Henry the Hoover

Toddler Button is obsessed with Henry the Hoover, the Numatic Vacuum cleaner.  No, he doesn't have his own TV show, but we do have an example in our garage.  We also have to peruse the range for sale in the supermarket each visit, and it's important to be familiar with the whole range of names and colours of this device.

To keep him quiet on a super long car journey, I made a cuddly Henry.  If you've found this page by googling for "Henry Hoover Sewing Pattern", then welcome!  I googled that too!  I couldn't find a pattern, so I made up the pattern myself using the magic of geometry.  I think I used this image as a basis.

Henry is made from felt (because that's what I had to hand).  He's about 6" diameter.

Check me wheels.

Henry's cheeky face is more felt appliquéd to the front.  I correctly predicted that Toddler would immediately enquire about where Henry's tube nose was, but too bad because (a) I couldn't think of a way to make one look good and (b) I ran out of black felt.

I secretly made him in the evenings and I totally had to hide his iconic little face during the day so Toddler didn't clock him.

Fiddly letters are such a pain.

Henry's front wheels turned out to be such a fiddle that they had to be stitched entirely by hand, and I'm not a fan of hand-stitching.  Also, I ran out of time before we left for the journey so they were attached during a traffic jam on the M4 when the road was closed and toddler happened to nod off.

Henry also has an appliquéd top winder wheel and hand-sewn knob thing.  But no on-off switches because I didn't have any green felt to hand.  Shame.

I'm pleased to note that Henry has been promoted to bed-time companion alongside Doggy and Ted.