Needlework Monday : Felt cow toy - tutorial 🐄

Welcome to my third needlework Monday. Today I will share with you a simple tutorial for felt stuffed cow toy.

I have always loved sewing with felt, I think it is probably the first encounter I had with needle and thread :) I usually use recycled felt that is made out of recycled plastic bottles, how they make it so soft and gentle I have no clue but it's an easy material to use and you can make almost everything with it. I made earrings, brooches, magnets, toys and necklaces. Let's see how my toy cow turned up...

I found the pattern for this project a couple of years back somewhere, I think it was on Pinterest, but I'm not sure. Try to look it up because you can print it out. Since I don't own a printer I had to rely on my drawing skills and draw a pattern on a piece of paper to use it.

YOU WILL NEED

• needle and thread (in red and white color)
• red, white and chequered felt
• two red buttons and two small black ones
• cotton wool (or any other stuffing you prefer)
• paper and pencil to draw pieces of your cow or a printed pattern
• scissors
• glue gun

FIRST STEP
Draw different parts of a cow on a piece of paper and cut it out with your scissors. You will need to have 10 paper parts which you can see in my picture below. I have written letters C, W, R on the parts that correspond to chequered, white and red felt that you will later cut using these paper pieces as your molds, and the numbers 1, 2, 4 that tell you how many felt pieces you have to make.

SECOND STEP
When you have your paper pieces, use them to cut the same shapes out of felt. You could cut the felt directly but I have found it easier to first make the paper molds as a help when cutting felt. This is how your work should look like by now:

THIRD STEP
Now you sew. I first sew the small parts of the body, legs, horns and arms (yes, I know cows don't have arms) and then stitch them on the body when I am doing the body. As you come close to an end of a part, stuff it with cotton and then finish it.

When doing the body, I first sew on the mouth and heart and then go on with sewing the whole body together by placing one piece of felt on the bottom, small parts on it and the second piece on top. This way, when you sew, you will sew the small pieces on to the body of a cow. When you come to an end, stuff it with cotton and finish it.

At the end of this project, use a glue gun to glue the eyes.

DIFFERENT VARIATIONS
You can use any colors you like, chequered felt or dotted or plain. Have fun with it. My little cow was lonely so I made her a boyfriend :)

For more different projects and ideas, just search the #needleworkmonday tag on steemit. You will find a lot of lovely things for you to try out :) See you next Monday!

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