Fish Extender

Fish Extender? Huh, what is that you might wonder? I thought the same thing when a friend of mine asked me if I would make her one rather than her buying one from Etsy. The first thing I did was to search online for fish extenders so I knew what she was wanting me to make, lol. It's all apart of the Disney Cruise experience, where you hang a pocket (or multiple pockets) outside your room door on a Fish Hook, hence the fish extender name as it extends down from the fish hook. Deb wanted 2 pockets on hers, since she had one roommate. The fish extenders are Disney themed of course being on a Disney cruise. The pockets are for placing gifts inside or messages. Deb is going on the cruise with several family members, although they will all have their own rooms with their spouses or other family sharing rooms.

Since I had no intention of making these to sell for the masses, I found a few images online and enlarged them for the appliques that I used. I sketched out a basic idea of how I wanted it to look and what I would need to sew, although I had to do some designing on the go as I ran into some things that weren't going to work. I made the pockets large because I wasn't sure what might be placed inside of them. Deb's roommate is her step mom and I made her name with Velcro on the back so that when Deb uses this fish extender at home she can replace the second name with the other applique that I made to go in place of a name. If Deb cruises again and has a different roommate, she can Velcro a name to go in that place.

I haven't mailed this to her yet because I am going to take it to my quilt group for show and tell on Thursday first. The cruise isn't until October. Deb is a childhood friend that I have known since I was about 10 years old.

Disney themed fish extender.

I painted over a texture for the background and then quilted bubbles on this part of the piece. I  painted the wording here because it was too small to make it into applique. I enlarged a Disney font for the words. I also decided to place the knots in the red hanging strap on the back, but I did that after I took this photo.

Deb wanted her name above her pocket and she wanted Mickey Mouse on the pocket.

So what better Mickey Mouse to use than Sailor Mickey, since this is for a cruise.

This I made with a Velcro on the back to replace the name above the second pocket when Deb has it hanging at home or is cruising with someone else, then she can replace this with another name and Velcro it in place.

She wanted Pluto on the second pocket. Good choice, since Pluto is Mickey's best pal and his dog. Deb loves dogs too.

Deb's stepmom is June and this is the name that can be removed since it has Velcro on the back.

Here is the name above the pocket.

The backing fabric, binding and the lining of the pockets are all from this fabric line designed by Debbie Mumm. I thought this was a good choice to use pirate themed fabrics.

Cute Debbie Mumm designed pirate fabric.

The whole fish extender.

I added this notepad holder with a notepad for writing notes to rip off and place into other pockets and for leaving a message on the notepad for someone to read as they walk by. I had seen another cute idea online that someone used a dinglehopper (aka a fork) to use as a message holder, so you would place the note into the tines of the fork. The crew can also write a message if they need to as well.

Not bad for a first attempt at making a fish extender. Bon Voyage Debbie! Have a great cruise my friend.
Pin It Now!