Sock Monkey pattern

Sock monkeys have been around for a long time and a quick Google search will land you a huge selection of patterns to make your own. A few years back, I wrote an article for Good Magazine that included the pattern I use to make my sock monkeys. The pattern is no longer on their website and a friend has requested a copy of it, so here it is.

How to make a Cotton Kiwi Sock Monkey.

You will need:

1 pair of socks, the brighter the better

Sharp scissors

Pins

Tape measure or ruler

Marker pen or tailors chalk

Needle and thread and/or sewing machine

2 matching buttons or embroidery thread for eyes

Toy stuffing

Chopstick or similar to use as a stuffing tool

Red embroidery thread or wool to embroider mouth

Instructions:

1. Turn one sock inside out and lay it out flat with the heel facing upwards. Using the tape measure, mark a central point on the cuff of the sock and draw a line from the cuff to about a finger’s-width from the bottom of the heel. Starting at one edge, sew along the cuff and then up 1cm away from the centre point to the top of the line. Back stitch at both ends to secure your stitching. Do the same on the other side. You should have a gap between the legs where you will turn and stuff the monkey. Cut up the centre line and turn the monkey right side out.

2. Stuff the monkey firmly and evenly using the chopstick to push the stuffing into hard to reach areas. Leave about 2cm at the top of each leg free of stuffing to allow the monkey to sit more easily. Once you are happy with the shape of your monkey, hand sew the hole closed. The toe of the sock will become the monkey’s head and the heel of the sock will be its bottom.

3. Using the cutting guide below, cut out the other pieces of the monkey. 

4. Using  and needle and matching thread, create and attach the body parts as follows:

·         Tail: Cut the tail from the side of the ankle and along part of the toe. Fold in half, right sides together and stitch along long edge and then curve around at the bottom to create a point for the tail. Turn and stuff lightly. Using your finger, tuck in the raw edges and pin the tail to the point you want it. Hand sew to attach. When you have completed your stitching, push your needle through to another part of the monkey’s body, pull tight and cut. The thread will then be secure and hidden inside the body. Repeat this step with all other body parts.

·         Arms: Cut 2 wide pieces from the other side of the ankle. Fold each in half, right sides together and sew along cuff and down long edge. Turn and make sure both arms are even. Stuff lightly and stitch to the sides of the body about half way down the torso. When you have stitched one arm, pass the thread through the body of the monkey to the other side and continue stitching.

·         Ears: Make an ear template and  draw around it to create 2 ears from the sole part of the sock. Sew around curved edges, turn and top stitch around outside edge. Fold in raw edges and stitch closed. Put your forefinger in the middle of the ear and fold the ear around it to create a crease. Put a couple of stitches in the ear to secure it in this position and attach it to the sides of the monkey’s head. Repeat with the other ear making sure they are at even heights.

·         Mouth: Cut out the heel of the sock. Tuck in each corner and pin just below the ears. Lightly stuff and then hand sew it to the monkey’s face, turning under the edges as you go.  Using the red embroidery thread and back stitch, give your monkey a smile.

·         Eyes: Decide if you want button or embroidered eyes. Use pins to decide on placement for your eyes. Experiment with different eye positions. It can really change the expression of your monkey. Add eyebrows if you want to. If you are making this toy for a child under 3 years old, you should embroider the eyes instead of using buttons to make sure the toy is safe. Have a look at the monkeys below for some inspiration for your faces and added decorations.

A Big Little Coat

Last month I was lucky enough to be chosen as a pattern tester for Big Little's new Pixie Hood Coat for both the kid's coat and the ladies coat. The pattern was really easy to follow and made up very quickly. There are no tricky button holes (which I was very glad about!). What I love about this coat is the value for money with the pattern. You can get kid's sizes 1-14 in one pattern. There's the Pixie Hood Coat or the Pea Coat option (with a cute little collar) and you can download the round hood pattern (which is what I used on E's coat) for free from the Big Little Facebook Group.

What's even more value for money is that this week (from Monday 23rd March), you can buy the pattern for just US$8.50. Be quick though, the discounted price ends on Sunday.

The Ladies Coat pattern is being launched next week. Watch this space for links to that pattern then.

Miss Mouse

I do it every year. There are dozens of other things that I really need to do before Christmas, but I can't help myself. Quite often, it hits at around 9pm, the night before I'm due to travel to meet family. My husband now just rolls his eyes. He knows the futility of suggesting it's not the best idea. This year I'm feeling very justified in indulging my urges. It's not chocolate and it's not sex, drugs or rock n' roll. It's making last minute gifts. Pretty weird I know, but I can guarantee that there will be at least one of you reading this blog who will be nodding their head in recognition.

