Twenty-two Favorite Handmade Toys

One of my favorite things to sew are toys.  I just love creating a little treasure to take with me on a trip and give to my grandchildren.  Below is a list of some of my favorite toys that I've made, along with links to all the details of how you can make it too.  And BONUS: most of these little creations include a free pattern.  So, if you're in the mood to get your creative juices flowing, dig right in! This list is for you. 

1.  Miniature Stuffed Owl, free pattern and tutorial found here. 

2.  Long Legged Santa, a free pattern found here.

3.  Long Legged Rabbit, here.

4.  Seahorse toy, free pattern and tutorial found here.

5.  Teepee, big enough for an adult to stand up inside.  Link to the post here.

6.  Stick Pony from a sock tutorial, found here.

7.  Snowmen from scraps of fabric. Check out this post.

8.  Nativity Finger Puppets, here.

9.  Franklin the frog, here.

10.  A little miniature doll and some doll clothes too, found here.

11.  A fabric fairy house made from an old sweater (or felt). Go to this link.

12.  A fairy cottage made from an old sweater (or felt), here.

13.  This little toy elephant is found here

14.  A toy fish, perfect for a young child. Learn how to use a toy rattle to put inside a toy for pennies, here.

15.  Stuffed monsters, free pattern and full instructions here.

16.  How to create more stuffed monster toys with ideas on how to vary the pattern here.

17.  Stuffed Monkey, link to the free pattern and ideas on how to make a girl or boy monkey. Go to this post.

18.  30 Minute Stuffed Animal, complete directions on upcycling a tee-shirt found here.

19.  Make a mini beaver, link to the pattern found here.

20.  Doll sized 1950's poodle skirt found here.

21.  Doll sized travel suitcase tutorial.

22.  Make a few bendable fairies.  For inspiration, go to this post.

The best thing about this list is that most of these posts offer a simple tutorial that you can use to create your own ideas. Go ahead and make a new toy for someone you love or better yet for a charity that you love. It might be fun to incorporate some of these creations into a New Year's resolution! 

Merry Christmas to everyone!    xoxo Grandma

Fabulous Felt Food

Just like a lot of you, my Thanksgiving weekend was spent preparing a lot of food too. My food was a little different though. And inedible. It was made out of felt. 

A few of my granddaughters are getting a play kitchen for Christmas, and their mom asked if I would make some felt food to go along with it.  I knew it would take a while to make these items and since I had to ship them to her, I worked all Thanksgiving weekend to crate these delectable but non edible treats.

Click on the description under each photo for a link to my personal favorite free patterns which I used to make these felt food delicacies.

 Ice cream cones, Circus animal cookies.....

Strawberries, Donuts....

Carrots.....

Birthday cupcakes complete with little candles.

Slices of cake....(This kit came from a 100 yen store.  If you're lucky enough to visit Japan, make sure you visit these stores.)

Bananas with real stickers....

and oranges. 

I think my food turned out pretty fun looking. Hopefully my little granddaughters will enjoy playing with it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Happy gift making.  xoxo Grandma

Make More Monsters

This post is a continuation of this post right here, "How to Sew a Few Monsters." Check it out and then join us back here to learn a few more monster tips and tricks to making your little creations unique. You'll be glad you did, because these little guys are fun to create and are pretty cute too.  All children will love the gift of a monster or two.

You can click here for the free pattern.

In my pile of fabric scraps, I came across the brown fur you can see I used in the monster in the title photo. I've sewn on this heavy fur enough times to know that to machine embroider eyes on this stuff would be a little difficult.  So, this is what I did: 

1. Cut out an oval from the head area.  From fleece, cut out an oval 1/2" larger that the oval you originally cut out.  Pin the larger oval to the hole.
2. Sew the oval to the hole.
3. This is what the face area now looks like from the right side of the fabric. Draw a face onto the fleece, using a fabric pen.  Find some buttons and sew those onto the face.  Sew on a pom pom for a nose.
4. Sew some arm shapes together.  Turn them and stuff them.  Baste the ends together.  Now pin on the arms to the basic monster and sew the front to the back, leaving an open space to stuff.

