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Home » On the Cutting Floor’s Blog » Circus Seal Softie:  FREE PATTERN

Circus Seal Softie:  FREE PATTERN

January 16, 2015 by Daniela Leave a Comment

 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.

  3. 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:

 

Filed Under: Fun Projects Tagged With: circus sewing pattern

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