felt finger puppet valentine

   With Valentine's Day coming up, Naiya and I have been trying out a few ideas for little classmate gifts to share.  Since we're planning ahead this year, we decided to tackle some things that might be a bit more challenging.  This took rather a lot of time and my dear six year old wasn't able to help much so, I'm guessing, in the end, this won't be what we'll create twelve of to pass out on that special day.  We did like it a lot though and Naiya said I should "totally put that on the blog."  But of course.
   I did this all in the midst of playing and so all the sewing was done by hand.  To reduce project time (and if we did decide to make more) I would instead use a machine for most of the stitching next time around.

I based this pattern on a tri-fold concept.  The face/body will reside in the center piece, the ears slightly behind and the tail will line up with the center of the back when its folded and sewn together.

I traced the pattern and cut it out from wool felt.

Onto the center third (which will ultimately be the front of the raccoon) and around both sides of the tail, I sewed various felt pieces.  The raccoon required these extra color flairs but if one is making a cat, mouse or some simpler-faced critter, this step would be skipped.

Onto the back side of the felt (which will face forward once folded), I sewed some ear highlights.

I then embroidered on nose, mouth, eyes and some little paws to hold the heart.  (I think my eyes are a little wonky and somewhat hostile looking.  Embroidery is obviously not my forte.)

I folded it into thirds and sewed it up with the tail sticking out in back.

I figure there are lots of animals that can be made in basically this same fashion:  bear, mouse, bunny, cat... whatever suits your fancy.

With a little effort, my second go will likely look much sweeter and more polished than this one but, chances are, I won't get any pictures next time around.



Turns out Naiya isn't letting go of this one.

She said she would like a piggy next.