Hi the shark: Designer Notes

Hi! This has quite a story behind it.

A while ago rumours started swirling that IKEA would discontinue it’s Blåhaj stuffed shark, which is a universally beloved toy. The FreeSewing community was quite agitated by this prospect. No one wanted to see the worlds friendliest shark becoming extinct. And neither did I.

It turned out that no one in the community had ever taken a Blåhaj apart, and no one had the courage to do so. The only Blåhaj in my household was my daughter’s, and I couldn’t touch that one.

This seemed like a great project to work on, and the lack of a Blåhaj was not an insurmountable obstacle. So one day I made a trip to Ikea, and bought me my own shark. I took the seam ripper to the poor animal, and transferred it’s innards to a sterile bag. The individual pieces were traced, scanned, and used in InkScape to generate a fully functional shark pattern.

It can be scaled up and down between 50 cm and 5 meter. So there is a shark for everyone.

NOTE

Ikea did not discontinue Blåhaj, and you can still get the blue shark. But if you want one in a different colour, you’re at the right spot.