Sewing for an Elephant Charity: embrACE the elephants

I am excited to be a part of the Gingercake Holiday Gift Sewing Series again.  Check out my owls from a few years back.  Part of this series is a new giveaway each week.  This week, she is offering a choice of 3 of my Mouse House Creations patterns AND a $50 Bloomerie Fabrics certificate.  Rafflecopter entries available at the end of this post.  PLEASE read to also see how you can donate to Ainsley’s new elephant charity project!

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When Virginia asked me to be part of her holiday sewing series again, I was more than pleased and it has actually turned into something more than I could ever imagine (keep reading, I promise it is worth it).  A few days before Virginia emailed me, Ainsley (my 7 year old daughter), had learned all about elephant poaching and the severe endangerment of their species.  She immediately told me that she will find a way to help the elephants one day (she has always been an old soul with a caring heart, especially for animals).  When I was browsing through Virginia’s patterns,  I stumbled upon the adorable Lucky the Elephant pattern.  I showed Ainsley and she came up with the brilliant idea of handmaking elephants and selling them to raise money for elephants!  How perfectly perfect.

So, I helped Ainsley brainstorm and we came up with her Facebook page called embrACE the elephants (her nickname is Ace) where 100% (yes, 100%) of ALL sales go directly to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.  She helped me start her embrACE the elephants Etsy page and between that and private orders, she already raised close to her $2000 goal within 2 weeks. People are loving her message and the elephants are now on backorder because orders are pouring in from all over the world.  Every penny of that goes directly to the elephants.  Little Ainsley has worked on cutting orders, sewing elephants, stuffing them, and printing labels on over 100 stuffed elephants so far.  I couldn’t be more proud of her.   Not to mention, the Elephant Sanctuary found out about her and has named her an eleAmbassador.  She wants nothing more than to help these beautiful creatures.

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Virginia is offering to help, as well!  Money from 50% of all of her Lucky the Elephant patterns sold today will go directly to Ainsley’s cause.  So, please consider purchasing the Lucky pattern~  It is a great way to help, without purchasing a stuffed elephant.

We sewed up an elephant using Virginia’s great pattern and then determined how to alter it for easier and faster production.  (Absolutely nothing wrong with Virginia’s pattern, but we needed a faster way to make so many).

Here is the one we made with Virginia’s original pattern!  Super adorable.  This is one Ace has kept and nicknamed it Lucky.

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How cute are these?  We came up with 3 sizes: small, medium, and large.  It was SO easy to do this with Virginia’s pattern.  Make it smaller or larger using the scale % option when printing.

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Orders started pouring in. Right now, we are on round 3 of elephant orders, using ALL of my fabrics that have been waiting for a project.  Ainsley hand selects each combo. (she is lucky to have such a great selection of fabrics!)

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Look at round one of orders!  These were sent all over the world from England to Africa to Australia.img_5807

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You can sort of see here the alterations I made to the pattern to make it a tad faster.  We eliminated any gussets and rounded the feet.  The main change was that I slashed the pattern in half, added seam allowance to the slashed areas, and that is where we insert the ears.  These changes made it a much faster pattern (but I would still use the original pattern any day).img_5599

She spent all weekend stuffing elephants and loved it.  It is a gratifying process.img_5611 img_5619

Thank you for having us,Virginia.  Your elephant pattern has changed our lives in the most unexpected ways.  Ace is grateful that she found a way to start a beautiful cause.  I have a feeling that she is going to use this experience in much bigger ways in the future.

I have had several people offer to sew elephants for this cause.  If more people are interested, please let me know!  Please email me at mousehousecreations@gmail.com.  I will send you the fabric and tags.

Don’t forget that 50% of sales for the Lucky the Elephant pattern will go directly to embrACE the elephants.  And 100% of ALL proceeds of stuffed elephants will go directly to the Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee.

 

Be sure to enter the giveaway below!!!

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Hayley

Hayley Crouse is a wife, mother and multifaceted designer. Her love of sewing, crafting, cooking and interior design infuses her daily life and naturally spills over into her online presence. She pushes the envelope of her creativity and hopes that others will be inspired to do the same. She currently authors the Welcome to the Mouse House Blog, is the pattern designer behind Mouse House Creations and is a collaborative designer with Willow & Co. Patterns.
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2 Responses to Sewing for an Elephant Charity: embrACE the elephants

  1. Alicia December 8, 2016 at 7:04 pm #

    That’s an amazing girl you have! Love the elephants.

  2. Charlotte Norse January 26, 2018 at 11:56 pm #

    Outstanding article, thank you so much for sharing this article. Embroidery Faces

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