Sock Monkey Love Dolls

During my pregnancy I had a crafting fantasy to fulfill: before our son was born, I wanted to collaborate on a sock monkey with my husband. I wasn’t specifically attached to making a monkey. Really, the only critical detail for me was that we would create a doll of some sort out of a sock. As serendipity would have it, my husband had recently been wearing an old pair of his grandfather’s socks and they were wearing out. This seemed to be the perfectly sentimental choice for our baby’s first doll.

My husband is a professional artist, a contemporary painter. He is incredibly creative and inventive and when it comes to projects he rarely proceeds in the ‘right’ way. This makes collaborating with him all the more interesting. The outcomes are never what I expect and usually so much better than I ever have imagined. I learned to sew correctly from my mother as a child and I also studied fashion design. When I sew, I tend to follow the proper order of steps and to complete my projects as perfectly as I can. Needless to say, our styles are practically in opposition and we have a lot to learn from each other. At least I have a lot to learn from him. It’s so inspiring and refreshing to under-think what I’m doing. It’s great to be pushed to loosen up.

When my husband sat down at my sewing machine for our project he started going right away. No planning, no pinning, and barely any cutting. This is how we continued to proceed and it worked out great! Utterly challenged to put aside any working order, I followed his lead and began fashioning body parts, face parts, and accessories. I didn’t get anywhere near the sewing machine because my husband was having way too good of a time. It was such fun and my husband even convinced me to make three dolls together instead of only one.

Our first doll was Fifi, next came Bunny Bunny, and then there was Coco, who is our son’s favorite doll. Probably the best part of this project for me was the influence this collaboration has had on my own creative process since. I am not as thorough and I fuss over details less. I never thought that being less skilled in my execution would result in something I like better, but this is exactly what has happened. Working in this way was also a reminder to me that anyone can embark on a new project, experienced or not, and come up with something fun and wonderful! Perhaps, the less skills the better, when it comes to making dolls!