Project #2: Stuffed Softy

Until today, this post featured information about a charity group that knits and crochets stuffed animals for children in need.  I devised a simple way to make a stuffy from previously knitted swatch squares, as opposed to knitting from scratch. My intention with this s w a t c h m o n s t e r project was to give a positive shout-out to that group, give the group's crafters a new technique for their repertoire, and to donate this toy to the cause.  Unfortunately, my effort didn't go over so well with the group's founder, so to make peace, I made several deletions both on this site and elsewhere on the internet.

This project is so easy to make that it hardly needs a tutorial, but I just couldn't bring myself to delete everything that I put together for my original post.

To make a 12-inch tall stuffed animal (which you could turn into a cat, a pig, a bear, an alien, etc.) you will first need to gather eight (8) swatches, each about 4 inches square. Choose swatches with tighter gauges to better contain the stuffing.  But if your swatches are loosely knit, you can still use them; just weave in scraps of extra yarn, as you'll see later in this tutorial.

Next, decide which swatch will be for which body part by laying them out like so:

*Head -- 2 swatches, one front and one back
*Torso -- 2 swatches, one front and one back
*Arms -- 2 swatches, one left arm and one right arm
*Legs -- 2 swatches, one left leg and one right leg

Body pieces laid out -- arms have already been sewn up and stuffed

Keep sewing and stuffing . . . Here I turned the legs sideways before sewing because I preferred it that way . . . Also, the torso swatch piece happened to have a lot of gaps due to seed stitch, so I wove a continuous piece of yarn up and down the torso to keep the fiberfill stuffing in.  The weaving adds some happy color, too.

Home stretch: Here is the completed stuffed animal -- species unknown! The finishing touches are to sew down the ears and add facial features.  For a little panache, I added a crocheted vest.  The tag is another sweet detail (think Paddington Bear) but it is not necessary.

This was fun to make -- more stuffies from swatches coming soon . . .

Until next time,

s w a t c h m o n s t e r