How to Make a Cuddly Dinosaur

Make a soft dinosaur toy for your child.

Homemade stuffed animals make a more sentimental keepsake than the mass-produced variety sold in toy stores. If your child is interested in dinosaurs, give him a cuddly stuffed dinosaur to keep on his bed for nighttime cuddling and keep for years to come. You can create a simple, plush, stuffed dinosaur at home with some fabric and sewing supplies.

Things You'll Need

• 1 yard cotton fabric
• Cardboard
• Permanent marker
• Utility knife
• Fabric chalk
• Large dinosaur stencil or reference picture
• Scissors
• Straight pins
• Needle and thread
• Cotton batting
• Fabric paint
• Paintbrushes

Instructions

1. Lay a yard of fabric over a flat surface.

2. Draw a dinosaur outline onto a sheet of cardboard with a permanent marker and cut it out with a utility knife. Use a large dinosaur stencil to draw the dinosaur or look at a reference picture and draw it free-handed.

3. Trace around the edge of your cardboard dinosaur shape with fabric chalk onto the fabric.

4. Flip the cardboard dinosaur over and trace it onto a blank area of the fabric. Flipping the cardboard over is important so that you will have two sides that will both show the right-side of the fabric, on the outside of the toy, when fitted together.

5. Cut out the fabric dinosaurs with sewing scissors and lay them together with the right-sides facing each other and the edges matched up. Pin the two pieces together around the edges with straight pins to hold them in place.

6. Sew around the edges of the two pieces to bind them together, 1/8-inch away from the edges of the fabric. Leave a 1-inch section open. Remove the pins.

7. Stuff cotton batting into the 1-inch hole to fill the dinosaur completely.

8. Tuck in the rough edges of the fabric around the 1-inch hole and pinch the edges together. Sew along the pinched fabric to close the dinosaur.

9. Paint details onto the dinosaur, such as eyes, a mouth and stripes or spots, with fabric paint. Apply it with a fine-bristled paintbrush for precision.