project // rainbow stuffie (a stitch squad bonus pattern!)

Do you ever have a day where you could use a rainbow? Me too. Instead of waiting for one, make your own! And in this case, you can hand sew your rainbow and give it a cute face too.

Along with being a fun way to make a smiling rainbow, it's also a bonus pattern that goes along with the August Stitch Squad box! If you've never heard about Stitch Squad, it's a new subsription box for crafty kids and tweens. And I had the privilege of desgining these weather stuffies!



Inside the box it has everything you need to make them, plus a bunch more super cute stuff. There's still time to get this box, but it will change to the next one (with a new craft technique) soon.

BUT, if you have the Weather Stuffie box, you might just want to add to the cloud, lightning, and raindrop so you also have a rainbow. And you probably have almost everything you need to make this bonus pattern.

Depending on how you cut the fleece the comes in the box, you should have enough white, aqua, and yellow to make the rainbow. You'll just need some pink (or another color) fleece. I bought 1/4 yard for under $2 on sale.

Making this rainbow is a little more complicated than basic stuffies, but it's not that much different. Are you ready to make one? Let's do this!

Here's what you'll need:

Small amounts of pink, yellow, aqua, and white fleece*
Pencil
Scissors
Sewing clips
Sewing thread
Needle
Black felt
Black and white embroidery floss
Stuffing

*You can actually use any color for the back. White is just a suggestion.

DOWNLOAD THE RAINBOW STUFFIE PATTERN PDF



Print and cut out the pattern pieces, then trace them onto your fleece. Do this for all the pieces except the face.

I made the top bow pink, the middle yellow, and the bottom aqua. The back hafl-circle piece is white. But you can mix it up and use any colors for your rainbow!



Fold the top and middle pieces in half to find the exact middle and then clip them together like shown. The right sides of the fleece should be facing each other.

It looks weird now, but it'll get where we need it shortly.



Bring the ends of the yellow down to match up with the ends of the pink. Keep the right sides facing each other. Use sewing clips to hold them. Then clip the sections between the middle and the ends.

Hand sew along the clipped edge with back stitch about 1/4-inch from the fabric edge.

There will be some areas where it seems like there's more fabric on one edge than the other. That's okay! Just keep sewing, but keep the clips in place until your stitching is right up to it.



Follow the same process to add the blue bottom section of the rainbow. When you're done, it should look like this!



Cut out two eyes and a mouth from the felt. I used freezer paper to cut mine out, but you can cut the paper templates and hold them onto the felt with a tiny dab of gluestick. It will peel right off when you're done cutting them out!



Stitch the face onto your rainbow with whip stitch on the edge of the felt.

You can also use white embroidery floss to stitch a little twinkle on each eye.



Place the rainbow front on the half circle back with the right sides of the fleece facing each other. Use sewing clips around the edges.

Sew around the edges with back stitch and doubled sewing thread. I suggest starting on the bottom edge so the opening is in the blue area.



Turn the stuffie right side out and add some stuffing inside. Don't add too much because it can make the rainbow a funny shape.



Sew the opening closed. I used ladder stitch for this.



And your rainbow stuffie is all finished!

I'm pretty sure that when things are feeling hard and you're stuck with a day that's gray and lonely, hugging a rainbow will help. Even just a little.




By the way, this rainbow uses hand sewing because that's what the August Stitch Squad box is all about. BUT, if you like using a sewing machine, you can use that to sew this together too!

And if you're a Stitch Squad member, hello! I'm so glad you're here and I hope you have fun making all your weather stuffies!