On the Cutting Floor’s Blog

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?)

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.

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.

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• 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. 

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.

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.

Turn flipper right side

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

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

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

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.

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!)

Using a ladder stitch, sew up the bottom hole

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)

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• 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.

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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!

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