Cookie Cutter Softies – #sasday2016

Welcome to my online tutorial for Coloured Buttons  inaugural  ‘Sew-a-Softie’ day.  Visit Coloured Buttons for a full list of Sew-a-Softie day workshops and tutorials 🙂

There are lots of great soft toy patterns available today.  Some are free and some are expensive.  Some are simple and easy and some are complex. But you don’t need the latest and greatest pattern or tools to make your own unique toy and have loads of fun at the same time.  

There are lots of things we can use to create a template for a simple toy.  For example, craft stencils or simple line drawings from a childs colouring book – or

** Cookie Cutters **

Cookie cutters come in a huge range of shapes and sizes these days and most of us have some lying around in a draw somewhere, and if you don’t, they are very cheap to buy. 

• Felt, wool or wool blend is best – Synthetic felt can have harmful chemicals in it.
• Small amount of fiber fill – if you can’t find a small bag of toy filling you can use the filling in a small pillow insert. You can also use wool fiber or some cotton wool.
• Embroidery thread – for adding decorations, details and joining your pieces together.
• Things to decorate – this is where you get to go nuts . Here are some examples: embroidery thread, *buttons, *sequins, *beads, ribbon, *safety eyes, *googly eyes …
• * Please keep in mind that small items like buttons and beads can cause a choking hazard for small children.

• Cookie Cutters – you can also use craft stencils or you can download this page of templates for the cookie cutters shapes I used  in this tutorial — Click here to download!
• Sharp scissors – fabric scissors are great for cutting the felt if you have them, but remember to use paper scissors to cut out your paper templates.
• A sewing needle – if you are using beads to decorate, check the needle is thin enough to fit through the bead.
• Something to make your felt – fabric pencil if you have one, or regular graphite pencil works great too.  
• Pins or glue stick – not absolutely necessary, but very helpful 😉

For a single layer softie like a heart or star, you can trace around your cookie cutter directly on the felt. Cut out 2, decorate with buttons, flowers or embroider a smiley face, then join the 2 halves together with embroidery thread, filling just before you close.

For even more versatility make minor changes to your cookie cutter.  Here are a couple of examples 🙂

Add clothing …

For something like the gingerbread man, trace around the cookie cutter on a piece of paper. Draw in the shirt,  and pants.   Use these to cut out the separate pieces that will be used to cut out the top and pants from different colours of felt. Then stitch on top of the main body before you join them together.

Click here to see the free tutorial.

Adapt the same gingerbread man cookie cutter to make a girl by simple joining the legs of the shorts across the bottom to create a dress or top and skirt.

Don’t forget to use the whole template with the adaptation to cut out the body too.

Eyes …

There are many ways to add eyes to your cookie cutter softie – 2 or 3 short stitches with embroidery thread, *safety eyes, *stick-on googly eyes, *beads, *buttons or *sequins.

*These alternatives are not suitable for toys intended for children under 4 years of age.

There are loads of ways you can use cookie cutters to make lots of fun inexpensive toys for yourself, your pets or with your kids.  Here are some examples of other cookie cutter softies …

Click here to download  the PDF templates sheet for these shapes.

I have a step-by-step photo tutorial for the Gingerbread boy in my Free Tutorials – click here to go to the tutorial 🙂

I would love to see what your cookie cutter softies 🙂

You can tag me on social media …

• Facebook:    @nittensandpatches
• Instagram:    @mignonpriderdesign
• G+:   +mignonpriderdesign
• Ello:   @mignonpriderdesign

And don’t forget to checkout the ‘Sew-a-Softie’ day Facebook group for other online tutorials and workshops that are happening around the world over the next couple of weeks.

Remember to share your softies with us by using the ‘Sew-a-Softie’ day hashtag — #sasday2016

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