DIY Stuffed Dino
While I’m waiting for baby to arrive I’ve been trying to get in good restful time but also don’t want to spend it scrolling, and crafting has (obviously) been the go-to! I had some extra fabric and stuffing leftover from the Number Pillows so decided to make this experimental stegosaurus. I don’t have a very good detailed step-by-step to share since this was a total experiment in the moment, but I’ll try to summarize what worked!
STEP BY STEP
Draw a general pattern for the shape of the body on paper, and cut two of this shape on fabric.
Cut one more long piece to be the bottom of the dino — so 3 total pieces make up the main body (like a pyramid with two sides and a bottom)
Cut out rectangle shapes with a rounded top for the legs — 2 sides for each leg, so 8 pieces total.
Cut triangles for the spikes!
For each piece, I sewed the two right sides together on the machine, turned them inside out, stuffed them and hand stitched to close!
Once everything was stitched, I hand sewed the legs and the spikes onto the body. For the legs, I used an invisible stitch. For the spikes, I pulled excess body fabric around the bottoms of the triangles and just stitched right through. The stitches are visible on the bottoms of the spikes but the thread matches the color of the body.
For the face, I used embroidery thread! I tied one knot on the end, and then pulled it through to the other side of the face, made another knot, and then pushed the needle through to the front of the dino to complete the smile. In hindsight, it may have been easier to make the face on the fabric before stitching it all together though you would then need to make sure everything lines up well.
The fabric I used frays easily, which did make it somewhat difficult to work with on such small pieces. I would recommend making it a little bit bigger, using a different material, or going in with more of a plan if you don’t want it to look quite so homemade! But if you’re just looking for a fun, quick project and are fine with a “made-with-love” look in the end, loosely following these steps should do the trick!
Hope this gives you some inspo to play around with a cozy craft or your own stuffed animal experiment either way!
Sometimes crafting without a plan is the most fun kind! Just an experiment to do something creative with your hands, and it doesn’t matter if it turns out “well” or not, though I think this one turned out pretty cute! I may have to make him some friends next… 🦖🦕
I’m calling him Doubtful Dino because when you look at him straight on, his head is tilted as if he lovingly doubts your every word 🤣😅
