Journal · 2015-08-21
The Dude Abides at Felt Alive
The Dude Doll. That’s right, I needle felted Jeff Bridges as The Dude from the motion picture The Big Lebowski.
The process of needle felting The Dude from The Big Lebowski was an absolute blast! I had to rewatch the movie multiple times to really nail down the character. I got to enjoy a bunch of laughs along the way. That movie is pure hilarity!
Here he is, chillin’ with his new felted crew. Just like in the movie, he’s got his White Russian cocktail in hand. The Dude doll stands tall at about 14 inches. He’s fully jointed, so he can strike a pose like a pro and solid needle felted wool!
I enjoy taking photos at this stage for some strange reason. Body, meet Head. Head, meet Body.
And I love how his head is more than half the size of his body.
And a rear view! The strong needle felted hips, knees and ankle joints are what is going to make The Dude doll stand on his own.
His neck is strongly needle felted to his head and is about to be attached to his body. I’ll take all that loose fiber to make a strong attachment to keep that big noggin from falling off his body.
Oh-Yeah! my little The Dude Doll seems happy to be felting alive!
How about those piercing blue eyes?
To create The Dude doll, I started with undyed wool batting and sculpted all of his individual body parts. I then needle felted the parts together and began the process of building up his body with a skin colored wool. I used Merino x batting for all of this.
For his clothes, I used Merino Prefelt. I love using that stuff for clothing, It is a real time-saver. I cut out pieces (kind of like I’m going to sew it together) and needle felt it right to his body. And his hair is hand-dyed angora goat curly locks and his facial hair is alpaca roving.
He’s a pretty cool Felt Alive cat if I do say so myself.