Introductions...

This is Hazel:

She is 5'4", on the thin side (for now), and does not like long walks on the beach because that would be immanent death.

Otherwise, she is pretty normal for a rainbow trout.  I will finish her up soon and then make up a large hook and fly to suspend her from while in installation.  She has an extra pocket in the upper pallet of her mouth, so it should be a painless install.  That seems like it is missing the obligatory sacrifice to the art-gods, so I am sure there will still be crisis and material damages.

Hazel is here to serve as contrast to Hemingway in pattern construction.  This was her pattern sketch (yes, it has turned into scratch paper for other notes and yes,  she is wearing a hat and carrying a purse... as do all fish):

This is my internal interpretation:

As with the coelacanth, I started the trunk with the head, and the head started with the mouth.  However, I made all the appendages, the fins, first.  This was so that they could be stitched onto the trunk (sausage/body) as it was constructed.  I try to put on the appendages as soon as the attachment space has been stitched into creation on the trunk.  It is easier to applique when you have full access to the reverse-face of the base-fabric.  If you were to postpone appendage attachment, you would end up closing up your access holes into the inside and that elusive reverse-face.  Plus, you might forget about what you are doing or lose the limb.  I have done the later and felt like quite the idiot.

Provided I do not lose them, the soon-to-be-attached fins:

Fins attached to the reverse-face of the base-fabric:

Hazel's head en fillet... quelle dommage: