TUTORIAL: Bring Your Child's Drawing to Life - Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my tutorial on how to make a softie based on your child's drawing. If you missed Part 1, you can see it here.


First, let's review. You should now have all the pieces you need to make the body of your softie - front and back.

5. Sew on arms, legs, antennae, or other appendages to make each half of your softie.

Here I'm attaching my monster's arms to make the front half of the softie. Pin the edge of your monster's arms even with the edge of its body. Notice that right sides of fabric are touching each other.


Sew on arms. (Yes, I sew over my pins sometimes. Just sew slowly and you won't break your needle.)


Repeat, sewing arms, legs, or other appendages to the back half of your softy. Now you should have your main body pieces - front and back.

6. Embellish the front of your softie.

Notice I did NOT say sew the front and back halves together. No, no. You will decorate your softie first - adding eyes, mouths, spots, scales, scars - whatever your child dreamed up.

Since the features on your child's softie will undoubtedly be different than the features on mine, I won't bog you down with too many details that don't apply to your project. Still, here are a few tips that may help you as you work.

Eyes

Cut all the shapes you need for your eyes. Because my monster has seven eyes, I needed seven round-ish shapes of white felt for the eyeballs, plus 7 tiny scraps of black felt for the pupils.

Attach the pupils to the eyeballs. Because I was working with such small scraps, I attached the pupils using a small satin stitch down the middle of each piece of black felt. (A satin stitch is a narrow zigzag stitch with a super short stitch length.) The stitching is barely visible in the photo above, but I know it's secure.


This is the underside of the eyeball. You can see the satin stitch better in this photo.


Sew finished eyeballs onto the front of your softie. Here I used a narrow zigzag stitch to applique the eyeballs. If you have a many-eyed monster like mine, I suggest sewing your center eyeball first, then adding the other eyeballs around it.


Cut remaining features (such as mouths) and applique to the front of your softie.

Again, I used a narrow zigzag stitch to attach the mouths. Note: I cut the teeth before attaching the mouths to the body. Wouldn't want to accidentally cut through that blue fabric, would I?

7. Embellish the back of your softie, if necessary.

My softie didn't need any decorations on its back, but if yours needs spikes, tails, spots, or any other features, now is the time to add them.

8. Sew softie together, leaving a hole for turning.

Pin the front and back halves of your softie with right sides together.


Find a straight edge, and leave a 3" hole for turning. The only straight part of my monster was just below its arm. Here you see I've double pinned to remind me where to stop and start sewing.


Sew the front and back halves of your monster together.


Remember, when you get to any arms, legs, or other appendages, sew around the outer edge.


Clip curves, if necessary. Fleece doesn't fray, so I didn't need to finish the edges.

9. Turn and stuff.

Tip: Use a chop stick to poke stuffing through narrow openings, such as arms and legs.


You're almost done!


Stitch opening closed.


Ta-da!


How's it look? The good thing is - if it looks like a six-year-old made it, you did it perfectly! How often can you say that about one of your craft projects? :)


Enjoy these pics of my little monster enjoying his new little monster.