was something there that would be even better.

What I found was beyond my best wishes! There was a perfect bathrobe: pink, fuzzy, and just the right size.

Fits perfectly! Sorta.

The back panel is big enough!

I don't know what size this robe was, but the back panel alone was big enough for what I had in mind. So I set myself to ripping out the seams and seeing what I could make of it.

See how soft and fuzzy?

Once I'd pulled out the back panel, I laid it out to see what kind of design I could make work.

Mr. Bob, for scale.

I had a lot of fabric to work with, but coming up with the layout still took a bit of drafting. And several paper bags for the pattern.

Homemade pattern.

I decided to turn the robe panel upside down and make the smaller end the bottom of the blanket. Then I taped together several sheets of brown paper and sketched the basic pattern on the paper.

The rough idea.

And don't forget the wings:

It's not Cthulhu without wings.

Cut and ready to go.

Measure twice, cut once, right? Especially when you only have a finite amount of the favorite fabric!

This is why I buy colorful sheets when I find them.

Fortunately, I had a larger piece of green sheet fabric!

Ready to go.

And don't forget the tentacles!

Tentacles!

I cut on section of the tentacles out of the same green as the Cthulhu front, but the back section out of a slightly lighter shade of green.

Wings!

And the fronts of the wings.

Finished wing.

I sewed the wings together, and inserted a panel of bright pink satin on the fronts. I did the first wing the hard way, by cutting out the green center and trying to sew them together. HARD! I did the second wing the easier way, by pinning the pink to the back of the green, sewing them together and THEN cutting out the green center. I intentionally left the green unfinished, so it will fray slightly over time and give the wings a more ragged look.

Finished front panel.

I sewed the tentacles together and turned them right-side-out. I then sewed them to the green Cthulhu front panel. I also sewed a pair of eyes made from some super soft black scrap fabric I had leftover from a Cat Woman costume I made ages ago.

Finished back panel.

I sewed the completed wings directly to the back of the pink panel. I then pinned the wings back, and the tentacles out of the way, and sewed the two big panels together.

And then, voilá! Done!

All done!

Isn't this the coolest thing ever?

Wrapped up pretty.

All wrapped up and ready to go!