Home » DIY Tutorials » DIY Sewing » Sewing: Clothing » Baby Clothing » Basic Stuffed Animals – Part 1

Basic Stuffed Animals – Part 1

April 15, 2009 - By Ashley Johnston 36 Comments

Here are some basic but oh-so-precious little stuffed animals.

Here’s a quick tutorial for the elephant. And because of time (or a lack of) I will post the giraffe tomorrow. :)

You’ll Need:

Scrap cotton fabric for the front piece (or any kind, really)
Scrap minky for the back piece (don’t know what minky is?? Click HERE. And if you’ve never felt it…..it’s like the softest touch-to-your-cheek type of material. Yum.)
Coordinating ribbon
Batting
Sewing machine
Thread

Draw any sort of animal shape. Mine measured about 7 x 9 inches. Any size will do but make sure all of their extremities are wide enough to shove batting into. (Like the elephants trunk…….I had to be careful to make it large enough to shove batting in.)

Cut out your animal as the size you’d like it and then place it on another piece of paper and trace around it about a 1/2 inch. (Your seam allowance will be 1/4 inch but giving it a little extra will help with the size becoming smaller as you shove it with batting and it rounds out. Make sense? If not, it’s okay. You’ll see what I mean later.)

Then cut this larger pattern piece out and use it to cut a front piece out of your cotton and a back piece out of your minky. Make sure you flip over your pattern after you cut out the cotton, so that the minky is cut out the other way. This is necessary to be able to sew right sides together.

Then pin a couple of piece of ribbon to the back end, as a tail. Always pin towards the inside of your shape…….and then after sewing it will be on the outside. Be careful where you place it (if it’s at an angle) because when you flip it right side out after sewing it, it will turn out it a different spot. So pin it and see where it ends up as you fold it towards the outside. Gosh, if that makes no sense at all (sorry…) then just pin it however, and love it no matter how it turns out.

Then place your pieces right sides together and pin very well. The minky tends to slip and slide a ton.

Then sew slowly along the entire animal (1/4 inch), leaving about a 3 inch opening somewhere along the animal to be able to shove batting in.

***You might need to clip along any severe curves before turning right side out, so that those curves will lay flat.***

Turn right side out, pushing out any legs or trunks with the eraser end of a pencil. Then shove your batting in, pushing plenty of batting into the legs and such, to give them shape.

Then hand stitch the opening closed, with any sort of basic stitch and knot it closed.

Hooray……you’re done.

Now you’re ready to place this soft and cuddly animal into a child’s hands.

So sweet.

**Edit: Part 2 found here.

Author Bio

Article Info

Ashley Johnston

Administrator at Make It & Love It

Ashley Johnston is a professional DIY costume maker, sewist, crafter, and owner of Make It & Love It. She is a mom of 5 and a wife to a very patient (with the craft clutter) husband. In case you’re wondering, she always chooses crafting/sewing/designing over mopping/dusting/wiping base boards……but bathrooms/laundry/full bellies are always attended to. Whew!

Title:

Basic Stuffed Animals – Part 1

Authors:

Ashley Johnston

Categories:

Mentions:

stuffed animals

Keywords:

Not Specified

Last Updated:

July 24, 2012