I made this gorgeous wee mouse from a pattern by Jodie from Ric Rac this morning and I'm totally in love. The pattern was so easy to follow and make and I know that Miss E will love her. 

This particular pattern was featured in Australian Homespun magazine in November. You can order a download a digital copy and get the pattern from there. I made the little mouse a bed in a craft suitcase. The mattress is a lightly stuffed rectangle of fabric, a smaller one for the pillow and I made the sheet/blanket by turning under and stitching around a square of fabric. I then cut out a square of minky the same size and zig zag stitched the two together around the edges.

Jodi has lots of other gorgeous animals and dolls to make in her shops and I highly recommend you read her blog. She writes stories for the toys she designs and is utterly hilarious.

Now I just have to make another of these for my other daughter. Or maybe I'll have a go at this fox instead.

Bees, Butterflies, Flowers and Frogs

Miss E's class is doing a little play in assembly next week. The other Mums in her class and I have been busy making costumes for the kids.

We're using the basic pattern from Emma Hardy's cute and easy Costumes for Kids. I've used this book for so many of the kid's costumes in the past and can't recommend it highly enough!

Can't wait to see them all do their performance!

Hello Again

It's been a long time since I've posted anything up here. I'm sure you've noticed ;) I'm slowly getting back on board with Cotton Kiwi after a long break to organise our wedding.

Happy on our wedding day

It was a fabulous day and just what we wanted. It's taken me several months to get back into the swing of things post wedding and I've been busy with managing three markets and the children and all the rest that comes with life. I made the tough decision last month to stop organising Devonport Craft Market. I was spending so much time on the computer at home that my girls were starting to question my availability for them. Luckily, I've been organising the market with Sarah McLeod of Songbird Designs for the past 5 years and she happily agreed to take it over full time.

Our daughters made wonderful bridesmaids

The girls are growing up so quickly and although they are well able to look after themselves in the conventional ways: getting dressed, staying clean, doing chores and getting themselves something to eat if they feel like it; I feel like they need me to be present more than when they were younger. They need me to help out at school and to be there to listen with both ears and answer questions. Have you found that as your children have grown older? This'll be the first month that I haven't managed Devonport and it's been lovely not to have all the extra work involved, but I know I'm going to miss it. I'm still going to be selling there. It would be too hard to say goodbye completely! I'll be there at the next market on 6th October and I can't wait.

Flower Filled Fairy skirt

I've also booked a stall for myself at tomorrow's Craft Harvest market (I'm the manager there so the application procedure was quite straight forward!). I've got flower filled fairy skirts, kids aprons, girls' dresses, boys shorts, sock monkeys, bibs, nappy covers and my new Waldorf inspired dolls. The market runs from 8am-11.45am in the Jubilee Hall at 545 Parnell Road, Auckland. The Farmer's Market runs at the same time just outside the hall which is great for coffee and treats as well as being able to do your weekly shop. Hope to see some of you there!

Our Creative Spaces and Elsie Marley KCWC days 2 and 3

So super efficient and organised am I, that today I can lump 3 posts into one. Fantastic! What a time saver! This is very lucky as time is not something many of us Mummys have these days. Actually, I don't think Mummys have ever had the luxury of time on their hands but that's a whole other post.

So back to the main reason for this post, the one hour a day sewing challenge set as part of the Elsie Marley Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Tuesday's hour allowed me to applique a little dinosaur onesie for a friend who is going to be a Grandmother soon.

 I am quite sure dinosaur experts would have a fit and criticize the non specific nature of  my dinosaur, but I like him.

The little zigzags on his back were created with ric rac if you haven't already guessed.

 And this was yesterday's creation much to the happiness of Dora's number one fan (who admits, even to me, that she has more Dora stuff than any little kid could ever need.)

 It's a bubble skirt made using a pattern from Making Clothes for Children by Emma Hardy . I've raved about this craft book author before. I love her simple and straightforward method of making really cute things and this was no exception. It took me 1 1/2 hours (including the time that it took me to unpick a whole bunch of lining fabric that had folded over double under my machine) to make the skirt and she loves it.

You can see where the lining meets the skirt outer to create the bubble effect in this photo. You can also see one of the many plasters currently being worn as an important accessory by Miss E. Does anyone else need to take out a second mortgage in order to keep their children in plasters? I believe she went to kindy wearing 4 plasters this morning. I hasten to add that most of the injuries that the plasters are protecting are weeks old or absolutely miniscule but they are important to E so I tend to just give in and give her a plaster! 

