Well, I've been busy sewing away. Finished up my poppet for my partner in the Mini Poppet swap on Craftster and as soon as she's receives I'll post her. But in the mean time, I've been making Sock Monkeys! They've been around forever. They're soft,cuddly, very easy to do. I thought I would post a little tutorial based off of the instructions on the Red Heel socks. You can make them with any sock..just play around and have fun. I used the Red Heel socks that you can find at any camping/hunting store OR, since these are becoming more popular again, I found them at my craft store.
You'll need two Red Heel Socks, a sharpie, eyes,(buttons, safety eyes, google eyes),sewing machine (you can hand sew too), needle and thread, stuffing, scissors, and a ruler.
Turn your socks inside out and with your sharpie on the first one..measure three inches from the heel and make a fine line down the center. Round off at the ends like the picture. These will be your Sock Monkey's legs. On the other sock,starting about an inch above the top of the heel, draw a straight line. This will be your arms. In the middle of this section draw a line and round off the ends where the white/cream is. On the legs and arms, sew 1/4 inch away from the line and don't forget to round your ends. On the body,with your scissors cut on the line past the line you drew for the legs about 1 1/2 inches and turn it right side out. On the arms, sew up the center, round your ends and using your scissors cut up the center and cut them out on the line you drew across. Turn them right side out. Now on the piece that's left over,after cutting out your arms,your going to make your tail and ears and cut out your mouth. Do the tail first. You want to draw a line about an inch from the mouth and about half way in. (make sure and look at the picture) Draw on a tail. Draw on your ears and draw on the mouth about 1/2 inch away from the cream color on the mouth. Cut them all out making sure you leave half and inch seam allowance,except for the mouth, cut on the line there. Sew your tail, turn it right side out and stuff.Cut out your ears, sew them wrong sides together leaving a space to turn it right side out. Turn and sew the little hole together.
here's everything sewn and cut out...
I like to pin everything together before I hand sew it...here that is..
Sewing on the mouth is a bit tricky, and making sure you have a good seam allowance is important. I stuff it a bit and hand sew it on, tucking in the seam allowance. Then I glue on some eyes. I used the safety eyes and clipped off the shank. If you were making this for a child I would use the safety eye with the back on it.
And here it is...with it's friend..
I hope this will inspire you to make a Sock Monkey. Really easy, fun and their pretty cute and cuddly. Great for a child. I'm looking to make a little one next..just trying to find a kid size Red Heel sock. These instructions are right on the label..I just made them a bit easier I hope.
Have fun!
