Dilys and the Ellie-bears
I have had a soft spot for elephants ever since I was a very little girl. My uncle made my first elephant many years ago and although his ears and eyes have long since been hugged away, I still have that little pink ellie. In fact, I borrowed the simple three piece design to create a replica ellie as a gift for my new niece when she was a baby.
The next elephant I made was a funny little chap called 'Abe', back in 2008. I took the vintage design a stage further by introducing a moveable, jointed head and that was when I decided I really wanted to tackle something a little more complex, so started work afresh, using one of my previous teddy bear designs, as a starting point.
I had to redesign the bear head entirely to incorporate a trunk and floppy ears and completely changed the shape of the feet and arms - in fact, now I come to think about it, the only part of the pattern that remained the same was the body! Delilah, a shell pink ellie with striped feet and ears, was my first jointed elephant, created in 2008 and the following year, I decided to return to my jointed elephant design to see how it would work in alternative fabrics ...
I was thrilled when my 2009 white ellie 'Starlight' was featured in 'Australian Bear Creations,' as that was the first time I had ever had anything other than a teddy bear published in a magazine. 2010 was a challenging year creatively speaking, as I spent the first two thirds of the year working hard to develop my 'Careworn Collection' of teddy bears and the remaining third of the year simply trying to find motivation to work at all, after saying a sad farewell to my Dad that Autumn. Sad to say, there were no ellies whatsoever in 2010 ...
However, the ellie bug bit again in 2011! I decided to develop my ellie's personality further; I wanted give him cute low slung ears and close set eyes, to lend his personality a endearing dimension. I was so pleased with my new whimsical blue ellie design, I named him Forget-me-not, in dedication to my Dad.
Also in 2011 came Ma Cherie, a pretty pale pink ellie. I decided to create a slightly smaller elephant called Butterfly in 2013 and it wasn't until 2021, that I developed my smaller jointed elephant design to create Buttercup, the sweetest little elephant, part of my 'Springtime Pals' trio, which also included a bunny and a bear, all wearing knitted jackets.
And that was it. The ellies really were almost as rare as hen's teeth! Until today. I found the very piece of mohair I needed to complete an ellie-bear I started this summer, then had to discard because frustratingly, I misremembered how much mohair to buy and ran out of the denim coloured fabric, as did my supplier. However, all was not lost, I finally finished my 2025 Dilys ellie-bear yesterday and can at last share her with you ... and add her name to my catalogue of elephant designs!
