Thrifty Tip: Make Your Own Stuffed Toys
April 25, 2008 by Maricar
Filed under Frugal Living, Projects and Crafts
If you sew and have a stash of fabric just waiting around, here’s something you can do with your kids this summer. Make stuffed toys or dolls with scrap fabric and left-over batting/filling.
1. On a piece of paper, have your kids draw whatever shape they want. Monsters, balls, whatever. Or you can base the toy on drawings made by your kids. The happy little stegosaurus on the right is based on this drawing by my son (Do you see the resemblance?):
2. Put two pieces of fabric, right sides together, on a cutting surface.
3. Trace or draw the shape on to the fabric (Outline 1).
4. Draw another outline around the first to make a 1/2 inch seam allowance (Outline 2).
5. Cut out the fabric shapes along Outline 2.
6. Sew the fabrics together along Outline 1. Leave a 3-inch gap along the straightest side.
7. Clip the seam allowance about 3/4 inch all around. Cut off the tips of the corners, if you have them.
8. Turn the fabric inside out. Push out the corners and other small areas with a stick.
9. Stuff the fabric with batting or fiberfill. Let the kids help! I used left-over sheets of batting, letting the kids tear it into small pieces. Use a stick to push the filling into small areas.
10. When the toy is filled as you want it, whipstitch the opening closed.
11. Sew a mouth and two eyes using buttons or pieces of fabric. If the toy is for little kids, eschew the buttons, to make it safe for them.
Even if you’re a beginning sewer (I am!), this is an easy project that takes just minutes to complete. It doesn’t matter if the stitches are uneven, the filling is lumpy, or even if you make the oddest-looking stegosaurus that ever walked this earth! You get to use your fabric scraps and your kids will enjoy the creative process.
Have fun!
via Family Fun Magazine
This is a great way to encourage your children’s creativity!
This is absolutely adorable, Maricar. Thanks for sharing. And your stogosaurus looks JUST like your son’s drawing
Its not a stuffed toy but try this.How about spending an hour getting your young gardeners (and those young at heart), excited about plants and nature? I thought your young gardeners would enjoy an indoor gardening adventure, growing the TickleMe Plant (Mimosa pudica). Recently featured by the National Gardening Associations Kids Store, http://www.kidsgardeningstore.com/14-1030.html
If you want to give your young gardeners an experience they will never forget, consider having them grow a TickleMe Plant. This is the plant that will close its leaves and lower its branches when you tickle it. They sprout in days and can be grown indoors any time of year. Just Google TickleMe Plants or go to http://www.TickleMePlant.com for seeds and growing kits. This plant has turned many kids into plant and nature lovers. I know, because I grow TickleMe Plants in my classroom. Your children may never look at plants in the same way and neither will you!
Happy Growing
Sally
That is adorable! My kids and I were just working on their first little “pillows” this afternoon–I’ll have to show them this for some inspiration! Thanks!
Hey, those are really great tips for homemade stuffed animal toys. I’ll make sure to try once. However, as I shuttle through two jobs, I rarely get time to do something this creative. So, whenever I need to buy stuffed toys for my son, I always get them from Stuffed Animal Box http://www.stuffedanimalbox.com/. They have a huge collection of adorable stuffed animal toys at quite inexpensive rates. You should definitely visit their website and check out their catalog.