Amelia

Hello - I finished my meerkat this morning!  I decided to try something new with the feet.  It didn't look very promising at first, but it has creases sewn across the middle, and when it's stuffed...

... I think it actually looks quite effective.

I also tried putting claws in the front paws.  The middle two looked good, but the outer claws stuck out sideways!  Then, after stuffing the arms and sewing them on, I managed to break one so I had to unpick the whole thing, remove the claws, then stuff and sew the arms back on again.  I didn't risk a second attempt at the claws.  They obviously were not strong enough but also - the way she holds her hands - they were barely visible anyway.

Then there was the problem of the whiskers.  I tried them first on my poor prototype, with fishing line, but they're far too substantial.

Reading up on it, the best thing to use is apparently horse hair.  I posted about it on my Facebook page, and a lovely person agreed to send me some!

This is Amelia with her whisker (and eyebrow) placements marked out...

And this is her finished!  I absolutely love the whiskers - they definitely maketh the meerkat, so to speak!

I did just happen to have a pair of meerkat spectacles handy, and she does remind me of that meerkat in the Compare the Market advert, so I took one photo of her disguised as Sergei :-)