craft to do with toddlers - turn a drawing into a stuffed toy

File this under a last minute effort to turn a bad day into a good with a toddler. I turned one of our joint drawings into a stuffed toy. Although it didn't work (the toy was thrown across the table and I was told that it "wasn't good") Oh hell. That was my day. But the project was still pretty easy and fun  - providing you have the right materials on hand.

Backing up a bit - Oscar and I drawn Monsters together. It's our thing, we sit and he tells me what to draw and I draw it.Then he colours it in, or, dictates to me the colours that I should colour it in. It's just something we do.  (I've posted a few drawing sessions to my Instagram feed) Some Monsters have four heads and three eyes, some have no feet, and wings. It's just this thing we do to pass time. Although we did Monsters you could do whatever your little one dreams up.

What you need
1. A drawing
2. Scanner
3. Iron on Transfer Paper
4. White fabric (I used table napkins)
5. Stuffing
6. Sewing machine or, needle and thread

Here is how you do it. 

1. Draw. I used a thick sharpie for drawing this one, and on white paper. But whatever, you can do anything you want. Colour it in, keep it black and white - it's totally up to you. The sharpie just gives you a nice thick line, and makes it easy for little ones to colour in the lines.
2. Scan it to your computer.
3. Print it out on iron on transfer paper. Remember to flip the image, so that when you iron it on, it is the right side showing.
4. Find a piece of white fabric. I had a bunch of white cotton table napkins that I found at HomeSense, so took one and the monster fit two times over on it. Iron it on. *This is the part where everything could go messy, as sometimes the iron on transfers work, sometimes they don't depending on the heat of your iron. So just be sure to watch this step. Once you have transferred the image to a napkin/fabric, cut around the image, leaving a 1/2 inch to allow for sewing.
5. Sew: Place the *good* side that has the image printed on it, inside out - You're sewing the *inside* of the toy, it's backwards. You're going to sew much like you would a pillow. This means you don't see the seams. Once you have sewn around most of the stuffed toy, stop, then flip the toy inside out - so you now have the good image facing outwards.
6. Stuff it with stuffing and then sew the remaining open part shut.

I did try one monster without flipping him inside out as I did in step # 5. In the image above, the monster on the left was sewn inside out, and the monster on the right wasn't. You can see the difference. Really, it's up to you.

That's it!

Although my instructions likely suck. I'm pretty sure you get the basics of what we did. It's super easy - you just need the right materials!

xo Lindsay