Bee-cause I wanted to!

I had a real urge to make some bees. I wanted them to be at least based on the

Anatomy of real honey-bees but based around a pair of cool black and yellow socks... 

Using the filled-width of the socks, I made a full sized drawing to help make the patterns. Those lovely knee socks bee-came the abdomen!

I chose a dense-quality fur from my stash. I can get 8 bee abdomens from a single pair of long socks. Amazingly I had exactly enough black fur to complete all of them! Some thing's are just meant to bee. 

A completed torso, with pipe cleaner legs, looks like a tic!

The 21mm solid black eyes are the right size, but needed the yellow border to keep the bee looking friendly!

Now the wings sent me digging in my bag of lace and mesh fabric. This mesh gave a good effect, but the wings were floppy. So I sewed all the mesh to pieces of acetate, and i had just enough sheets of acetate to complete all 8 insects!

but the acetate and mesh creation still bends, so i added three folds - problem solved! And the folds look like veins too!

Finally the wings are attached with buttons, so they can be moved a little too. The first bee admires my prize flowers ...