My first attempt at these was this past week. I tried to make a dinosaur and, well, let's just say my husband thought it looked more like a platypus. While it didn't turn out quite like I wanted I did learn from it and used what went wrong with the dinosaur to help in the process of making my elephant.
A few things I learned from my dinosaur: The legs and tail needed to be thicker, I needed to make sure my curves were big enough, check to make sure you've caught both layers of fabric all of the way around, and double stitch at the openings.
So...here's how to make the elephant. (Or any other animal you choose!)
Step 1: Make Your Pattern
Draw your pattern out on something sturdy like card stock or
cardboard. I used the cardboard from an old mailing envelope. As you
draw your pattern think about the shape that you're using. You want it
to be a recognizable shape, but you don't want anything to complicated.
As I was drawing my pattern and asking for opinions my husband offered
to try his hand at it. He drew an absolutely adorable little elephant,
but with it's knobby knees and kinky tail it was was just a little more
complicated than anything I wanted to attempt. Also, make sure that the
pattern is big enough to make the size of stuffed animal you want.
Remember that you're going to lose a little bit from your seam, and a
little bit can seem like a lot when it comes to things like the trunk
and legs. I recommend making them a little fatter than what you think
you want because they'll get smaller. If you get through the first
couple of steps and decide they're too big you can always make them
smaller, but you can't go back to make them bigger.
Step 2: Choose & Cut Your Fabric
I found the polka dot
fabric at Joann's on clearance for $3/yard. (I only ended up using a
12x18 rectangle of it for my elephant, but the amount you will need will
depend on the size of your animal.) The green for the ears came in a
pack of mermaid fabrics from Wal-Mart on clearance for $2.50. The blue
and pink ribbons came the ribbon stash I already had. Dylan put the bow
in the pink one and said to put it by the ear. I haven't quite figured
out how best to attach it yet.
You'll
want two of your main body pattern and four of the ears. Something like
an owl would also have four for the wings (though you could use
different patterns on each side or make one side match the rest of the
owls body). I only traced my elephants body once because I put the
bottom of the feet on the fold. This left me with one less thing to have
to sew shut and gave the feet a more rounded shape once the animal was
stuffed.
I
laid out the ears to decide where and at what angle I wanted the slits
for the ears and the tail so I could see where I wanted it and at what
angle. I cut two inch slits to insert the ears.
Step 3: Sew It Togther
The first thing I did was sew the ears together. (I don't have a picture of this.) Super simple: put two ear pieces together with the wrong sides facing outward, sew around them, leaving an opening at the bottom (where the point is) and double stitching at the beginning and end. Turn them right side out.
With the ears right side out you'll stick them through the ear slits from the right side of your body fabric, and fold the body fabric so that the wrong sides are showing. You can see this in the top left picture. Double stitch this all the way across. (I think I quadruple sewed it so that I knew they were secure!) Make sure you check to see that both sides of the body fabric caught in the thread. I missed the under side the first time. You can see in the top left picture what this looks like when you unfold it.
The second thing I did was sew the curve of the belly. I wanted to make sure that I didn't accidentally catch the tail in the stitching there. I double stitched at the bottoms of the feet.
To sew in the tail make sure that it's at the angle and place that you want it and with the wrong side of both body pieces showing, pin it in place between them. I also felt around between the pieces and pinned the tail and ears in the center of the body where I wasn't stitching so that I didn't accidentally get them in the stitching as I went. I found this very helpful!
Sew around the outside of your shape, double stitching over the tail to make sure it doesn't come loose. I used a 1/4 inch seem for all of my stitching. As you can see from the picture, I'm not the best as sewing curves, but I took it slow and did alright. Make sure you leave a space somewhere for turning your animal right-side-out and stuffing it. I chose to leave my space at the top of the back as I felt that would be the easiest place to be able to turn and stuff the legs and trunk. On each side of the space I double stitched in order to make it stronger since I would be putting some pressure on these stitches as I turned the elephant right-side-out.
Step 3: Turn, Stuff, and Stitch
I used the blunt end of a skewer to help turn the legs and trunk right side out. I also used the skewer to help stuff the legs and trunk. I hand stitched the opening using an invisible stitch. I doubled my thread before I closed my elephant so it was actually four threads thick. I'm hoping this will help it wear better.
A Few Notes:
- My final elephant turned out 9" long & 8" tall after it was stuffed.
- For my tail I chose to fold my ribbon in half to make a loop. This was completely personal preference and you could certainly just use a single piece of ribbon and fray-check the end.
- I wish I had made the slit for the ears straight up and down instead of at an angle. While the angle looked cute, I realized after sewing it all together that it makes it difficult to keep the ears from falling forward. I may tack them close to the base of the ears to help with this. (I haven't decided for sure yet.) I also haven't added the bow to the ears yet as I'm not sure where or how best to add it.
Also in the last week I've made a co-sleeper sheet and a pacifier holder.
How adorable is this owl fabric?!
What kinds of projects do you have going as the summer comes to the end?
