Goble - Sew a monster: 15 lovable, easy-to-make fleecie toys

Published 2016 IMM Lifestyle Books

www.IMMLifestyleBooks.com

IMM Lifestyle Books are distributed in the UK by

Grantham Book Service.

In North America, IMM Lifestyle Books are distributed by

Fox Chapel Publishing

1970 Broad Street

East Petersburg, PA 17520

www.FoxChapelPublishing.com

Text and project design copyright 2010, 2016 Fiona Goble

Photographs copyright 2010, 2016 IMM Lifestyle Books

Copyright 2010, 2016 IMM Lifestyle Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

Fiona Goble has asserted her moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

ISBN 978 1 5048 0030 3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in Singapore

Safety note

Some of the projects in this book are unsuitable for children under 3 years of age due to small parts. Always keep small or sharp objects (such as needles or buttons) away from small children.

If you want to stitch yourself a troupe of quirky new friends, then this is the book for you. The cute creatures in this collection are all made from easy-to-sew fleece fabric which is widely available in a great range of colours. And if you want to help the planet and save money at the same time, why not recycle old fleece clothes into brand new fleecie friends?

For starters, there are Wilf, Prudence and Melvin three lovable little misfits. Theyre small enough to fit in your pocket and travel with you everywhere. Then theres flowery-eyed Dilly who looks as if butter wouldnt melt in her mouth and lolloping Dotty who thinks shes a heart throb. There are loads more besides, all waiting to be sewn into your ideal companions. You can even use the patterns in this book to develop your own unique monsters.

Ive marked all the projects according to how easy they are. The ones marked with one star are the easiest and the ones marked with three stars the most challenging. But even if youre new to sewing, the clear photographs, instructions and useful tips mean that youll almost certainly be able to make all of the projects in this book with just a little practice.

These monsters would make great gifts not just for children but also for older children and even adults with a sense of humour. But its also nice to sew something for yourself once in a while.

So sit back and take a look through the book and choose your favourites. Then decide exactly what fabric and trimmings youre going to use to create your very first monster. I hope you have fun!

Fiona Goble

TOOLS

Before you start making these fleecie monsters you will need to check out your sewing box and general supplies for some basic equipment and tools. You are bound to have some of the items you need already but there may be some things you will need to borrow or buy.

The templates on are shown actual size. The easiest and most accurate way to transfer the templates is to photocopy them onto thin card or thick paper. Alternatively, you can scan them into your computer then print them out. In some cases the templates have been split over two pages; simply join at the dotted lines and tape together.

You can easily sew the fleecie monsters and any clothes and accessories by hand but a sewing machine will make it much quicker. A machine that does zig zag stitch is useful for some of the monsters but one that simply does running stitch will also be fine. Your machine should be fitted with a needle suitable for medium weight fabrics. A standard European size 70 or 80 (US 11 or 12) needle is ideal.

Its a good idea to have a few available as machine needles can bend or become blunt quite easily and you may need to replace them fairly often.

You will need two types of hand sewing needles to make the monsters a standard sewing needle and an embroidery needle.

You will need a standard sewing needle (a sharp) if you are hand sewing your monsters and accessories. Even if you are sewing by machine you will need this type of needle for closing the openings used for stuffing, attaching some of the arms and legs and sewing some of the monsters features.

You will need an embroidery or crewel needle for stitching some of the monsters facial features. This type of needle is a sharp, medium length needle that has an eye large enough for you to thread embroidery thread.

You will need an iron when making some of the monsters and their clothes, to press open seams and to fix bonding web and appliqus.

You will need a water-soluble pen or quilters pencil to draw round the templates and to mark some of the monsters features before you sew them. They work like ordinary felt pens or pencils but the marks are easily removed by spraying or dabbing with water.

The pens usually come in bright blue and are the best option for marking light and medium coloured fabrics. For darker fabrics, choose one of the pencils which come in a range of light colours, including white and yellow. These pens and pencils are widely available in craft and haberdashery (notions) shops, and through mail order and internet companies that supply accessories for patchwork and quilting.

You will need a pencil for tracing some of the appliqu shapes onto the backing paper of your bonding web (see ). A pencil is sometimes also useful for pushing the toy filling into the monsters limbs.

Ordinary scissors are fine for cutting your template card or paper but you need a pair of good quality sewing scissors for cutting fabric. You will also need some sharp embroidery scissors for cutting out small items such as the felt eyes featured in some of the projects. Make sure that you keep your sewing and embroidery scissors strictly for cutting fabric and threads as using them on card or paper will quickly blunt them.