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Circus Seal Softie:  FREE PATTERN

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 Hi there,

Thanks for visiting us today. This is the Circus Seal Softie:  FREE PATTERN, a contribution from Felt With Love Designs

If this is your first time in our blog, remember to check our FREE SEWING PATTERNS page.

On that page you will find our collection of free sewing patterns for women, kids and men.

You can also visit our SEWING TUTORIALS and our SEWING REVIEWS.

We also have an ETSY STORE, where you will find unique and modern sewing pattern for women.

I am very happy to have Alicia today on the blog. Her work is full of creativity and excellent ideas for kids.
If you have not check her blog yet, these are my favorite posts:

 

Now I leave with Alicia 🙂

Hi! I’m Alicia from Felt With Love Designs. I am really excited to begin contributing here!

I learned to sew softies from some old vintage patterns my mom had when I was in middle school but my passion for sewing toys really developed in the last couple years, creating toys for my daughter. My favorite toys to design are finger puppets, quiet book pages, and softies. (If you are new to quiet books, I am running a circus-themed quiet book sew along (including free patterns), starting with my intro, What is a Quiet Book?)

Circus Seal Softie Free Pattern

I am really excited to be kicking off my circus toy series here with this seal softie!!

The seal is the perfect size for baby and toddler’s hands, making it an excellent baby gift. I added a magnet to the seal’s nose and the ball to make it a fun toddler toy. Instead of using a magnet, you could sew on some velcro instead. If you want to make this for a baby toy, you could sew the ball to the seal’s nose instead and add a rattle to the middle.

Seal Softie - full horiz

To make your own seal softie, you will need:

  • The pattern

  • Fleece (grey, white, red, yellow, green, blue)

  • Embroidery thread (yellow and red)

  • Safety eyes (optional)

  • Stuffing (I use this kind*. It’s a little more expensive but SO soft and perfect for use with fleece. It doesn’t clump up and it’s washable. Love it!)

  • Magnets (optional – I used two of these washer-shaped magnets* so I could sew them in place. They are extremely strong and hold through several layers of fabric.)

  • Scissors

Before you begin:

  • Seam allowances are NOT included in the pattern. When cutting the pieces for the seal, you need to include a seam allowance for the seal body and the flippers. The neck pieces only need a small seam allowance on the side opposite the fold.

  • Seal Softie - seam allowance Seal Softie - flippers

  • I included pattern pieces for an eye but used safety eyes in my softie. If you use safety eyes, you do not need to cut these pieces.

  • When sewing softies, I use a very short stitch length so my stitches don’t show when the toy is stuffed.

Sew your seal:

  1. Cut all of your pieces from fleece.

  2. Line up the yellow neck piece on top of the red (larger) neck piece and blanket stitch around the edge of the yellow fleece. I left the red border unfinished but you may chose to stitch along that edge as well.

  4. Seal Softie - Neck piece

Fold the neckpiece in half, right sides together, and line up the straight edge. Sew down the straight edge, using a very small seam allowance. Flip the neck piece right side again.

Seal Softie - neckpiece inside out

Place flipper front and back together, right sides facing, and sew around edge, leaving the top edge open. I did not stuff my flippers because I wanted them floppy. Stuff them now, if you would like yours stuffed. Repeat for the second flipper.

Seal Softie - flipper sewn

Turn flipper right side

Seal Softie - flippers rightside

Cut a slit in each side of your seal’s body where you would like the flipper.

Seal Softie - flipper cut

Insert the slipper into the slit (the top of the flipper will be poking through the back side of the seal.)

Seal Softie - flipper in place

Fold the seal’s body in half at the slit, right sides together and sew the slit shut from the back side.

Seal Softie - sewing flipper

Insert safety eyes (or sew on fleece eyes.)

Match up seal’s body pieces, right sides together, and sew all the way around, leaving a gap at the bottom to turn and stuff.

Turn seal right side.

Slip neck piece over seal’s head and line back seam up with the back seam on the seal’s neck.

Seal Softie - with neckpiece

Slide a magnet into the very tip of the seal’s nose.

Stuff the seal. Stuff the tip of the seal’s nose and the seal’s head first to make sure the magnet stays in place. (Note: I always save my scraps and stuff the center of the critter with them. Great recycling and saves money on stuffing!)

Seal Softie - stuffed

Using a ladder stitch, sew up the bottom hole

Seal Softie - full

Sew your circus ball:

  • To make the ball, I used this pattern from the Purl Bee (the smallest size)

  • Scale down the pattern to 50 %

  • Alternate strips of white with strips of color (4 strips of white, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow, and 1 green)

  • Seal Softie - Ball pieces

  • Cut red circles for the each end of the ball

  • Under one of the red circles, sew down a magnet. Cover with the red circle.

  • Seal Softie - ball magnet

I hope you enjoy this little seal as much as I have enjoyed designing him! Stay tuned, I will be back in a couple weeks with some more circus-themed toys!

Seal Softie - up close

If you use this pattern to make your own version, I would love to see it! Come by and share on the Felt With Love Designs Facebook page or tag me (@feltwithlovedesigns) on Instagram!

~Alicia

*affilate link

Thanks for Visiting us today!You might also like:

Fabric Countdown Chain

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Well, hello there!

Today I am thrilled to introduce our new Contributor: Gemia from Phat Quarters!

