Soft Felt Toys Made of Wool, Felt, & Even Leather!

Here are a few more of the lovely toys from Naomi Tabatha's book "Felt Friends from Japan: 86 Super-cute Toys and Accessories to Make Yourself ". 

When you make your stuffed toys, be certain to use enough stuffing, and to put the stuffing in the tiny places first.

I used the blunt end of a bamboo skewer to stuff small amounts of fluff into the feet & arms first, before moving on to the legs & body.  This gives definition to the parts & helps to draw apart & therefore flatten out the stitching.  Be extremely careful, however, you don't want to accidently poke right through the felt!

It also helps to keep the picture around of the original, or else you might just have an eye-emergency glue-over-do-over.  Yes, here, you can see that the pink bunny's eyes are somehow different than the blue bunny's.   ....Hmmmm~ I wonder why the pink bunny would want to be straining her eyes behind her in that creepy sort of ~Exorcist~ way?  Thank goodness for more little black felt pieces & some glue, she can now look forward instead of backward!  ;-D

"Hey, Little pink Bunny Friend, where the heck do you store the carrots around here?"

Meet Mr. Sausage Dog.  He has his own orange silk velvet ribbon.  (How cool is that?! I finally found a use for that piece of ribbon!)

Since he is so loooong, leave an opening in his back, stuff his hind legs first, then stitch up the rest of his back,  progress onto stuffing his sausage-y body 1/2way, stuff his front legs, & then finish up stuffing the mid- to front half of him right up to the top of his neck. 

Mr. Sausage Dog is a proud poser.  ;-D

Here is Victor Giraffe.  He is from the book "More Softies Only A Mother Could Love: 22 Hapless but Loveable Friends to Sew & Crochet", by Jess Redman & Meg Leder.

Victor is made from re-purposed leather.  I went to a 2nd hand store & found several different colors of fine leather suede skirts (all you could stuff in a bag for $4), cut them up, & voila! ~ Enough leather to make 4 or 5 good-sized toys with!  I really love working with the leather too, as it looks sooo nice when it's finished, plus, it will last forever.

Victor Giraffe was a trial toy, to see how the leather worked out on the machine.  And I am happy to report, it works AWESOMELY!

This is Elsie the Little Dog from the same book as Victor Giraffe.  She is also made from some re-purposed clothing ~ this time it was a pair of Pendleton Wool pants, a black pair & a plaid pair (from the same $4 bag).  I just stripped out the waist, zipper, pockets & seams, cut off the lining as well, & popped the resulting pieces into the washing machine with soap & a hot wash cycle.  That felted the fabric nicely so that either hand-stitching or the zig-zag machine stitch could be used on it.  I added a black felt nose & an embroidered mouth.

This is a pear felt needle book, from the very awesome felt book by Laura Howard, "Super-Cute Felt".  I just love this book!  I don't know that I will make a ton of the items, but there are a few that, in my mind, make the book worth purchasing.  This needle book is one of them.

Very cute ideas & shapes, simple, easy, & really cute.  For someone that enjoys stitching, there are a few really adorable & useful items.  One ( which I am still making & will post a pic of when I finish) is an apple tart pin-cushion.  A helpful hint for the pin-cushion ~ if you stuff the cushion with a steel wool pad or two, ( put a bit of fluff around it to soften the edges), your needles will always be sharp & clean.

I added the floral embellishments, but they are easy, just start cutting some shapes out of your bits of left-over felt scraps.

AAAaaaaahhhh ~ and here we have "The Kidnapper" from Aronzi Aronzo's  The Cute Book!!  Bet you can't even GUESS who made him!  Yup, that's right, the 13 yr.old son who decided he really HATES the sewing machine.  I did have final pity on him, though, & let him hand-stitch the head & the hat.....much mmuuuuuucchh better.  (He does not love this home ec course for homeschool particularly overmuch....however, he WILL appreciate any future wife's attempts from here on out, I am certain.  ;-D)