Today’s contributor is Jill from Snugglebug University. All posts written by Jill for Make It and Love It can be found HERE.
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Hi, it’s Jill from Snugglebug University. Today, I’m going to show you how to make a seahorse stuffed animal!
Do you remember when I made a Cinderella -inspired bird canopy for my younger daughter’s bed last year? Well, my older daughter’s been reminding me for months that it’s her turn for a makeover for her side of the room. She’s super into the ocean and ocean creatures right now, so she asked for an “under the sea” bedroom makeover. This last month has been weeks and weeks of making all sorts of sea creatures: giant jellyfish to hang above her bed, mermaids and sea star pillows, a shimmery gold sea star garland, and seahorse and fish stuffies! Today I’m excited to share the seahorse pattern here on Make It and Love It!
The seahorse stuffed animal is about 13 inches tall.
My daughter specifically requested that her seahorse stuffed animal have a pouch to carry a baby seahorse.
Did you know that it’s actually the seahorse fathers that carry the babies? The female actually gives the male its eggs. The seahorse daddy then carries around tons of baby seahorses in his pouch until it’s time for them to be born. Pretty cool, right?
So yep, this seahorse stuffed animal pattern is actually a pattern for a seahorse daddy!
My favorite parts are the little details though. There’s yarn on his head and a shimmery back fin.
Of course, I can’t forget his eyes too! I feel like they make him look like such a cool-looking seahorse stuffed animal daddy!
Making a three-dimensional stuffie isn’t super simple, but I’m going to show you how you can break the process into a bunch of steps. It’s not as hard as you might think, and it’s so rewarding when you see it come together.
A note about fabric choices: fleece or a soft and cozy minky like fabric work great for this project! I actually used a performance fabric for the back fin and the belly pouch. I found my “fin” fabric at Joann’s in their soft and cozy fabric section.
Let’s begin making our seahorse stuffed animal. Before we get too far a long though I’d like to remind you that loose polyfil can be a chocking hazard for young children, so make sure that you sew all of your seams really well. You can use a double or triple stitch setting on your machine, or just simply go over your stitches several times to make sure that they are secure.
Now let’s cut out the pattern pieces, and assemble piece 5, which is located on two separate pieces. You can make a single pattern piece by overlapping the pattern at the indicated region and then taping them together. Cut out your pieces as described on the template.
In order to try to simplify things a bit here, I’m going to refer to the (fabric) pieces from now on by the corresponding number from the pattern piece you used to cut them out.
Start by sewing the red areas to the red area to the red area on piece one. Then sew the blue area to the blue area on piece 1.
Set piece 1 aside. Position piece 3 such that the base is located where the star is on template piece 2.
Then, leaving about a 1/4 inch open from the star, sew piece 3 to piece 2, stopping where piece 3 comes begins to come to a point. When finished, sew the other side of the piece to the reverse side of piece two. It should look like this:
Next, sew the pointed piece of piece 3 to the top part of piece two. (This is indicated by a dotted line on the template pieces).
Next, attach the black center of the eye piece (piece 9) by hand, and then place the right sides of the eyes together (piece 8). Sew around the edges, leaving the base open.
Next trim the edges and turn right side out.
Position the eyes as shown on top of piece 3.
Then put piece 1 down on top of the piece, aligning the center of piece 1 with the center of piece 3. Pin outwards from that point as desired.
Then sew around the edge, as shown.
Next, wrap about 60 inches of yarn into about 2-inch loops, and sew together. (You can adjust how much yarn you want here, depending on how bushy you want his hair to be).
Place along the top of the seahorse head, and sew the two sides of the head together, stopping at the X marked on the template piece. Below the X will remain open for stuffing. Set head aside.
Next place the right sides of the pocket together (piece 6) and sew along the top edge.
Fold to be right sides out and then sew along the top edge. Position on top of the belly piece as shown below.
Sew the belly to the seahorse body (piece 5–made up of pieces 5A and 5B).
Repeat with the other side. Set aside when you are done.
Place the right sides of the back fin together. Sew around the sides of the back fin, leaving the side open (as shown below.)
Clip the curves (do this by using your scissors to cut close to the seam, not actually cutting the seam). Add a little bit of stuffing in.
Set fin aside. Now is the point where you have to make a bit of an adjustment to the head.
Sew up the sides of the snout together (sew one side of piece 1 to the other side of piece 1–this is denoted by the dotted line on the template piece). This partially closes off the snout or nose of the seahorse, and allows you to make the opening of the head exactly fit the body of the seahorse.
You will notice that if you entirely close off this region (as I did for the pink seahorse) it will look a little different than if you just partially close up this region (As I did for the blue/green seahorse).
Now we’re going to sew the head to the body of the seahorse. Position the head on top of the body. Align so that the center of the head is positioned on the center of the seahorse body. Then sew the head to the seahorse body.
Now turn–so that right sides are together. Position the back fin piece along the back and pin in place. Sew up the back and tail of the seahorse, incorporating the fin in as you sew. Leave the back of the head open so that you can put the stuffing in.
Clip curves and then turn right side out.
Begin putting some stuffing in. I find it helpful to use a dowel to push the stuffing into the seahorse body.
I embroidered a mouth onto the seahorse (using a simple back stitch) with embroidery floss before completely finishing stuffing it. This allowed me to hide the knot inside the body of the seahorse. (Here is a good resource for embroidery stitches if you need more help.)
At this point, all that is left is to close the seahorse body with a whip stitch! A trick that I use is to tie a knot at the end and then push the need through the body of the stuffie and cut the thread then. That way the end of the thread is kept within the body of the animal.
The baby seahorse it made by just sewing together two pieces of felt, with a little stuffing added in as you sew up the seahorse by hand. I added the eye with a little bit of puff paint.
That’s it! Your seahorse stuffed animal is all finished!
Hop on over to my blog for more under the sea fun…like these jellyfish, this starfish garland, and these mermaids!
Happy sewing everyone!
–Jill
You can follow Jill on her blog (www.snugglebuguniversity.com), on instagram, on pinterest, and on facebook.
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Decorating a child’s room can be a fun way to personalize their space with your own homemade touches. Check out a few more cute ideas to decorate a child’s room or nursery: