Turtle Stuffed Animal

I was going through my old emails and I came across this project and I just had to put it up. Last Christmas I somehow got it in my head that I was going to make a stuffed animal for my nephew. Don't ask me why I thought I could do this. My sewing skills are minimal and I have never made such a thing. But I thought, "How hard can it be?"

I started off by doing a little sketch.

Then I taped a bunch of pieces of paper together and drew out my pattern in "real" size.

Then I cut out my fabric and started sewing! It all sounds so easy now. It is amazing what time will do. Actually I remember ripping out many a seam and thinking, "Why am I doing this?"

It was difficult to sew the rim onto the shell because I overstuffed it a bit. I ended up hand sewing it on and cursing myself for not giving a larger seam allowance. I also puzzled over how to attached the shell to the body and I ended up sewing snaps onto the bottom of the shell.


But in the end it turned out OK. Perhaps the shell should have been a little bigger and I may have overstuffed the rim, but all in all I was pleased with my first stuffed animal toy.