Making a simple *Whale* softie

We've been learning about Whales this week and for our first CRAFT + MAKiNG DAY I decided that L and I would make a soft Whale toy.

Meet "Cutie" :)

L had wanted to buy a soft whale at the lighthouse when we were whale watching earlier in the week, and I thought that this would a wonderful opportunity to show him that sometimes we can MAKE the things that we want!

Here's a simple step-by-step:

1. Use Google Images to find the shape that you want. Lovely chose this one.
2. Print out the image & make any alterations.

3.  Choose some fabric and lay two pieces on top of each other, with the wrong side facing out.

4. Cut out your fabric. I pinned the paper to my fabric and cut an wide edge around it all.

5. Draw a line  where you will be stitching (it won't be visible as you are working on the 'wrong' side)

6. Get stitching! 

We alternated 3 stitches each. Kinda ;) Me, Me, Lovely, Me, Lovely, Me, Me, Me. Lol.

He's hesitant about sewing but I really wanted him to practice and to be able to feel a sense of ownership in the work. At the same time I didn't pressure him to do more than he wanted.

7. Stitch all the way around your shape but leave a reasonably large gap for the next step...
8. Turn it inside out. Or outside in. You know what I mean!
This can be fiddly - I realised that we'd never get the spout turned so it got culled at this point. You can use a blunt lead pencil to help you.

9. Make any *extras* you want to include. 

Lovely coloured a heart for our whale :) and we choose some small crystals too.

10. Stuff your softie!

We used pure fleece - it's so beautiful. Lovely enjoyed this part a lot. We added the extras as we went.

11. Stich up that gap & embroider a few simple details like the face we did & Voila! A new friend :)