Tom & Mini-Tom

One of my recent comments reminded me that I have been meaning to post a picture of the mini-Tom (don't worry, I took some photos before I gave him as a gift!). Continuing in my trend of having less-than-stellar pictures, here's Tom and mini-Tom! See the resemblance?
The mini version was designed to be a little moving-away gift to his parents. He's not as good as the real thing, but he is pretty fuzzy. And he eats a lot less.
The mini-Tom project was my first attempt at making creatures out of felt, and you can probably see that I've improved since then. Practice makes perfect etc. This tiny-Tom was actually the third that I made. The first was based on a design of a "kidnapper", who wore a black jumpsuit, and so Tom was dressed all in black. This was all together unacceptable, so I decided to modify the "pattern" (I use this term lightly because my inspiration book doesn't really have patterns, just basic shapes and instructions, so mini-Tom was cut freehand) to make a shirt and pants outfit. The second mini-Tom was ok, but when I looked at it again, I decided it didn't really capture the spirit of the person, so I made a third and final mini-Tom at the very last minute. You may recognize the color scheme - my felt collection hasn't changed much since July. I chose the red felt for his shirt because he has a fair number of red shirts (and let's be honest, I also had matching thread). And the blue pants are supposed to look like jeans. His legs are designed to look super long (to better reflect the Tom himself), and he has little sewn glasses.
Looking back on it now, I think I could make a better mini-Tom today, but he was well-received, and that's what matters. As far as I know, he is now gracing a refrigerator, probably longing to consume all the cheese inside.