CREACHERS

Once upon a time, in a magical land far far away, there was a stirring. The bright silver blades of scissors leapt to life, while sharp metallic needles began to gleam with creative power.

Now was the time...of the CREACHERS.

What, you may ask, is a "creacher?"

A creacher, not to be confused with a creature, is a unique being. They are formed out of recycled scrap fabric, often from clothing, which gives them all manner of soft and cuddly textures and fun patterns and colors. Inside, a creacher is filled with shredded memory foam, another recycled material that makes them extra cuddly and squishable.

Creachers love the environment, and they love being made from entirely secondhand materials.

How does a creacher come into existence? Each creacher is completely unique. The silly and strange shapes of their bodies don't come from any sort of pattern or pre-existing design. Instead, their creator simply takes a pair of scissors and follows her own inspiration, letting the fabric and scissors guide her.

A creacher is then hand stitched, its fabric body turned inside out and carefully pieced together. The lines traced first by the scissors now become seams, and new shapes appear, surprising and exciting.

Snip, snip, snip, go the scissors next, clipping and cutting their way through a mass of memory foam that used to be a pillow or a mattress cover, now beginning a new life as the heart and guts of a new creacher.

Finally, through the magic of pareidolia, a creacher gets its face. Strategically placed buttons, and perhaps a little pink mouth, give the creacher its strange and lovable personality.

Are you ready to meet the creachers?

Obbo

Obbo is a huge fan of the video game "Among Us," but would prefer if you didn't bring up any sort of resemblance. Obbo's bright yellow stripes in front and black and white stars in the back often remind him of far off space and galaxies. He loves to go stargazing, but his huge button eyes make it hard to use a telescope sometimes.

Mushroo

Mushroo was the first of the creachers to come into existence, and they take their job as leader very seriously. With flappy yellow arms and a long yellow tail, Mushroo loves to dance and hop around, doing their best to cheer up all the other creachers when things get tough. But Mushroo also has a serious side as well, and is currently studying for a PhD in research chemistry.

Panthore

Panthore is Obbo’s cousin, but he secretly thinks sometimes that he might have cats or even owls in his ancestry. Passionate about gardening, Panthore grows eggplants in all sorts of colors and patterns and likes to enter them into competitions. He doesn’t actually like the taste of eggplant, though, so he slices them into thin circles and bakes them into crispy chips to share with the other creachers as a healthy snack.

Lolly Belle

Lolly Belle is the youngest of the creachers, but that doesn’t stop her from getting up to all sorts of mischief. Climbing trees and splashing through puddles are some of Lolly Belle’s favorite things to do, but she always makes sure that nothing messes up the ruffle on top of her head. With dreams of becoming a model, or maybe a hairstylist to the stars, Lolly Belle takes very good care of her ruffle on top of her head, and often tries to convince the other creachers to let her give them a makeover.

Vapa

Shy and dreamy, Vapa doesn't like to pose for pictures very much. Her favorite colors are pink and purple, just like her tie-dyed body and neon pink mane. Her favorite animal is a pegasus, and she thinks that if creachers can be real, why not pegasi? Vapa can pass hours gazing up at the sky and dreaming about having her very own pegasus friend to frolic around with. She thinks she would name it Tulip, unless it already had a name it preferred, of course.

Ylsandre

Ylsandre was a very surprising creacher - no one expected their beak to swoop so gracefully and perfectly. In fact, their creator thought the shapes that became Ylsandre's beak would instead be a round, flat face! But a creacher can never truly be predicted, and the needle and scissors always get the last word. Ylsandre has leaned into this magical accident of their creation and now lives a life full of surprises, often organizing friendly pranks and throwing surprise parties for no reason.

Make Your Own Creachers

Anyone can become a creacher creator! All you need is some secondhand fabric and stuffing, plus a pair of scissors, needle, and thread. Thrift stores, or the back of your closet, are the best places to find the raw materials required to bring a creacher to life.

Next, look over the fabric. Notice any shapes, seams, or interesting parts of the pattern. Try not to plan too much, but let the scissors take over. Once you have a few pieces of fabric, begin stitching them together along the lines that the scissors gave you. When you have a pouch or a pocket, begin stuffing it, and let the creacher begin to fill out.

Follow its new shapes with your needle and thread, adding more stuffing or fabric wherever you like. Once your creacher is stitched up, hold it up and look carefully. Where do you see a face? Where might its eyes and mouth be, if it were to come to life?

Buttons, beads, thread, and even more fabric scraps can all make perfect creacher eyes. You can try out different ones, laying them on top of the creacher without sewing them on, to figure out just what kind of face this particular creacher wants to have.

Once your creacher has a face, it's still not done! A creacher comes fully into being once it has a name. You can name your creacher yourself, but I find that asking a child for help gets you much closer to the creacher's true name.

That's all it takes! Soon, you can also enter the magical world of the creachers, filled with environmentally sustainable cuddles and friendly button eyes.