Some years ago when I was working on a Christmas book, my DH Dana drew a sketch of Santa.


From the look of him he was dubbed Goofy Santa. G.S. didn’t fit in and never found a place to be. He was filed away.

A couple weeks ago, I told Dana, “We’re pulling out Goofy Santa!”

His face lit up.

“You’re going to pick all the fabrics and I’ll show you how to make the fusible-web templates,” I continued.

“Um…. oh… kay….”

I finished rendering his pencil sketch in Illustrator and printed it out. I turned him loose on my fabric stash and he started pulling out traditional Christmassy reds and greens.

I was working on something else, quietly enjoying the fact that Dana was having a good time in my world. I looked over and saw this.

Cue the Alfred Hitchcock music.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the purple orange, and chartreuse anomaly.

“I thought that would be good for the hat,” he said.

“It doesn’t go,” I said.

“What doesn’t go?” he asked.

“That,” I repeated.

“It’s all just wavelengths,” he countered.

“It’s not gonna work,” I maintained.

“But… I really like it,” he wistfully replied.

Okay! It was at that juncture that I tossed all the traditional reds and greens aside and told him, “We’re making a non-traditional Santa!”

Then he was like a kid in a candy store, quickly assembling other fabrics to go with the purple and orange hat. Then I showed him each step of the fusible appliqué process, and he did everything except the sewing.

I give you… Dana’s Goofy Santa.

Happy holidays!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie