With being sick and just plain busy, I haven't been too productive in the crafts department. Instead, I've been spending most of my time reading (currently working on the first book of Game of Thrones and looking for a good book on the history of European Art) and brainstorming for project ideas. Today, I decided that I needed to complete a project, sick or not! I've been meaning to make some stuffed animals for Winston, because it seems like every week I'm spending $10 on a new toy. I wanted to make Winston something that was somewhat floppy so he can toss it around easily (he likes to play fetch with himself when I am busy). I decided to go with a sea turtle so I could do the flippers and flatter shell version. I created my own pattern for this and have included it in PDF format. It should print to scale. You can use whatever fabric type you prefer, but I used fleece.
Materials:
- Sea Turtle Animal Pattern by Cuc (CupofThreads)
- 1/2 yd of green fabric
- 12x12" dark brown fabric
- 12x12" light brown fabric
- 3x3" white felt
- 3x3" black felt
- polyfill
Instructions:
- When tracing the pattern pieces, be sure to add 1/2" allowance and to cut on the fold where instructed.
- Cut the body pieces on the green fabric.
- Cut one shell piece on the dark brown fabric.
- Cut one shell piece on the light brown fabric.
- Cut the pupils and eyes on the black and white felt, respectively.
- Hand sew the pupil piece on top of the white piece as seen above.
- When finished, do not cut the thread yet.
- Trim the excess pupil fabric off so that the pupil is flush with the white.
- Sew the eye onto the right side of one of the head pieces (be sure to stay within your seam allowance).
- Repeat the previous steps on the other eye and sew to the head piece symetrically.
- Place right sides together of each set of limbs, tail, and head pieces.
- Sew all around and leave the straight ends open.
- Cut notches on any concave curves before turning the pieces right side out.
- Lightly stuff the flippers so they remain somewhat flat (you could probably leave them unstuffed too).
- Stuffed the head tightly to get a rounded shaped.
- Sketch a shell design on you top shell piece and sew with a contrasting thread.
- It doesn't have to be perfect and you can use random shapes in the design. I went with the design above to make sewing easier. I sewed columns of zigzags first from the head to the tail end. Then, I rotated the shell on its side and sewed the straight lines (top and bottom of the hexagons). To save time, I didn't cut my threads after each straight line. After my backstitches, I just moved the shell over the next section and continued sewing.
- Place the bottom shell piece right side up.
- Pin the neck of the head piece to the top of the shell (the wider, flatter end). Make sure the top of the head is facing up!
- Also, pin the flippers as pictured above.
- Once all the body pieces are pinned, pin the top shell right side down over the ensemble. Remove the pins from the previous step as you do this.
- Sew all around, but leave 4" open at the tail end.
- Turn it right side out and stuff the shell. Sea turtle shells are flatter, so do not over stuff.
- Pin the tail in place and sew the open shut with ladder stitches.
Winston has a new friend!
