Sewing tutorial: Cuddly little koala softie toy!

Back in 2007 I spent six amazing months in Peru. I travelled, taught, learned Spanish, volunteered and learned how to weave. I made some really good friends too.

One of those friends is starting a project to improve the lives of some of the kids who live in local orphanages. I really wanted to help, but living so far away I was not sure what I could do.

I thought I would put together a package of handmade toys (including some of these koalas) and clothes and make some learning materials for the kids. Then I wondered if there would be something more long term that I could do to help. So I'll be selling some of these koala softies in my Etsy shop and sending on the money made from their sale to my friend's project. So if you can, buy a few for the kids you know and help other children at the same time!

KOALA SOFTIE

1. Print out the pattern. Cut out two koala shapes from grey felt. You will also need:

• two ears and a belly from a contrast colour
• one nose and two eye pupils from black felt
• two white eyes from white felt
• thread for sewing together and embroidery thread for sewing the mouth

2. Attach the ears, eyes, nose and belly to the koala front. 

You could glue these on, sew by hand or machine sew them. I machine sewed because of the quantity that I plan to make, but it is completely a personal preference.

3. Embroider on a mouth where it indicates on the pattern and then attach the back by sewing close to the edges. Leave a small opening between the legs, stuff the koala with polyfill or fabric scraps and then close up.

Cute and cuddly!

Works in progress: newborn baby hats, baby in a pouch, dinosaur softie, quiet books

As always, I've got a bunch of projects on the go at the moment. I've been busy adding to my stock of newborn baby hats as these have been selling really well as the warmer weather starts to arrive on the east coast of Australia. I added this dinosaur design to my hat range this week - cute no?

I'm also working on this baby in a pouch. I found the idea here: http://www.colouredbuttons.com/2010/02/inout-or-how-monstery-triplets-can.html and thought it was just too cute. Since her little brother came along at the end of 2012, Miss almost 3 loves wrapping her babies and I thought this would be a cute and portable little surprise for her when she goes into hospital for surgery in a couple of weeks.

The dinosaur softie is still not finished for Mr 9 months. I'm still at the feet and have been struggling to sew these tiny little circles to the base so that it can stand up. I'd been very tempted to just sew straight across the feet to close them until my mother (to whom I owe all of my sewing ability) suggested running a gathering stitch around the circles and pulling them in to fit.

I've now put together all the designs for all four quiet book versions that I'm planning to make. I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive so got a bit carried away and planned them all out. I'm waiting for a few things to arrive, but the biggie is the Heat n Bond iron on transfer paper - it's central to the whole process as it's what I use to attach the layers of felt onto each page. I still always sew around each piece just to be sure that it won't budge (can't be too careful with kids' stuff), but it really helps finish things off nicely.

Lesley :)