Caterpillar Toy Tutorial

Ok. Sorry for the lack of posting here, but I got in a fight with my sewing machine. I tried to make a 90 minute shirt for Hero and it went VERY BADLY. It was completely due to my poor pattern making... I'll try again later.

But oh well, I'm back with what I do well. Toys.

Look how cute!! It'a another bug!

With the fun prints and the big button tail, how could you not want one?

Here's what you'll need:

• 5 rectangles cut 6" x 8"  (body/top)
• 5 rectangles cut 6" x 3"  (belly/underside)
• 24 pieces of ribbon cut 2 1/2" long
• small pieces of felt in white and blue
• small black button and large color button

There's a small blue ribbon I planned to use for antenna, that I ended up not using. Sorry to confuse!

First arrange the pieces to your liking. I chose to mix and match.

Sew the top pieces all together in a strip with 1/2" seam, and repeat on the belly pieces. Press seams open.

Pin legs on the right side of the underside (6 per section/3 per side) on all sections but one end (this will be the head). Place the middle leg in the center of each piece. Pin the other two about 3/4" away from center leg. Baste on.

Sew the top to the underside into a long tube with a 1/2" seam.

Take one end and gather it together and sew it down. (I did the face end, but later wondered if I should have done the tail end instead...).

Turn the tube right side out. To stuff the body, you will stuff it one section at a time. Gather along the seam with a running stitch using 2 strands of embroidery floss (for strength).

Tie a knot on one side seam, gather over the top and end on the other side seam.

Continue one section at a time until the end.

Gather the tail end together. Here's where I thought I might have changed my mind. The machine sewn end looked nice enough to be finished... So if you don't want a large button on the tail end, just do the machine gather sew on the tail end instead of the head.

To finish up the caterpillar, sew a large button on the tail end and the face on the head end.

 And you're done!

Give it to the cutest kid you see and watch him love it!