Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Pink Octopus comes to life

So I had the fun task of making an stuffed pink octopus for a little girl. Here i will show you how it all came together.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics on how i made the head, so what i did was cut out 4 of the same size lemon wedge style pieces out...flat bottom and curved sides that come to a point. I attached 2 felt eyes on 2 of the pieces that would be side by side. I sewed those 4 together to the points. I used my how to make a fleece winter hat knowledge to make the head :)


Than after that I measured the circumference of the bottom of the head opening, drew it on a piece of paper, added about 2 inches than drew 8 legs protruding from the circles. I put down the underside of the octopus fabric down, than a piece of the pink fleece and than a layer of high loft batting ( I used high loft instead of stuffing it because i didn't want the stuffing to settle in each leg ) than i put the pattern i drew and cut out on top of all the fabrics and pinned it to all the fabric


After i had everything sandwiched together it was time to head to the sewing machine.



I figured the easiest way to get an accurate cut out without having everything shift on me was to just put it under the machine paper and all and start sewing. It worked well and after i finished sewing all the way around, I tore the paper off and than cut around each leg until i just had the bottom half of the body.



Me cutting around each leg.  After i finished cutting around, i pinched the middle of the body ( pink fleece ) and made sure i only had the fleece and not the batting and underside fabric and cut a hole out of the centre from the circumference of the head opening.



So what i did here was place the head upside down and stuffed it into the body part, pinned the opening of the 2 holes together and sewed around until i had a 2 inch opening. I than started by sticking a knitting needle in each leg and turning them the right side out and poking them through the opening i had left open to turn the octopus right side out.


Once i got the little guy turned all inside out i continued to stuff the head with stuffing through the opening until i could no longer stuff . Than i hand stitched the closing closed.



And this is the finished product, I did add a little tiny blue bow at the top side of the head.
This is the underside of the body.

Thanks for reading and looking at my awesome home taken pictures and handmade baby girl octopus.