making a soft toy

i finally made my first soft toy for mackenzie. not too sure what came over me, but i found myself on saturday night, curled up on the couch, crying while watching rob lowe almost die on brothers and sisters, being harassed by my hubby for crying over the show, all while sewing up my first fleece toy for mackenzie. some of the stitches aren't perfect due to the amount of water seeping from my poor eyes, but i got ellie the elephant done. yep, that's what happens on an exciting saturday night in our household.


mackenzie has some soft puzzles that have little animals on them. i took my fave one, the elephant, and traced the outline on a piece of paper, cut it out and pinned the sucker to my pink fleece (yes, i know i used pink again, what a surprise). i then cut (2) pieces of fleece, the pieces for the highlighted areas on the elephant in a light blue colour, sewed those pieces on each side of the elephant, stitched that puppy up and stuffed her all full and fluffy. last, but not least - the button eyes. of course i had to use buttons, right?

the puzzle piece i used for inspiration

this was super easy and i now admit i am hooked on this whole soft toy thing. fleece is so inexpensive but what appeals to me most is being able to use up lots of scrap material or pieces from some of mack's fave clothes that she has outgrown or stained. i love the idea of making her little toys from something we already have in the house. there are a lot of resources out there on making your own soft toys, but this time around i wanted to wing it and ellie the elephant came to life and rob lowe didn't leave the show.


p.s. a big shout out to erica fritch from nouvelle mama for highlighting luvinthemommyhood in her newsletter! yippee - the mommyhoods first writeup! i will be writing more about erica in the next few weeks but if you want more info on nouvelle mama in the meantime go here.