“Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? Wouldst thou like to live…deliciously?”
For those who don’t know, those are lines from Black Phillip, the demonic goat from the movie The VVitch. My friend and I both like that movie, and love to quote Black Phillip to each other. When my friend’s birthday came around this year, I knew what I had to make.
There weren’t any patterns that I could find that were specifically Black Phillip, so I had to improvise a bit. I used the Felt Billy Goat Stuffie pattern by Lia Griffith as my base. The felt I used was from Benzie Design. I used black for the body, and graphite for the horns.
The pattern didn’t call for it, but I added pipe-cleaner armature in the legs and in the horns. I don’t think they were necessary for him to stand, but they did help me keep his legs from splaying, which I know can happen with this shape. The only adjustment I made to the pattern pieces themselves was lengthening the horns so they would be more like the goat in the movie.
The other big change that I made was the eyes. The pattern calls for itty-bitty 5mm safety eyes. I had those, but only in black. In the movie, Black Phillip has yellow eyes.
(Don’t believe all the fanart with red eyes. They are wrong.)
Normally I wouldn’t mind just subbing in black safety eyes instead of a color, but the black eyes just weren’t showing up on the black felt. I went through a couple different options. I thought about doing sequins, but then I didn’t have any in yellow or gold. My next thought was small buttons, and those ended up being a strong contender.
In the end, I went with gold rhinestones. I’m so glad I did, because I think they look awesome. They catch the light beautifully, and they give him a supernatural look. I added eyelids because the rhinestones were twice the size of the eyes the pattern called for—without the eyelids they looked a bit ridiculous.
I’m not one to believe in this sort of thing, but I think my Black Phillip was cursed.
I’ve never stabbed myself so many times, and I’ve never had so many seams bust open. To be fair, this pattern has some pretty thin gussets on the legs. They give the goat some sharp-looking shaping, but they’re also liable to tear–especially since you want to stuff the legs firmly so he’ll stand well.
The stabbing thing is a whole different story though. It only started after I put his eyes on him. I think the eyes gave him sentience and he went after me.
The goat pattern said it would take an hour or more to make this pattern. For me it was definitely more.
The first big seam where you sew one side of the body to the legs and belly piece was especially time consuming. It took me a whole episode of M*A*S*H just to clip the pieces into place.
Even though it took me a lot longer than the pattern said it would (I think it took me two episodes of X-Files just to stuff the body) he turned out beautifully.
I was sad to see him go when I shipped him off. I might have to make myself a Black Phillip soon. Hopefully he won’t be out for blood this time.
Best,
Jo