Elephants

 

 Elephants show great affection and love towards each other so it seemed the perfect choice to turn those cherished items of clothing into an adorable elephant keepsake to treasure.

 
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Elephant Keepsakes: Instructions

Note: with all sections make sure you back-tack at the start and end of all seams and use a small stitch. All seam allowances are 1/4” unless otherwise stated.

Difficulty: Advanced

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Step 1: Cut out pattern and fabric

  • Cut out pattern pieces on paper, or thin card if you prefer

  • If using two fabrics choose which you are using where, here’s a suggestion

    • Fabric 1 - inside ears, tail, gussets

    • Fabric 2 – outer ears, head, body, legs

  • But you can mix and match as you like.

  • Mark all dots and circles

  • Interface pieces as needed depending on fabric used. 

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Step 2: Sew Ears

  • Pin 2 ear pieces right sides together

  • Sew round curved edge

  • Clip curves

  • Turn right side out and press

Step 3: Sew Head to Body

  • Pin ear to straight side of body on right side of fabric between 2 circles

  • Pin and sew head to body, stop at the circle at the bottom of the trunk

  • Press seam towards the head

 
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Step 4: Sew Eyes

  • With embroidery thread sew a French knot for each eye at black squares marked on head or sew small buttons at each black square to form eyes

Step 5 (Optional): Attach stars or hearts

  • Edge-stitch or blanket-stitch one star or heart to each side of elephant

 
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Step 6: Sew Centre Seam of Legs

  • Sew two leg gussets together leaving a gap in the middle for stuffing

  • Press the seam open

 
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Step 7: Sew Tail

  • Fold tail piece in half, right sides together

  • Using a smaller seam allowance, sew along 1 long side and across end.  Leave a long length of cotton which you can use to help turn the tail right side out. 

  • Trim corners, turn and press. (If you find this too fiddly you can just fold the sides in with right sides outwards and hand sew the seams)

  • Sandwich tail between the body gusset and tail gusset and sew.  Press seam towards the body

    Tip:  pin the tail towards the body loosely with a safety pin, to keep it out of the way

 
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Step 8: Sew Gussets to Legs

  • Stitch tail gusset to back of leg gussets, and trunk gusset to front

  • Make sure you stop at the dots

  • Press seams towards the leg gussets

 
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Step 9: Sew Gussets and Legs to one side of elephant

  • With right sides together and the gusset uppermost, pin gusset to body from circle at Point A (on the head) Point B (end of tail gusset)

  • Clip seam allowance slightly on gusset to aid curve, then sew together

  • Stop exactly at the end of the seam where you’ve sewn the tail gusset to the leg gusset

  • Stitch round legs from B to C starting/ending exactly where the tail/leg gusset seam ends

 
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Step 10: Attach the trunk

  • Pin trunk to body between C and D

  • Clip seam allowance slightly to aid curve on gusset and sew

    Note: make sure you don’t catch the leg/trunk gusset seam allowance

  • Repeat for the other side, sewing the sections in reverse order

  • Sew together remaining parts of the trunk between D and A

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Step 11: Turn, fill and close

  • Cut notches out of outside curves on legs

  • Snip inside curves between the legs

  • Trim some of the bulk from the trunk

  • Turn and stuff

 

Step 12: Finishing

  • Hand sew gap in gusset with ladder stitch so stitching doesn’t show

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