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| pink
felt squirrel for jim |
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Intro
Here's the pink felt squirrel I made
my friend Jim
for his birthday. He's got some special bond with squirrels.
He's a squirrel kind of guy. The finsihed squirrel is
about 8"x8".
Materials
- fuschia
felt
- maroon
felt
- brown
felt
- tan
felt
- fuschia
thread
- black
embroidery floss
- fiberfill
Tools
- sharp
scissors
- sewing
machine
- pins
- needle
- knitting
needle
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1.
I sketched the squirrel shape with a
Sharpie. I used the Sharpie for three reasons:
1. I love Sharpies.
2. I tend to simplify my drawing when I draw with Sharpies
- a good thing when making pillow type stuffed animals.
3. Sharpie lines are dark enough that I can lay another
piece of paper over the first to trace and refine the
shape. It took about 6 drawings to get the shape I wanted.
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2.
I enlarged the sketch on my copier a tad
and cut it out. Here it is pinned on the felt I was going
to use. I had brown felt, but the color was too blah for
Jim. I used fuschia for the top layer, and dark red/maroon
for the bottom layer. I had enough fuschia for both, but
thought the two-tone was more interesting. |
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3.
I cut through the two layers. Felt shows
every uneasy cut, so if you're trying to make something
like this, try to cut with confident strokes. You can
always trim down, but it's slightly tricky.
I
modified the shape by keeping part of the tail connected
to the squirrel's back. I though that if I separated
it, it would flop down.
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4.
Here's the cut felt with the face added.
I embroidered the fuschia layer with black floss. I
used a satin stitch for the eyes and a chain stitch
for the mouth.
As
you can see, the ears are missing. I didn't want ears
to be two layers thick, just the maroon felt. I could
have just cut off the fuschia layer's ears, but I thought
that they would stick up better if they were sewn between
the two layers.
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5.
So, I sewed the two layers together with
fuschia thread. The white ears show where I positioned
the ears cut from the maroon felt. I sewed along the edge
with about 1/8" seam allowance - all but the two
areas between the white dots. The white dots on the tail
made the gap to stuff the tail, the two at the bottom
allowed me to stuff the body. First, I stuffed the paws
and foot (using a knitting needle to get the stuffing
in those small corners), then the head then the body and
tail. These animals use a small amount of fiberfill. If
you use too much, it'll be too puffy making the felt wrinkle
and the animal less recognizable. |
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1.
I then sewed up the holes and made the
acorn. Sewing up the holes isn't too tough, because
it's not very puffy. Just make sure to have the seams
line up.
The
acorn. and it's cap are made with two layers of felt
unstuffed. The stem was sewn between the two layers
or the cap, like the squirrel's ears.
And
there you have it! A pink, felt birthday squirrel.
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