guest post: andee's penguin

Are you ready for another fun guest post? This time we have my sweet sponsor, Andee. We've done a bit of a tutorial swap, each using our own skills and trying some new things too...


Hi there! It's Andee from Bearing Fruit. I am so excited to be visiting here at Wild Olive. A few weeks back, Mollie + I were scheming a project idea. We decided to each make a penguin softie and post on each other's blogs. Fun, right? Well the fun was just starting for me. I have never made a softie. So this whole thing was an adventure. Join me!

Some thoughts before you begin: Try something new! When choosing main fabric color, your penguin doesn't have to be black. As long as the body shape is consistent to example below, wings are in place + the tummy is white, it'll look
nice and penguin-ey. I went with pink scraps from a super soft t-shirt that I cut up for another project. With the super soft material, I got to thinking that this would make a great baby's first softie.

Sweet Cuddly Penguin
Here's what you'll need:
fabric in your choice of color
fabric or felt scraps for eyes, beak + eye whites (dark grey, yellow, white)
thread to match your main penguin color
thread to match your eyes + beak colors
thread or embroidery floss to match the white of his tummy
stuffing

I did this one without a pattern. Most shapes are based on a "U" shape, so they're really easy to cut out
For penguin body:
1. Fold fabric in half or double up.
2. Cut body "U" shape
(my "U' shape is 4 1/2 inches along the straight edge and 4 1/2 inches high)

For wings:
1. Fold fabric in half or double up
2. Cut two narrow half moon shapes. From the fold, cut an arc shape.

For tummy:
1. Cut a "U" shape out of the white felt
( my "U" shape is 2 1/2 inches along the straight edge and 2 1/2 inches high)

For penguin beak + feet:
1. Fold your yellow felt or fabric in half.
2. Cut a "U" shape

3. Open up your shape.
4. Trace your shape two times onto yellow fabric or felt

5. Cut each shape
For eyes:
1. From your dark grey felt, cut two circles
2. Optional: From your white felt, cut two crescent shapes, making sure that the inner curve of the shape will round out well over the dark grey felt

This is a great time to put together his face. I made the mistake of
doing this part after he was sewn and stuffed. Oops. I will give you
directions below in the order I *wish* I would have done it!

Hand sew the following:
Make beak + feet
1. fold your shapes in half.
2. stuff + hand sew closed

Eyes
1. Place your eye circles on the penguin's face.
2. Hand sew in place
3. If you are using the crescent shapes around his eyes, hand sew them in place

Beak
1. Place beak between eyes.
2. hand sew in place

Tummy
1. Place tummy just below beak.
2. Hand sew in place. I tacked mine down along the edge. with
embroidery floss. I like the finished look of that floss. Using
either floss or thread will work great though!

Start machine sewing (All seam allowances are a minimum. I used the edge of my presser foot for the straight edge. I think that this is about 1/8 in.)

Body
1. Put fabric of penguin body right sides together
2. Sew your body shape around the curve, using presser foot for straight edge
3. Leave the flat bottom open for stuffing
4. Stuff body

5. Turn open edge under
6. Hand sew closed
5. Hand sew feet to body.

Wings
1. Put right sides together
2. Sew most of the arc shape, leaving a 1 1/2 inch opening for stuffing
3. Turn right sides out.
4. Lightly stuff wings.
5. Turn open edge under
6. Hand sew closed.

Attach wings to body

1. Tuck upper right edge in, creating a curve on one side

2. Pin in place, I used the eyes as a guide for height of the top of wing.

3. Hand sew wings to body


Ta-da! Your penquin cutie is complete.

Thanks, Andee! I do love your pink penguin (and of course, your use of the sewing machine on something other than straight stitching...I'm still working on that). Now, here's a peek at the little penguin that I made:

It's all stitched by hand, but I tried something new for me: a weighted bottom! To learn how I made mine, and to get the pattern, head on over to Andee's blog.