Back to the skirt... it has an elasticated waist so no buttons or zips. Super quick and very cute. One thing I would change next time is to make the skirt out of a less crushable fabric. I can imagine this skirt is going to be a nightmare to iron (when that ever happens... hah!)  and the pure cotton creases like you wouldn't believe. E is happy so that's the main thing! She has worn it to kindy this morning so I am expecting it to be covered in paint and playdough and mud by this afternoon.

There are some fab outfits being shown off on the Elsie Marley KCWC flickr group so go and grab some inspiration there. And while you are at it, pop over to Our Creative Spaces and check out everyone's Creative Spaces. I can guarantee that you'll be glued to your computer for hours.

Little fairies

I've been taking a break from my Cotton Kiwi shop for a while but I've been taking the odd commission. I've just finished a very sparkly little flower filled fairy skirt for a 2 year old which will be off in the post tomorrow. I sent one off to Australia a few weeks back and this little fairy's Mummy was kind enough to send me a photo which she said I could share with you.

 

Isn't she adorable?

Back to School: Fabric covered exercise book tutorial

The girls went back to school today and I have to say I'm feeling a little lost without them at home. There'll be plenty to do and talk about when they get home. There's also the school exercise books to cover and label with all their different subjects. If you are anything like me, you will hate the sticky backed plastic stuff that you buy from the shops to cover books with. It never, ever, goes on without wrinkles for me and there's a whole lot of swearing that goes on. Plus, I don't really like the high waste aspect of it. There's so much unrecyclable backing paper to pull off and the plastic coating, whilst keeping the books dry (and yes, this is a very good move for at least one of my daughters!), it just doesn't appeal to me. I should say now that I do give in to the kids and buy them one pack of the sticky backed plastic but the deal is that I then get to have my own way and create covers for the books that are far easier for me to do.

Fabric covered exercise book

If you have a sewing machine at home (you can get away without one but the cover won't stay on as well), this is an easier and much more environmentally friendly way to cover your kids' school books (and it makes sure that their books will definately stand out in the class room when they go to look for them.) Here's how to cover your books with fabric.

What you need:

Lightweight fabric (old sheets and printed cotton are great)

Glue stick

Pinking shears

normal scissors

pencil or pen

ruler (not essential but handy)

Sewing machine

• Iron your fabric out flat and place your opened exercise book on top.

• Lightly mark all around the book, leaving about 2.5cm all around.

• Cut out with pinking shears.

• Place your closed book in the centre of the fabric and cover the front cover of the book with glue and then place it face down onto the fabric. Turn the book over, being careful not to move the fabric on the front cover. Cover the back cover with glue and fold the fabric over.

• Open the book at the front cover and using normal fabric scissors, cut a square at the top and bottom corners. Also make a small snip as far as the book at the top and bottom centre (where the binding of the book is). Glue the longer side strip and fold it towards the book. Do the same with the top and bottom. Clean off any glue that might have escaped before you turn the book over. Turn the book over and do the same for the back cover.

• I'd recommend you leave your book to dry for a while otherwise the glue can clog up your needle so glue all your book covers on and then make yourself a well earned coffee before you start the next bit. When your books are dry, Set your machine to a zig zag stitch and stitch around the front cover and then around the back. The best needle to use is a jeans one but ordinairy needles will work pretty well. Don't forget to change it before you do anymore sewing though as the card will blunt the needle.
• If you don't have a sewing machine, you can just leave it at the glue stage or use some wide tape to secure the inside edges.

I also stitch labels onto the front cover of the books. Just cut them out, glue them in place and stitch them on. There are some really cute ones here:


http://www.ziggityzoom.com/print.php?activity=68

The butterfly ones are here
Good luck with back to school!

Sylvanian wedding dress tutorial

Miss M received a parcel in the post today. It was a vintage wedding car for her Sylvanian toys. She bought it second hand from Trade Me with her birthday money but couldn't afford to get any more of the wedding set so I thought I would have a go at making a little wedding outfit for her.

I found a set of free patterns for clothes here . They are in Japanese but there are pictures so you can pretty much guess what to do if you have a bit of sewing experience. For the wedding dress, I used the gathered dress pattern which is second from the bottom. Click on that picture. You'll see 3 lines of text underneath it which probably appear in Japanese script on an enabled computer but look like a bunch of symbols on mine. Click on the first one and you'll get the pattern. The second one has the instructions and pictures. If you are just making a plain dress, follow the pictures and you'll see what to do.

