Remember my little cashmere elephant friend? Well here is how to make the snuggly soft cashmere elephant buddy. This one is loosely based upon the techniques Betz White introduces in her book Sewing Green. (She makes a doggie.)

Need:

• Cashmere Elephant Friend Pattern
• felted wool or cashmere fabric (felt your own sweater and save a 2″ length of sweater seam, or cut a 1/4″ X 2″ length of virgin felt)
• woven fabric
• accent color felted fabric
• small scrap of black felted fabric
• bamboo fiber fill
• fabric scissors
• straight pins
• sewing machine
• chopstick
• matching thread (you will need black for the eye, and thread to match your felt color, and a contrasting color to embroider the back patch)
• needle
• complementary color embroidery thread

How To:

1. Print pattern and cut pattern pieces. Pin to felted fabric and woven fabric appropriately and cut.

Cut list:

• (2) ears pattern side down on felted fabric right side up
• (2) ears pattern side up on woven fabric right side up
• (1) elephant pattern side up on felted fabric right side up
• (1) elephant pattern wrong side up on felted fabric right side up
• (1) circle patch pattern right side up on accent felted fabric right side up
• (2) small circles for elephant eye from felted black fabric right side up

2. Pin elephant ears, wrong sides together, pin one woven ear to one felted piece. Sew each ear with 1/4″ seam allowance between dots, leaving edge open for turning. Turn each ear and poke out corners with a chopstick. Turn in 1/4″ seam allowance and whip stitch closed.

3. Pin tail to elephant body at markings, wrong sides together (make sure that the tail falls to the inside of your piece, so that when the body pieces are pinned, the tail doesn’t stick out, but rather is “caught” in the seam, so when turned right-side out, the tail sticks out from the body.) Sew with 1/4″ seam allowance between dots, leaving edge open for turning. Turn body and poke out corners and trunk with a chopstick. Stuff body with bamboo fiber fill. Turn in 1/4″ seam allowance and whip stitch belly opening closed.

4. Hand stitch eye, ear, and back patch in place with matching thread. Hand embroider around the back patch using a running stitch or blanket stitch and a contrasting thread. (Either use embroidery thread, or use a double length of all purpose thread.)

5. Hug your fuzzy elephant friend!

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And that is all there is to this little fuzzy friend. I am working on another elephant pattern by Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls (from Joelle Hoverson’s book Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts) for a Christmas present. I am attempting to create this not-so-simple little guy from a repurposed cotton dress shirt…I’ll post my results when I am through! Have a wonderful Wednesday.