20 Jun 2011

Sock Elephant Tutorial

 How to make a sock elephant...

The green lines represent sewing, the pink lines represent cutting, the dotted red lines are where to do hand running stitch and pull tight and yellow lines are where to attach something.

Please refer to the photos below regularly.

You will need 2 gents socks and 1 plain ladies sock, 2 buttons, good quality thread, toy stuffing and a needle. It will be alot quicker with a sewing machine!

Step 1. Ears - Sew (green line) zigzag across the toe of each sock as shown in the first picture. Cut (pink line) as close to the zigzag sewing as you can. You now have 2 ears - put to one side for later.

Step 2. Body - Turn sock inside out. Using straight stitch sew across the elasticated opening of one of the socks and then up and down as shown in the first picture to form the separate legs. Carefully cut between the legs to separate. Turn sock right way again and stuff legs and body. The heel will form the elephants bottom. (It will take a while to get a good form when stuffing socks and it really is worth spending the time over as can't be sorted out later if its lumpy.) Hand sew a loose running stitch around the opening of the sock about 1cm down from the edge, pull it tight (I use top stitching thread for this bit to ensure strength, or you could use your thread doubled) poke the frill that forms down inside the sock, pull abit tighter and tie off very securely.

Step 3. Arms - Get the other sock, turn it inside out, sew across the elasticated part of the sock and then sew parallel lines to separate the arms. Cut across the top as shown in the first picture and cut between the parallel stitched lines to separate each arm - sorry I forgot to put that bit in the photo! Turn each arm the right way around, stuff, sew across the opening with zigzag a little way down from the edge and trim neatly.


Step 4. Head - Turn sock inside out and use straight stitch to sew on the green line in the picture below to form the trunk and forehead. Cut on the pink line. Turn the right way round again. Turn up a little bit of the trunk and hand stitch around it to form a nice neat edge - N.B. You are NOT closing up the trunk just hemming it.

Step 5. Now get the ladies sock. Stuff a good sized firm ball of stuffing into the toe, about the size you want the elephant's head to be. Tie a knot in the sock next to the stuffing to close off the ball (- this stops stuffing escaping down the elephants nose and allows secure attachment of buttons for eyes.) You will have a long bit of sock with no stuffing in it - tuck this down the trunk you have sewn in the gents sock and pull the head of the gents sock over the ball in the ladies sock. Using hand running stitch sew approximately 1cm down from the edge of the opening in the gents sock, pull tight and repeat the closing up procedure as you did with the body.

You are now ready to start assembling your elephant which needs to be done by hand with good quality thread, doubled.

Step 6. Sew a button on for each eye - as shown in the picture above by the yellow circle -N.B. The seam coming up from the trunk will form the shape of the forehead so you need a button each side of the seam. Then sew on the ears - as represented in the picture above by the yellow curved line.

Step 7. Sew the arms onto the body in the position you want them.

Step 8. Position the head on the body. The sock heel on the head will be the neck bit so rest this on the gathered bit of the body. Hold carefully in position whilst sewing around the neck (taking fabric from both the head and the body) in a circle attaching the head and body together. Sew around twice or three times until happy the head is securely on. Tie off securely.

Love, Love, LOVE.

Oh and give him a name :)

Hope you enjoy making your elephant. If you decide to have a go please do send me a photo! I will upload a good sized photo of a finished elephant once I've found my camera (the photos on this post were taken with my phone.) as I've had it pointed out to my that the group of elephants in my last elephant post wouldn't enlarge for some reason.

Pop over to Wendy's 1st Unique Gifts Handmade Monday blog to see what other crafters are upto :)