Murtle the Turtle

My niece's 4th birthday is coming up soon so I've been looking around blogland for something fun that I could make her.  She is a total animal lover (something we definitely have in common!) so I was really excited when I came across a tutorial for a stuffed fabric turtle on Make It and Love It.

After looking through my fabric stash I decided to use a fun blue and white pattern for the body and scraps from my tank top refashion for the legs, head, and tail.

Here are the pieces ready to be assembled:

Can you see how it's going to come together?

And here's Murtle, stuffed and ready to go!

How cute is that?  I love the sweet little "tattoos" on the tail and scattered around the legs and head.

View from above

Murtle was easier to make than Pippa and Rascal since there were less details to worry about.  If you are interested in making stuffed toys, Murtle would be a good one to start with.  Few pieces, simple constructions, and no hand-sewing of facial features.

Now I just hope that my sweet niece loves Murtle as much as I do!

Meet Pippa and Rascal

Nope, not Pippa Middleton =)

I am very blessed to have some awesome kiddos in my life.  At the top of my list are two nieces and three nephews (all under age 5!) that I adore.  They've got to be the cutest, smartest, funnest kids in the world.  But then again I am incredibly biased.

I also am blessed that some of my best friends are pregnant or recently had babies.  Babies everywhere indeed (anyone catch the reference to the crazy Nutrigrain commercial from a few years ago?).

So when I see tutorials for kids toys or baby clothes I swoon.  Everything seems to be cuter when it's small - and the fact that mini-sized crafts use up my mini-sized scraps of fabric makes it even harder to resist.

So here's a sneak peak at two Christmas gifts I made this summer.  Thankfully all the kids in my life are too young to use the internet so I'm not spoiling their surprises!

Rascal, Me, Pippa

Disney from Ruffles and Stuff created the pattern for these sweet stuffed toys and made it available online for free!  How awesome is that?  Here's a closer look:

Oh that raccoon, he's quite the Rascal.

Pippa is a foxy lady.

These little toys really tested my sewing skills!  The hardest part was hand-sewing on their facial features.  And then stitching their bottoms (no pun intended) closed after stuffing them.  But I'm hoping the little kids I give them to can see past their imperfections to the love that they were made with.

And just because I felt like they were my little friends after working on them for so long, here's one last look: