Veg Out

Role: concept, pattern design, construction, installation

Veg Out is a collection of squishy, comfy, extra-large, super-jumbo, huggable vegetable pillows.

This project started out as an oversize carrot made from a spare tomato cage, intended as décor for a goblin-themed installation, then turned into a portable totem at an underground-themed event, the became a singular carrot-shaped pillow when the time came to get new bed pillows and I was loath to throw out the old stuffing. The giant stuffed carrot came to one SF Decompression street faire, along with a piece of artificial turf, as part of an iteration of the aforementioned goblin-themed installation, and by the end of the night, had proved itself as an extremely popular place for people to sit down—as it turns out, comfortable, clean seating is in short supply at all-day street festivals in San Francisco, and a squishy vegetable on a lawn filled the need.

The following year, I realized I could expand the collection by making even more cuddly vegetables for people to commune among, and Veg Out was born. After studying the construction of a five-year-old friend's stuffed vegetable toys, I settled on making a tomato, an ear of corn, and a head of garlic, and set out on my first foray into pattern-making from scratch. Several iterations of prototypes later, I settled on my pattern shapes, scaled them up, and got to sewing; only after using all of my available stuffing on filling one very girthy ear of corn did I learn my mistake—seam allowances are not to be scaled! I unstuffed the corn, took in its seams, restuffed it, and a svelte ear took shape. A friend (parent of the five-year-old mentioned above) offered some extra vegetable-themed fabric deemed too saucy for a child's eyes, rounding out the collection.

Veg Out was invited to SF Decompression and conveniently placed near the food court, offering seating to participants young and old to dine, rest in the shade, and watch shenanigans nearby. The post-event report noted that the pillows were rather dense and heavy, with the stuffing getting overcompressed, so the pillows are currently undergoing a restuffing process, where the core stuffing is getting replaced with another friend's scrap tulle fabric, which should add necessary springiness while reducing weight.