My Very Own House Hippo

If you grew up in Canada in the eighties, there's a good chance you'll remember the House Hippo. It was the subject of a memorable media literacy PSA that I encourage you to check out. (Second only to the War Amps PlaySafe PSA.)

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the Henrietta Hippo pattern from 529MasonStreet in order to make my very own. The best thing about this little dude are his repositionable limbs. This leads to nearly endless action shot possibilities! Here is my hippo playing outside:

At this point you may be wondering why Mister hippo has a white butt... This is what happens when you try to mess with a pattern before knowing how it comes together. I thought it would be cute if he was all grey, with a white tummy (the bottom of his paws is also white), so I cut the part that I thought would correspond to the stomach out of white felt. Turns out I overestimated by a long shot, and the white patch goes all the way up his back. That's ok, no one here is judging.

House hippo likes to spend his days daydreaming on the windowsill and hanging out with his best bud Sigmund.