Thursday, February 19, 2009

How to make a snake from socks



My little one fell in love with this stuffed snake at the indoor playground we go to. So the other morning I thought of making her a snake. When I used to work for the sock buyer I got lots of sample/ gifts of socks and well there are only so many coloured knee highs someone needs. So I had a pair of green new knee high socks, perfect for a snake.

I took one sock and sewed the heel across so it's a tube. Then turn it inside out and start to stuff. When the head was partly stuffed I put the eyes in - they are teddy bear eyes that have a post sticking out of the back with a washer thing that holds in place. By putting it in after there is some stuffing the eyes sink in a bit. I just cut a little hole to fit the post and put a little Fray Check around the hole so it won't grow - side note, even non sewers should own Fray Check, it's kinda like using clear nail polish on your panty hose but not as stiff and can be used for so much more.

For the tongue I used a piece of ribbon - cut the one end so it looks like a pointy tongue and used Fray Check on both ends. The other end I folded over and hand stitched in place.
Then continued stuffing - my husband said it should be really long and use both socks. So I sewed up the heel on the other sock and stuffed it. When both socks were stuffed I sewed them together with green embroidery floss. When it was almost sewn up I added a bit more stuffing.
To finish off I sewed the neck with a running stitch in embroidery floss - I also sewed a couple of rows at the tail to add a rattle snake look - pulling tighter each row.
And there you go a super simple stuffed animal. Lilo's new pet.

5 comments:

Sara said...

This is awesome. And aside from probably substituting buttons for eyes, I can totally see me doing this project! You should start giving your posts star ratings - this would be a "5" for easy!

Vone said...

Thanks - I thought it was an easy one. I sewed the heel with the machine but you could totally hand sew it too.

Oh and just so you know according to Lilo - it's a friendly snake, so don't worry :)

Chrissy said...

Love this! Thanks for sharing this "how to"...I'll def. be linking to it from my place soon. Thanks!

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

my 3yr old twins are going to love one of these ...I have a basket full of odd socks to recycle.

Claire said...

Thank you so much for showing your way. I made one with a single knee-high, and love it. I wasn't sure if I'd manage ok, as I consider myself a poor sewer, but I like him.