How to Sew a Few Little Monsters

One of my favorite charities is looking for people to make stuffed monsters for the children's ward.  Working toward my goal of using up the fabric stash I've accumulated, I found some scraps of yellow fleece. So why not use this fleece to make monsters for them? It worked perfectly. 

If you want to make some little monsters of your own, here are the details: 

1.  Download the free pattern here. Then cut out the pieces as follows:  2 each of the body, 4 each of the horn, 2 each of the eye, 2 each of the pupil and how ever many teeth you want your monster to have.
2. Place your eyes, pupils and teeth onto the head of your monster.  I use temporary spray adhesive to hold my pieces in place.
3. Machine embroider the white eyes.
4. Machine embroider the teeth in place.

5.   Machine embroider the black pupils and then the smile.
6.  To make the hair, wrap yarn around four of your fingers four times.  Cut the yarn and hold the ends together.
7.  Machine stitch the four strands of yarn together.
8.  Baste the stitched end of the yarn hair onto the top center of the head.

9.    Using 1/4" seams, right sides facing, stitch the horns together.

10.  Clip the curves and turn right side out.

11.  Stuff the horns with fiber fill.

12.  Baste the horn's openings closed.

13.  Pin and then baste the horns onto the head as shown.

14.  For the tail, cut 8 pieces of yarn 8" long.  Sew or knot the top of the yarn together.

15.  Braid the yarn and knot the end.

16.  For the end of the tail, wrap yarn around four fingers 10 times.  Tie the braid around the center of the yarn.  

17.  Tie the end with a knot and trim the ends so your tail looks nice and fluffy.

18.  Cut a tiny hole on the center of the back at the tail marking.

19.  Thread the tale's braid through the opening.  On the wrong side of the fabric, sew the fabric back together and sew over the tail's end several times, because little children will pull the soft fluffy tail.

20.  Now, pin the front to the back, right sides facing.  Stitch around your monster making sure the horns, hair and tail are inside the monster. Leave an opening at the bottom of the monster between his legs.  Clip the monster's curves. Turn your monster right side out and stuff.  To finish your monster, hand sew the opening closed.

Monster-making is a lot of fun because not all monsters need to look exactly the same.  You can tweak my pattern to create your own unique monster. Not having to make the exact same creature over and over again is just so much fun....don't you think?  

For more variations on monster making, go to this post.  xoxo Grandma 

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