Monday, August 03, 2009

wee easy stuffed animals project, fabric crayons

this is one of the projects i was working on last month: tiny stuffed animals.
they are super easy to make, i used a cute cotton ed emberly print, and just sewed around the animals.
i made a simple background cloth with fabric crayons.
here's how to make them.

i used 1 piece of print fabric with animals on it, and one piece of plain white fabric for the back. if you are using a print where you have animals facing both directions, you could match them up and make a reversible project-mine only have an animal on one side.

put the 2 fabrics right sides together, and sew most of the way around each animal, leaving an opening. i found it easier to sew them all before you cut any out.
cut them out.
turn them inside out and stuff. hand sew the rest of the way around. (sorry, no photo!)
these are the fabric crayons (from muji, my favorite store). they worked great. after using these or other fabric crayons, heat set with an iron on low heat, put paper on both sides of the fabric before ironing.
fabric crayons are great for kids too! here are my little pals that i made the animals for, helping me give the fabric crayons a test run.

if you wanted to do this project with small children, they could draw the background, or you could also turn their hand drawings into little stuffed animals.

24 comments:

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

That is such a cute idea, I love it! Any excuse to go fabric shopping. =) I'll be linking.

sonia said...

great! I love it..

Unknown said...

what a cute idea! thanks for sharing

Des said...

okay, you're brilliant! You win!

liz said...

thanks everyone!

Anonymous said...

These are great! Where did you get the fabric from?

Kira Franz-Knight said...

oh my gosh....cutest thing I've ever seen....ever! I'm a sucker for 70s-ish prints and I LOVE that you used these for a kid craft...you're my new idol!

liz said...

thanks! i guess i need to start stocking this fabric in my shop...in the meantime, if anybody would like some just email me directly!

HappySquirrelCreations said...

Hi! I hear you are in Japan....hope you are having a great time.

Love the project. I wanna try making these for my niece!

marion said...

yes please i would love to buy the fabric and also if you can get the ed emberely fabric tape

liz said...

thanks everyone! i am out of japan this week visiting the states, but i will have this ed emberley in my shop from aug. 21th after i get back. if you want to me to reserve some yardage for you, let me know by emailing feltcafeATgmailDOTcom. i have a feeling it might go fast!

Wendy said...

I love this idea!

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Wedding Diplomat said...

or better yet, let the kids draw animals themselves and sew them up!!

Zoe said...

Hello! I found your blog via Crafty Crow and love this - we've done something similar just recently where my eldest draw her animals and then helped sew them up:
http://www.kuvik.net/ztoft/playingbythebook/2009/09/14/owls/
Looking forward to reading more of your blog!

Likely said...

The animals are DARLING and making the fabric background is genius! What fun! Thank you for sharing!

Hooray for the Crafty Crow for great links!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! So cute and easy. This would be a great way to make gifts for little school friends. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Love Ed Emberly

YelliKelli said...

This is soOoOOOoooOoO Darling!!! I am so inspired to do this in my girls class!

Devon from Miss Make said...

i love these, they're so cute and the box full of them makes me think of a noah's ark set. they served as inspiration for my birdie sachet: http://missmake.blogspot.com/2009/10/oriole-sachet.html

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Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh this has to be on of the greatest and easiest projects. Thanks for the great idea. I am adding it to my "to make" list right now.

OnceUponAParent.blogspot.com

I wanna be creative said...

This has been in my reader forever, love it - and finally made some! http://www.flickr.com/photos/iwannabcreative/