A Paper Piecing Start...

The pattern (Dobby, the Houseelf) from Fandom In Stitches

 

Cut out the pieces (save the section that tells the sewing order.)

 

Choose fabrics - dark brown for the eyes, flesh tone, a spotty beige for the pillow case he wears, the dark blue for the background, white for the whites of his eyes, and a spotty brown for inside his ear.

 I like to start by cutting and pinning all the #1 spots. Hold it up to the light to make sure all the seam allowances are covered. (Also, notice I skipped a step in the pictures and wrote the color on all the different shapes. That has saved me soooooo many times. (Once the pieces are cut apart you can't tell what color something should be. Is this an arm or a nose?)

Here another #1 on a different piece. Yup, it covers.

Hold the #2 fabric next to the #1 and sew along the line between them.

Put the needle down into the top of the seam annnnnnnd

swing the new addition into place so there's enough seam allowance. (Your fabrics are right sides together, that means that #2, or the fabric being added this time, is right sides up.)

After sewing

fold it back into it's rightful place before cutting off the excess. (I wish someone had told me this part. I cut soooo many wrong when I first started.

Luckily this light color covers the darker... now press the seam and flip and press it out into its permanent position.

If the seam allowance shows some of the dark seam allowance under the light colored fabric - grade your seam allowance. Cut the darker color smaller than the top, and you won't get a shadow of it showing through your lighter color.

A couple of other shapes  added now, and I'm done with this piece.

Another piece - this brown triangle is going to show through the fleshtone...

so I cut the brown seam allowance smaller than the fleshtone seam allowance.

partly cut

 Cut off - with scissors - quicker than the blade, and I can cut one piece different than the other piece of the seam allowance.

See? Now the brown won't shadow through.

After pressing - no shadow.
Just continue adding pieces - in a sequential way. Just follow the numbers, and apply the correct colors. I'll show how to put the pieces together tomorrow.

Have fun... if you really mess up a piece, you can always printout another and start over with that one piece. I've done that... saves on picking (and sanity), and well, picking might not be the solution if you have too little fabric.  I know it doesn't look like much in these pictures, but it will once they are all  pieced together.

Hugs,

Terri