Stuffed Animal Food Critters

When Trish used her sewing skills to create a playful stuffed bacon critter as a prize for a bacon cook-off, she had no idea how the idea would sizzle. In this project, she shares how she expanded the menu to include a complete meal of a ham, broccoli and a tomato.

Tomato

Materials:

red felt
scraps of green and black felt
stuffing
needle
thread
paper for pattern
scissors

1. Cut out six identical football-shaped pieces of red felt, 8 inches high at the pointy ends and 4 inches wide at the rounded sides (figure A).

2. Sew the six pieces together along the rounded edges. When you sew the first piece to the sixth piece to complete the circle, only sew about halfway up the edge to leave an opening (figure B).

3. Turn right side out through that opening and stuff evenly throughout the ball.

4. Sew up the opening using the ladder stitch, which is invisible.

5. To make the green top and bottom, cut out two circles in green felt (one can be slightly larger than the other). Cut triangular notches around each circle to form a jagged leaf-like edge. Glue the larger circle to the top of the tomato and the smaller circle to the bottom of the tomato (figure C).

6. Cut eyes, a mouth, and maybe a nose out of black felt. These can be any size and shape that you want. Glue to tomato and voila!

Materials:

maroon, pink felt
scraps of brown, white, and black felt
batting
muslin or other cheap cotton material
stuffing
needle
thread
paper for pattern
scissors

1. Cut an oval shape out of pink for the face (figure A). Measure around the oval and divide by two; that will be the width of the rind pieces' straight edge.

2. Cut two identical rind pieces (basically half-circles or half-ovals). Cut two pieces of batting and two pieces of the muslin in the same shape as the rind pieces. Place each piece of batting between a piece of felt and a piece of muslin. Sew together around the edges.

3. Quilt each rind in a diamond pattern (figure B). Just sew parallel diagonal lines in one direction; then sew diagonal lines slanting the opposite direction to make diamond shapes.

4. Sew the straight edge of each rind to the pink face with right sides together. Sew the curved edges of the rinds together, leaving an opening on one side.

5. Turn right side out and stuff. Sew opening shut using a ladder stitch.

6. Cut a circle of brown felt and a slightly larger circle of white felt. Glue the brown to the white so it looks like a round bone. Glue this to the pink face in the position of one eye.

7. Cut out another eye and a mouth out of black felt. Glue into place.

Materials:

light green, dark green felt
scraps of black felt for face
stuffing
needle
thread
paper for pattern
scissors

1. Cut two trapezoid shapes of light green felt for the stalk.

2. Cut two bushy cloud shapes of dark green felt for the florets.

3. Sew each of the floret shapes on top of a stalk shape (figure A), making sure that you are creating two exact mirror-image pieces. Since the entire floret shape will show, this stitching will be visible on the outside, so use either invisible or matching green thread.

4. Place right sides together and sew around the edges, leaving an opening for turning right side out and stuffing.

5. Turn right side out.

6. Cut an upside-down triangle out of each side of the stalk; the sides of the triangle should be parallel with the sides of the stalk. This will create the look of branching.

7. Sew the two stalk sides together along the edges of the triangle. Again, this stitching will be visible, so use either invisible or matching light green thread.

8. Stuff. Use a chopstick, pencil, or other tool to work the stuffing into the crevices. This is a little tricky for the floret because of the triangle blocking the way. Sometimes Trish will partially stuff the top before she sews the triangle up, but she says that creates its own difficulties too!

9. Once stuffed, sew opening shut using the ladder stitch.

10. Cut out a face out of black felt and glue.

Website: www.craftyplanet.com