Happy Underwear Day!

I don't actually know what day "Underwear Day" is, or if there is an official day. So possibly this is really early, or severely belated. In any case, without further ado, I give you...

Captain Underpants!

Awesome, huh? I'm pretty pleased with him. I really don't think he'd be quite himself without the fingers and toes, even though that's what delayed him this long. I mean, growing fingers and toes takes time, you know? Also, figuring out just how to make those things in yarn, with really small needles, and not too much throwing-it-across-the-room? That's tricky. But, figure it out I did, with a little help here and there.

You can thank Zozo for the feet.

I came up with the hands on my own.

In case you're wondering, yes, it is accurate for the Cap'n to have just the 4 digits on each appendage. According to Dav Pilkey, that's what this guy looks like.

I chose to cut the cape from a scrap of red knit fabric*, instead of knitting one. I had purchased yarn to make the cape, but, after all the time it took to figure out and make his fingers and toes, I decided that a thinner cape, one that I didn't have to labor over quite as much, might just be a better idea for me.

I altered the shaping a bit on the body. After starting out as written, I realized that if I changed things a little, shifted some of the decreases on the body, that he would have a back-bone:

(which resulted in a little "plumbers crack", which I totally did not intend) and also, that the underpants would have a fly, as they do in real life. For now, I've not highlighted the "fly" area with stitching, but I might. (On the pattern, the area I use as my "fly" ends up in the back, if you follow her directions. So I turned the body around, as far as decreases are concerned, after finishing the underpants portion.)

I also jointed the limbs. I realized that's how I'd do it if I was making this in fabrics, so, since I was adding detail to those bits anyway, I went ahead and stitched them shut on top, then stitched them through the body to make them jointed. I might have pulled it a bit tight in the leg area.

I chose to give him a belly-button and knitted-in nipples as well:

you can see them if you look closely.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this fella. If I did it again, I'd decrease his pinkie finger by one stitch, to make it a little more dainty. I did rework his toes in that way - started out with equal stitches for each, but then realized if I gave one more to the big toe, and took one away from the pinkie toe, it would look better. So I ripped that back and restarted, even though I'd gone about half-way up the one leg when I thought of it.

All that work, just for a toy? Did you look at this guy? You should see him in person. It was worth it.

(I do have notes on how I did all this, if anyone is interested. Not that you have to be. Just saying that I did make notes, and I could show/tell you how. If you cared.)

Yarns: Patons Grace in Snow and Whisper

*bonus: I didn't have a scrap of red knit handy at home, so I went to JoAnn to get some. I found exactly the right piece in the remnants! Even better, there was more of the same in a lovely brown. I managed to cut out a cute top from the two pieces, and then cut his cape from the scraps. Expect to see the cute top show up later in my SSS posts!