To make the wedding dress, I used an old baby t-shirt but you could use any white t-shirt. The benefit of using an old t-shirt is that you don't have to do any hemming because it's t-shirt fabric which doesn't fray and you can also use the bottom of the shirt or even the sleeve to make the bottom hem. This is a really good thing to do because it makes the skirt stick out a bit. Cut out the 2 pieces. The skirt should be about 4cm wide by 19cm long (I've made it a bit wider than the pattern so it's a full-length dress). Stitch 2 rows of 1cm wide lace along the length of the skirt and then stitch one row of lace around the neck. Stitch the two underarm sections on the top as shown in the Japanese pattern picture. Gather the top of the skirt and pin it to the bodice section and then stitch it in place. Try it on  your Sylvanian to make sure it fits (there should be some lap over on the back. Fold one side of the back over by a tiny amount (just enough to get it under your needle. Attach 2 long skinny bits of velcro to the back and you have your wedding dress.

To make the veil, take a piece of the same lace you used on the dress and wrap it around your Sylvanian's head to get the right size. Add about 0.5cm on the length of the lace to lap over at the back (you'll add velcro in a moment). Now take a wider piece of lace or about 8x8cm of net/tulle and fold it over concertina style at one end. Stitch the folded end to the skinnier lace at one end so that it will be at the back of the Sylvanian's head when it's attached. Now attatch velcro to either end of your skinny lace with the veil attachment and you are good to go with your bridal headdress.

For the bouquet, I totally cheated and I really don't recommend you do what I did if it's going to be played with by children. What I recommend you do is to hand stitch 3 ribbon roses onto a small piece of elastic so that it can be looped over the toy's hand. What I did was to pin 3 ribbon roses onto a safety pin and loop that over the toy's hand. That's because I'm lazy and because I needed to get off the sewing machine and go and make the kid's some lunch! The safer version will be made later when I have less hungry children and more time.

I've got to figure out how to make something for the groom to wear now. Hm, I wonder if the Mr would notice if I used one of his black t-shirts to make a jacket....

Matchy matchy

A new job and too many commitments have meant a lot of quietness from me on this blog over the last few months. I decided over Christmas to take a break from selling at markets for about 6 months to give me more time to focus on jobs around the house and doing the sewing projects I want to do but never have time for.

This is one of those projects. I found the tutorial for the dress here. It's for a smaller child than Miss E so I used the bodice of one of her other dresses as a template for upsizing the dress. It's looking a little wrinkled as she's worn it for 3 days this week (*insert happy mummy sigh here*). I ended up cutting off some of the skirt as I made it too long and then saw that this could be one of those happy mistakes as the offcut was exactly the right length for Miss E's doll Mandy. I used an existing doll dress to get roughly the right size for the bodice, used the offcut for the skirt as I mentioned (you only need half of the full circle of patchwork pieces for a dolly skirt) and now Miss E and Mandy can be matchy matchy.

So cute!

Big smile

Knitted Dan is sitting in my lounge with an enormous smile on his face. You know the main reason why. The boys won! Yes!

There are other reasons. He has Richie McCaw's signature right next to him for a start AND he's hoping very hard that the real DC is going to sign him too before he goes up for auction on Trade Me next week to raise money for Christchurch. Keep your fingers crossed on the signature from the real DC!

We'll be auctioning off some other fantastic Woolly Walkalong pieces for Christchurch at the same time. I'll let you know more soon!

Poor Dan

Yes, I know you are probably sick of hearing about Dan Carter and his groin injury but I'm still gutted, not least because I'm going to miss my 5 and 7 year olds yelling "It's our Dan!!!" everytime they see him play. My knitted version was looking very sorry for himself this morning too. All the wet weather (and I suspect a few 'helpful' people) had him looking very bedraggled.

Photo SaskiaN Designs

I took him off the wharf this morning to do some repairs and couldn't resist a few adjustments. I would have loved to knit him a sexy nurse to rest his head on but no time.

Knitted Dan is all repaired now. I hope the real one is fighting fit soon too.

We love you Dan!

Dan's back

I've just realised that I've been very slack in letting non-Facebookers know that knitted Dan is back. He was stolen from the wharf just over a week ago (poor Miss E burst into tears when she heard he had gone). Being the practical sort, I knitted another Dan. He's been back on the wharf since Friday night, complete with a chain through his middle to avoid any further pinchings.

Whilst I was attaching him, I got chatting to one of the cleaning ladies who works at the wharf. She had developed quite an attachment to our knitted tagging and had been holding on to bits and pieces that had fallen (or pulled) off because she didn't know who to contact about replacing them.I was thrilled to discover she had Elmo's missing arm and the missing owl so both got reattached whilst I was down there. Miss E was so pleased to have both arms back on Elmo and Miss M loved seeing the little owls having a hug.

 If you haven't been to see the Wooly Walkalong yet, it'll be up (hopefully) for the duration of the World Cup. Fingers crossed Dan stays for the rest of that time!



Dan's STILL our man. Replacement Dan on the wharf on Friday night, complete with padlock and chain.