The Storybook Craft Project - The Gruffalo

Welcome to the second instalment of the Storybook Craft Project! I have been enjoying sewing cushions based on children's books that will hopefully end up in my classroom when I become a Primary School teacher. This week's cushions is the very huggable Gruffalo (seriously, I am sat here, writing this post, and hugging my Gruffalo cushion!)

Materials

40cm wide piece of brown fur fabric (at least 80cm long)

Yellow Felt

Green Felt

White Felt

Light brown/beige felt

Toy Stuffing

Black Embroidery Thread

1. Your first job is to get the basic outline of the Gruffalo's head. I sketched mine out onto brown paper but you could print it out, or trace it and blow it up to size. It should be roughly 38cm x 38 cm (make sure you include a seam allowance round your sketch)

2. Now cut out 2 head shapes (ears included) from the brown fur fabric. Make sure that you flip the template so that they look as in the picture - you do not want two with the nose on the right for example.

Have you noticed how much this fabric moults? Needed some serious hoovering after this project!

3. The next job is to cut out the felt features. You will need two ovals from the yellow for eyes (about 4.5 x 5.5cm). One semi-circle from green for the wart on the Gruffalo's nose (use the size of the nose as a guide). One inner ear from the beige felt - this should be about an inch smaller all round than the ear itself. Finally, you will need teeth - 5 white rectangular teeth and one sharp tooth (rectangles - 2 x 2.5 cm, sharp - 2.5 x 7 cm). Again, use a picture of the Gruffalo as a guide.

4. Draw a line where you want the mouth to be and sew along it a couple of times with brown thread, this will make a line for the mouth - the fur fabric will part making it more visible.

5. Next, pin your face details (teeth, eyes, wart, inner ear) in place and sew round them using matching thread (I used my machine for this). Using black embroidery thread, sew a couple of french knots on each eye for the eyeball.

6. For the horns, cut four curved horn shaped out of white felt (about 13cm high and 4cm wide). Pin right sides together and sew round, leaving the bottom edge open. Turn right way out and fill with stuffing. Repeat with second horn.

7. Cut four brown triangles out for his spines



8. Lay the face pieces right sides together. Pin horns in place making sure that they are inside the cushion. Pin spines in place, again, inside the face. You should only be able to see the brown fur outline. Sew all around, leaving a 3 inch gap on the bottom edge - make sure you catch the edges of the horns and spines when you sew round.

9. Turn the cushion right side out and fill with stuffing.

10. To finish, whip stitch the bottom edge shut.

Join us next week for the third instalment of Storybook Craft Project featuring Elmer the very colourful Elephant!

Have a great weekend

Love Rebecca

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