Sew A Softie Day 2016: Bacon and Eggs

Sew A Softie Day 2016

Sew a Softie Day – Get involved

I was asked by my friend Trixi at ColouredButtons to take part in the Sew a Softie Day project.  She has enlisted the help of over 20 bloggers, crafters and makers around the world to create tutorials for simple sewing projects that will be posted between 1st and 16th July this year.

Trixi is encouraging people to have a go at making these simple and easy sewing projects.  My daughter and I made these super cute bacon and egg softies as our tutorial to share.

From start to finish it took us under 2 hours, and was extremely satisfying.  We have since made quite a few other softies that we will be sharing on the blog as soon as we can tear ourselves away from the needle and thread and get blogging!  All of Abbis friends who have visited since then have eyed the craft table enviously.  Don’t worry girls we will have a crafting afternoon soon!

So grab your neighbours, get some classmates, or I definitely won’t judge if you whip up a jug of cocktails and have a girls night.

If you follow these or any of the other Sew a Softie tutorials, be sure to tag #sasday2016.

If you make these eggs and bacon,  I would be deliriously happy if you tag me in your social media photos so I can see them.

Fried Egg Softie

Materials Needed:

• White Felt (2 x 20 cm square)
• Bright Yellow felt  (5cm square)
• Puffy Paint
• Needle and thread (ideally in the same colours as the felt)
• Stuffing  (I used the volume of around 3 tennis balls to stuff these)

Draw a rough splodge shape for the white of your egg.  Any rough splat shape will look great, so don’t worry too much about an accurate drawing! Cut out the template. Lay the template over two pieces of white felt and cut two identical pieces out.  I just hold them tight while cutting, but if you’re worries about them moving – use a couple of pins (or safety pins if young children are involved) to anchor while you trim.   Cut a round yolk from the yellow felt.  It doesn’t have to be completely circular.  I cut freehand, but if kids are doing this, you can use a template again. Give the white some features. I love these cute closed eyes. Add eyelashes and a smile.  Copy mine, or go off piste with your own expressions / features. Allow the features to dry (we sped up the process with a hairdryer) and then start to sew.   We made a mistake here – as we should have sewn the yolk on first.  But being the consummate professionals, we pushed through this mistake.  Shhhh nobody will ever know.

Get Sewing

Add the two pieces together, and start to sew.  A couple of back stitches on the first stitch, will hold the thread in place.  I use double thread -mainly because I liked the look of it rather than because the softie calls for it.

Another tip:  On your first stitch, push the needle from behind so the thread is at the back of the softie.  That way when you trim the trailing string, any loose bits won’t be visible.  Do the same on your last stitch – pushing the needle to the back before trimming.

Sew all the way round leaving a few (3-4) mm margin from the edge.  When you are almost meeting up with the starting stitches, stop so you leave a gap for stuffing. Push the stuffing (I use toy stuffing as I know its safe for kids). £3 gets you a massive bag.  I like a plump softie, so I crammed quite a lot in here.  This little guy managed to swallow up a good three handfuls. Fill as full as you want, before continuing the stitching, and closing up the hole. Finally add the yolk to the body.  Annoyingly, I didn’t take any interim photos of this stage.  (And it would have been much easier to add before I sewed up and stuffed the white).   But it was fairly east to add anyway.

Place the yolk where you want it on the white, and sew into white by pinching together.  It was fairly easy to attach neatly.

As with the white, leave a gap just before your stitches join up (around 2 cm would be perfect) and stuff a bit more of the toy filler into the yolk.  Continue sewing all the way round the yolk.

Bacon Softie – Sew a Softie Day

Materials needed:

• Cream / off white felt (I used a strip around 12-16cm x 20cm)
• Red felt  4cm x 20 cm
• Puffy Paint
• Needle and thread (ideally in the same colours as the felt)
• Stuffing  (approximately 1 tennis ball sized handful)

Cut the off white into a wiggle shape.  The easiest way is to cut two retangles together, then for both cut an in and out curve.  Cut two strips of red the same length, but with non uniform wiggles.  The picture demonstrates it better than I describe it!Sew the red strips to one of the sides of the off white (You could glue if you are wanting to make these even easier).

I pulled the thread a little bit tighter, so it gives a slightly crispy impression. Add the two off white strips together again, leaving a hole to stuff, before finishing up the sewing.   The bacon and egg make a cute little pair I think
Optionally add features to the bacon.  

And there you are.  Let me know what you think.  I have another Softie project coming soon.  If theres any thing you’d like to see as a softie just leave a comment below.

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