Gemia is a very talented woman and you can find amazing tutorials and reviews on her blog.
Do not forget to check one of her great posts:

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Hi, I am Gemia from Phat Quarters and I am so excited to be finishing off my year with a visit to On the Cutting Floor! I hope you all are ready for a super simple, yet stunning project that you can use year after year, because that is exactly what you are going to get as you follow along with me today. We are going to create a Fabric Countdown Chain, just in time to tick away the last few hours of 2014. So let’s begin by gathering up our supplies. 
SUPPLIES
15″ x WOF Main Fabric (I am using Metallic Confetti from Michael Miller Fabrics Glitz line)
1/2 Yard of Lightweight Fusible Interfacing
12 Pearled Snaps
a Sheet of Heat’n’Bond
Coordinating Fabric – for your numbers
**7 Yards of Pom Fringe (this is optional but looks amazing!)The first thing we are going to do is cut out the numbers that we will adhere to the fabric chain pieces. I am doing this with the Silhouette Cameo using the same technique I used in this tutorial here.  You simply adhere the coordinating fabric to the Heat’n’Bond and then use your Cameo (or scissors) to cut your desired numbers. Then peel them off your cutting mat and remove the paper backing. Now set the numbers aside until later

Next we are going to cut the Fabric Chain pieces. I am going to make a chain that contains 12 separate pieces but you can make as few or many as you want. To simplify this tutorial I am going to show you the process I took using one strip. I would suggest, however, that you work in a production line format and complete each step for all your chain pieces at once so to save yourself time. To start take you main fabric and cut a 5″ x 10″ strip. Repeat this same process with the interfacing but reduce your measurement to 2″ x 8.5″

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Now take your fabric strip and press it RST (right-sides together) to create a 2.5″ x 10″ strip.

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Place the fusible interfacing onto the wrong side of the folded fabric strip and press with a hot iron to adhere.
Now you need to grab a number that you created earlier and adhere it to the right-side of the fabric chain. To do this simply place the number in the center of the chain and using a hot iron, press the number to the fabric. If you have a large ruler you can use this to speed up your process and have a more unified placement of your numbers.


Complete the chain piece by folding it RST and starting at the bottom of the long raw edge (leaving one short side open) stitch up the long side and across the top short side, starting and finishing your stitches.


Now you can turn your fabric chain piece right-side out and press it.


Then using the iron press the raw edges of the open side in about a 1/2″ on both sides and top stitch all sides of your the chain.

Once the chain piece was completed I decided that I wanted it to have a bit more pop to it. So I found this great aqua Mini Pom Fringe that matched my coordinating fabric and decided to add it to the long edges of each chain piece. 


However, I must now say that mini pom fringe is not for the faint of heart. I used my narrow foot and slowly attached the fringe with a top stitch.


Now we are going to finish the chain piece by adding a snap. I am used a pearl snap because that is what I had on hand and it fits the feel of my chain. But you could use a plastic snap, velcro, or even a button if you wanted to. It’s totally up to you.

 

Once you have all your chains completed your just interlock them and the close the snap.

 
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Now comes the fun part…using it to countdown the last few hours of 2014. We have a small activity planed for every hour -IF- my kids can manage to stay awake. We also plan to attach our Fabric Countdown Chain to a bunch of helium balloons and as each hour passes we get to pop one balloon until we get to the last balloon that will be filled with a bunch of confetti and candies. 

 

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We had fun practicing and I hope you had fun following along with me today. Come follow me on my blog Phat Quarters and on Facebook so we can keep in touch.

Thanks Gemia for this awesome project!!!New Years is one of my favorite celebrations, so I am making the countdown chain to have some fun with Owen 🙂

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FREE SEWING TUTORIAL: Insulated Car Seat Organizer

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 Thanks for visiting On the Cutting Floor today!This is the FREE SEWING TUTORIAL: Insulated Car Seat Organizer

If this is your first time in our blog, remember to check our FREE SEWING PATTERNS page.

 On that page you will find our collection of free sewing patterns for women, kids and men.

You can also visit our SEWING TUTORIALS and our SEWING REVIEWS.

We also have an ETSY STORE, where you will find unique and modern sewing pattern for women.

Car Seat Organizer
I have created this car seat organizer with an insulated backing that will keep my son’s snacks and milk fresh and cool for him.  For the pattern, please visit my store at Craftsy by clicking the blue button below
14060029052

 

Tutorial

 
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1. Fold the straps length wise and iron flat.
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2.  Open and fold both sides to the middle.  Iron flat again.
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3. Fold it again and iron flat.  Stitch both sides of the strap length wise.
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Pockets

4.  Place the insul bright in the back of the pocket facing piece.

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 5. Stitch around the insul bright area.

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 6.  Place the front piece with the facing.

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7.  Place the elastic and pin to the top left corner.

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 8.  Stitch around the area, leaving a 4 inches opening to turn the pocket around.

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9.  place the insul bright and the organizer facing together and sew along the edges.

10.  Place the organizer with the facing together, right sides facing and stitch around the edges again. Leave a 4 inches opening to turn around.

11.  Close the opening and put the contrasting bias tape around the edges.

 

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12.  Place the straps and stitch them in place.

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 13.  Finish the straps by folding the ends and stitch.
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14.  Place both pockets on the organizer.  Pin and sew along the bottom and sides.
And it is done!!!
Thanks for reading this tutorial.
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