You don’t have to be limited to making a completely yarn dog. Yarn can be added to give your dog personality and flair. The soft body of this craft dog makes it a safer toy for a child of any age.
You will need:
- 2 pieces, cotton fabric, 12 inches square
- Dressmaking pen
- Scissors
- Needle
- Thread
- Ball of yarn
- 3-by-3 inch piece of cardboard
- 1/8-inch round black piece of felt
Instructions for the project: The first step is to draw the outline, of the side profile of a dog, on one piece of the 12-inch fabric. Carefully lay the first piece of 12- inch fabric, onto the second piece of 12-inch fabric. Pin them together, and cut the dog outline from the fabric. Sew the two pieces together, leaving a 1-inch gap in the rear end of the dog. Gently starting at the head, fill your dog with polyester fiberfill or cotton stuffing. You can push the fill into the head and into the legs with the eraser end of a pencil. When your dog is full of stuffing, you can seal the end by stitching or using fabric glue. To make the dog hair, wrap the yarn, around the cardboard six times. Carefully slip the yarn off the cardboard. Take a second piece of short yarn and tie a knot in the middle. Keep in mind that it should look like a bow tie. Snip off the ends of the shorter piece of yarn, leaving you with six loops of yarn tied in the middle, shaped like a bow tie. Sew the center knot of your “bow tie” onto the dog’s body. You will then repeat this process, for as many loops as you need to cover the body, head and legs. Keep in mind that this will probably require about 50 loops, depending on the size and texture of your yarn and how dense you want the shaggy coat to be. As a final touch sew the nose (the round piece of black felt) onto the dog.