The march of the mice

The tale of one mouse (Milly - see the previous post) led to an order for 17 (yes, SEVENTEEN) small stuffed mice for Christmas gifts for the staff in a friend's research lab.

My first proto-mouse was pretty cute, I thought, made with scraps of leftover fabric from a bag project.

Then it turned out that our friend needed 17, and was hoping for mice in more 'normal' lab colours (i.e. black, white or brown). This actually turned out to be a good thing, because I could use black felt (no need to sew right sides together and turn it out), and stick on eyes rather than hand-embroidering them. Thank goodness for self-adhesive red rhinestones!

Here's my assembly line of mice parts:

And here's the army of 17, ready for delivery!

I confess I was going to give them pink noses and whiskers but I ran out of time and steam, so whiskerless they are...oh, and apparently black mice have black eyes. Who knew?!

I thought this was the end of the mice, but a certain little boy is demanding his own mouse now, so I guess I can't pack away the black felt just yet.