These cute images from the "I'm Stuffed" collection are easy to convert to sewing patterns. You can apply these instructions to any of the animals besides the sloth. These are simple instructions meant for someone familiar with sewing.
Supplies:
- iron-on vinyl
- solid, light colored fabric
- thread
- possibly, another coordinating fabric
- fiberfill or stuffing
1. The toughest part of this project is making the reverse of the top layer. This is going to be the layer you cut out of iron-on vinyl and apply to plain fabric such as white cotton or muslin.
2. a. In Adobe Illustrator you can do this by selecting the top two layers of the .svg and merge them together with the pathfinder tool. Delete the white part of the merged selection and use the remaining paths.
2. b. In Make The Cut, bring in both layers, right mouse click and choose shape magic> advanced> and fuse and weld
2. c. In Silhouette Studio, right mouse click and choose make compound path
3. Next you need to create the "body pattern" to cut out of your light color fabric or muslin. You do this by taking the black layer of the pattern and enlarging it so it is big enough for a seam allowance. Most programs have something that allows you to expand pixels, create a shadow layer or something of the sort. You want the layer to grow evenly all around the perimeter.
4. Cut out your "body pattern" on the cutting machine and place it on your plain, light-colored fabric and trace it. You need two of these.
5. Cut out your first pattern (the eyes and the fur you made earlier) out of black iron-on vinyl and then iron it on to the front body pattern.
6. Now you need to make the pattern for arms and legs. You have to get creative here with whatever program you use to cut the arms and legs off of the cutting file.
7. Just like what you did with the body pattern, you will need to make the arms and legs bigger to allow for a seam allowance.
8. You will need to cut 4 arms and 4 legs. The example used a striped pattern but anything could be used, including the same fabric used as the body.
9. After cutting the arms and legs you need to put right sides together and sew them into 4 tubes. Turn them right side out and then stuff.
10. Take the body pattern and put the right sides together and mark out where the arms and legs go. Sew the body but skip the areas where you need to add arms and legs.
11. Turn the body right-side out and stuff.
12. Add the arms and legs into the appropriate holes and stitch shut.