My next monsters you can see below were changed a little too from the basic pattern: 

Here are a few more suggestions to changing up your monster's look:

1.  Use plastic animal eyes. (These are a quick way to add perfect eyes to you monsters.)
2.  Off-center the eyes.
3.  Add only one eye instead of two eyes.
4.  Add pointy horns that look like triangles instead of the curled  horns like in the original pattern.
5.  Hand sew pom poms onto the monsters for fluffy noses.
6.  Add ears to the top or side of the monster's head.
7.  Don't have enough fabric to add the arms?  Just like the furry monster, cut your arms out separately and sew them together, stuff them, sew the arm's opening closed.  Baste them onto the body and you'll have movable arms.
8. One final monster I created was for a baby, into that monster, I added a few rattle elements. 'Not pictured'

If you think of more ways to make these guys unique, let me know! I'd love to hear all about your creativity! Enjoy creating!  xoxo Grandma
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30 Minute Stuffed Animal - a Refashion

Who wants to make the easiest stuffed animal ever?  I love quick projects and this refashion to make a stuffed animal is so easy, you may want to make more than one. Plus, keep reading to find out how you can use them to help a good cause! 

Start this project with a tee shirt that has an animal on it.  

Using a washable pen, mark 3/8" around the animal. This will be your seam allowance.

Along the marked seam allowance, pin around the inside of your markings and cut out the animal.

Now re-pin your animal together with the right side of the image on the inside. 

Sew a 3/8" seam all the way around the animal, leaving at least a 1 1/2" opening along the bottom or the side of the animal.  Clip curves and turn right side out. 

Stuff your animal with fiber fill.  Hand sew the opening closed. That's it!

30 minutes later, you'll have a darling stuffed animal. I told you this refashion was so easy!  

Please think about making a few of these or other softies and sending them to Sew Mama Sew by April 30, 2015. 

• 
  
• Ship to:  Sew Mama Sew, 13850 SW Bonnie Brae St., Beaverton, OR 97005, USA

The toys donated to this drive will be given to children in foster care.  I just love when we can use our sewing skills to help children in need, don't you?  
xoxo Grandma

Linked to:  Creating My Way to Success, Nap-Time Creations, Crafty Allie, Totally Tutorials

Make a Mini Beaver - a Refashion & Free Pattern

Did you know that April 7th is National Beaver Day? If you didn't know, don't worry. That just means you've got plenty of time to create this little mini beaver to help you and your child celebrate this day in style. I'm an Oregonian, so my beaver roots run deep! 

After creating this little guy, I found a tin for him to sleep in.  Then I made a mini woodland pillow and blanket. I also made him a pine tree to take to bed with him just in case he gets hungry in the middle of the night.  I just love little stuffed creatures that have their own storage containers, don't you?

I started this project with a wool sweater that was accidentally put into the laundry and not caught until it came out of the drier. Sadly, this sweater shrunk way too much to ever fit a normal sized adult! A shrunken wool sweater is perfect for making a beaver but if you don't have a shrunken sweater you can also use felt!

BEAVER UPDATE, you had until July 2nd to download this pattern for free. This pattern is now available for purchase from my Etsy shop.  The pattern is a steel for $2.50.  Once finished, this beaver measures 3 1/4" tall and is 2 1/2" wide. 

So more about why I created this little guy. Like I said above, I grew up in Oregon and that was our state animal.  It's also New York's state animal and Canada's national animal... Any other Oregonians, New Yorkers or Canadians reading this post? Whatever the reason, I hope you enjoy making a mini beaver or even a colony of mini beavers!  xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Sew Mama Sew, 6 Weeks of Softies, The Dedicated House, Threading My Way, Nap Time Creations, The Dedicated House Before & After, Sustaining the Powers, Creating My Way to Success

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Bonny Bunny - a Softie

This 10 inch stuffed bunny was started over a year ago and has accompanied me (unfinished) on several trips to visit my grandchildren.  When I get bored on long flights, I'll read and often entertain myself by sewing.  This bunny came as a sewing kit called My Little Tagalong, named Bonny Bunny and was designed by Lois Thompson.  Little by little I've been embroidering all the details. I was motivated to finish it a couple weeks ago when I read about "Softie Week" at Sew Mama Sew.  Imagine my delight when I finally finished all the needlework!  On Friday night, I sewed the backing onto this bunny and stuffed it.  With the finishing touches, I incorporated the 10 Tips for Stuffing + Finishing Softies found in THIS post.   

I changed a few things from the original kit, like adding lace into the bottom of the shirt and on the cuffs, instead of sewing satin stitching. 

The kit came with a floral print to use to finish the back of the bunny. I decided that print would look goofy and used white fleece instead, which made this a real softie for a child to snuggle. To keep the back side of the bunny interesting, I hand-stitched a little pom-pom tail.

My last alteration was to add two small mother of pearl buttons to the bunny's shoes. 

On a side note, the directions that came with this kit were HORRIBLE!  Good thing I know how to sew. It certainly made traveling more interesting. 

Do you take sewing projects with you on trips? Would love to see them! xoxo Grandma

Linked to Crafty Allie, Nap Time Creations, Threading My Way