How to Make the Snout on a Sock Puppet Monkey

One of the best parts of making a sock monkey is making its snout. Use your creativity to design a monkey face that's unique and special. It's near the end of the steps of sock monkey making, and should be done before you stuff the body of the puppet or doll.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sock monkey body
• Heel of second sock
• Brown embroidery thread
• Needle
• Stuffing

1. Cut the heel off the second sock of the pair you're using. Leave at least 1/4 inch of the brown edge around the cream part because you need that for sewing it on. The red part of the heel makes the monkey's mouth.

2. Position the heel or snout on the monkey at the cream-colored heel or head end. You can use your own judgement here, but if you put it too low your monkey will have a "cone-head" and if you put it too high, you won't have room for eyes or to add a hat.

3. Flip the snout up once you're satisfied with the position. Start sewing on the wrong side of the top edge of the snout, which at this point will look like the bottom. When this seam is done, you can flip it over and see it's in the right place.

4. Stick your left hand inside the puppet through the hole you left at the crotch of the monkey. You may need to squash the monkey a bit so your fingers can get to where the snout goes. You're doing this to be sure you only sew the snout to the front of the monkey, and not all the way through.

5. Thread the needle with brown embroidery thread. Stitch the top edge of the heel onto the sock body right along the heel line where the cream fabric meets the brown, using your left hand to keep the stitching on the front side of the body.

6. Turn the snout right-side out when you've sewn the top seam. Now straighten the snout or adjust it if you want it to be a little crooked to add character. Fold the brown edge under, and using a whip stitch, sew the bottom of the snout almost all the way around, leaving a small hole.

7. Add a large amount of stuffing through the open hole and into the snout. You want a full snout on your monkey. When you're satisfied with the appearance of the monkey snout, stitch the little hole closed with the whip stitch.

Tips & Warnings

• If you haven't already cut the monkey parts from the sock that isn't the body, carefully cut out the heel making sure to get enough brown around it to make a tidy seam. Set the other monkey parts aside.
• The whipstitch makes loops from the inside of the puppet body through the line where the cream meets the brown on the snout, then back inside the body. On the snout, the brown will be folded to the inside, and once it's stuffed, this seam won't show much. Stretch the sock a little as you sew so that there'll be room for lots of stuffing, and knot the thread before you stuff the face so that the thread won't pull out.
• After you've stuffed the face, close up the opening using the whipstitch.
• Be very careful not to sew the snout on completely through the sock that makes the body. If you do that, you won't be able to stuff the body of the monkey.