ReCre8 Fabric Scraps: Stuffed Turtle

I have one little boy in my life who always has a creative project idea for me.    Some of them are not practical (such as a giant remote control gorilla).  So, when he asks me for a soft stuffed turtle, I can say "yes"!  I loved making this little fabric-scrap turtle for my son.  When you make a one-of-a-kind gift for a child, the payoff makes it totally worth it.

Supplies

• A piece of thin cardboard
• One piece of scrap fabric for the body.
• One piece of scrap fabric for the shell.
• One scrap of batting.
• Thread to match
• Embroidery thread
• Stuffing

Instructions

1. You start by cutting out templates from a piece of scrap cardboard.  You can just free-hand it or you can use this image as a template.
   
    
   Here is what some of the template will look like.
   
   
   
   
2. Double your scrap fabric for the turtle body.  Arrange the body template pieces (see picture below). Trace around them with a pencil or pen.  
   
   
   
   
   
3. Double the fabric for the shell. Trace around the shell template.
4. Trace the shell template onto your piece of batting.
5. Cut the shell fabric and the body fabric leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.
6. Cut the shell batting with no seam allowance.
7. At this point you should have 2 pieces of fabric for body, 2 pieces of fabric for shell, 1 piece of batting for the shell stuffing.
8. Assemble the Shell
• Place fabric with right side facing each other.  Using your sewing machine, sew around the shell with a 1/4" seam leaving a 2" opening.Stuff the batting into the shell and then hand-stitch the opening.
• Stitch the shell in spiral or desired pattern to give it a quilted effect.
• OPTIONAL: Using a backstitch with embroidery thread, make a design in the
9. Assemble the body
• Sew around the body with a 1/4" seam leaving a 1" opening.
• Stuff the body with stuffing and then hand stitch the opening.
10. Tack the shell to the body at four or 5 points around the turtle.
11. OPTIONAL: Embroider on a face or a smile.
    
    

Enjoy your stuffed turtle!!

Little Boy Clutching Beloved Little Turtle

Bringing joy to my little boy with a few left over scraps of fabric? That is a finer thing.

This post is a contribution to Finer Things Friday at Amy's The Finer Things in Life.

ReCre8 Old T-Shirt Projects: Memory Pillows (Epsiode 1)

So, this is my "5 minute" attempt at creating a t-shirt pillow.  I had this 12x12 pillow form sitting in the craft closet, so I thought I could throw together a pillow case for my 7-yo with his old T-Ball t-shirt.

I didn't want to mess with fusing and such, so I dealt with reinforcing the t-shirt material by using squares of an old sheet to sew underneath them.

Supplies

• 2 13x13 squares of old sheet or similar cotton fabric
• 1 t-shirt
• 1 12x12 pillow form
• Sheers
• Sewing Machine

Instructions

1. Pin the 13x13 square of fabric to the front of the t-shirt, taking care to place any graphics in an appealing place.
2. Cut around the 13x13 square.
3. Repeat for the back of the t-shirt.
4. Layer your squares with the t-shirts pieces sanwiched inside the cotton fabric.  (the part you want to show should be facing each other in the middle.

5. Using your machine, sew around the edges leaving a 1/2" seam.  Leave a 5" opening for stuffing the pillow form in.
6. Turn the pillow form right side out.
7. Stuff your pillow form into the pillow case.
8. Hand stitch up the seam.  (Here is where I tried to take a short cut and use the sewing machine.  You can see from the picture that it does not look pretty!  I don't recommend it!)
9. Ta-Da! now you have a soft comfy pillow.