Soft Toy Making at Home
The soft toy is the ultimate comfort item for a baby, or even for the big child in yourself! We all grew up with a favourite soft toy and often battered them along the way with a little too much love. Although your cuddly giraffe may have lost an eye, or your soft toy puppy only had three legs, it still brought us endless joy.
With soft toy making at home, you no longer need to head to the shops to seek out a new gift for yourself or someone else. You can create an endless range of styles, colours and sizes and this soft toy making tutorial is a great place to start! Grab your sewing needles and let’s get to work.
Soft Toy Making Tutorial
Soft toy making at home could seem impossible, especially if you’re a complete beginner to the world of fabrics and cotton. The great thing is, this soft toy making tutorial makes it as simple as can be. You will need some patience and may need to work on developing a steady hand, but you can get started on this fun and unique past-time.
Ready to make a cute teddy bear? You may need to buy some basic sewing equipment, unless you’re already a sewer. Don’t stress – the list may be long but most of it is available cheaply, and buying the stuff is half the fun.
You will need:
- Sharp fabric scissors
- Paper scissors (to cut templates from cardboard)
- Needles. Go for the sharpest and best quality needles you can find. You should be able to find useful starter needle sets in most stores, and some doll needles would come in handy
- Pins (to hold the fabric in place)
- Sewing machine. This is OPTIONAL! If you want results quicker, a sewing machine is a good choice. However, hand sewing can be an enjoyable and relaxing activity
- Fabric marker. You can purchase erasable fabric markers if you want to be able to get rid of your markings
- Use fabrics that don’t fray. Aside from that, you can really enjoy the range on offer here! Choose between cotton, velvet, fur, felt or anything you desire!
- Sewing cotton or polyester thread is fine. You can also use embroidery thread for facial details like the eyes and button nose
- Toy eyes or other features. You can buy accessories in most fabric shops and this is a fun way to make your soft toy stand out
- Craft glue
- Card
- This is used to fill out your soft toy and make it feel plush. Go for polyester fibrefill or any other stuffing you might prefer
The method
For a simple soft toy tutorial to make your first ever homemade toy, look no further.
- Plan the toy. Choose which animal you’re going to make and how it will look. Do you want a purple bunny rabbit, or a pink tiger? The real world takes a backseat here, you can choose whatever you please.
- Prepare the fabric. Fold the fabric in half, the side that will face inwards should face out at this point. Draw the body of your animal. Don’t worry about details like legs, ears and arms just yet. Cut the shape so it’s a little outside the line – you need this extra space for the sewing stage.
- Start sewing. Thread your needle. Note that you should use cotton thread for cotton fabric and polyester thread for synthetic fabric. Knot the thread big enough so it doesn’t fall through the eye of the needle. Stitch along the edge of the fabric, but leave a space of 2-3 inches so you can insert the stuffing.
- Stuff it up. Turn the fabric inside out and add the stuffing to make it soft and cuddly. Stitch up the space that you left and secure it with a large, strong knot.
- Make the rest of the body. Follow steps 2-4 with the animal’s arms, legs, tail and any other body part you need. You can use the same fabric or mix it up with a new colour or pattern. Sew all these parts to its body and start to see your creation forming!
- Decorate the soft toy. This is the part where you get to be creative. You can use buttons for the face or you can embroider facial details yourself. Does your animal wear a waistcoat? Sew real buttons on for this. You can really have fun here and bring your furry friend to life!
Benefits of Soft Toy Making
Soft toy making at home isn’t a very common hobby. In fact, you might not know a single person that does it! That’s a shame, as it’s actually an extremely enjoyable and beneficial hobby. So, what’s so great about making cuddly animals?
You can save money
Like cooking, baking and building a house, it’s usually cheaper to buy the ingredients and do it yourself! Purchasing soft toys from a store can be an expensive buy, and some of them are too cute to resist! It makes more sense for you to buy the cheap fabric and sewing materials and learn a new skill along the way.
Be individual
Homemade soft toys are an unbeatable gift for a family member or a friend’s child. You can customise the present to your heart’s content. Does the child have a favourite animal or colour? Can you embroider the child’s name on the gift? You’ll be able to make something they wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else in the world.
Get crafty with your kids
While soft toy making at home brings out your creative side, it’s also a perfect way to entertain your children! Kids love the process and love the final soft animal even more! As long as you supervise the use of sharp needles and scissors, this can be a great activity for a rainy day at home.
Benefits for your children
Soft toys are known to have a positive impact on your child’s life. Children use soft play to explore and learn about the world. They can offer warmth and security and are flexible enough to withstand the bites, tugs and pulls from a child!
It also offers an avenue for your child to develop their emotional sense as they form an attachment to the toy. Children pass on the things they learn from their parents to their cuddly toys, boosting social skills and helping them to understand language and tone of voice.
Make Money from your Hobby!
On top of the benefits for yourself and your children, you can actually make some money from your newly learned skill. Turn your passion for sewing into a business and watch your creativity and your bank account blossom!
A simple way to start is by using online marketplaces like Etsy. Etsy is a great place for sellers that have unique, personalised items on offer and it’s easy to set up your own online store on the website. Users will search for terms like “soft toys” or “teddy bears” and land directly on your page!
If you want your prospective buyers to see your creations in person, you can attend physical market stalls. Find out what events and sales fairs are going on near you and apply for a stand. It’s usually quite cheap and you get to meet long-term customers and show off what you can do. You could also take orders from people and make them a soft toy to measure.
Other money making methods include becoming a teacher and passing on your skills, either by online videos and courses, or real-life classes. Once you become a real expert, you can apply to become a designer for one of the big toy making companies and turn your hobby into a long-term, successful career.
Soft toys have always been a fond memory of most childhoods. So many films, from Toy Story to Pinocchio, depict toys coming alive because – let’s admit it – we’ve all wished our beloved toys would come alive at some point!
Start this new and exciting hobby to make memories with your child and help them grow, while you make money and develop a crafty skill.
