funky home decor fabric

welcome to soveryeasy, my name is laura. and let's make an elephant family. and while we make this i'm going to be able to cover some tips and tricks that you're going to be able to pull into your everyday sewing. and i'm going to be making both sides of the elephant. now this pattern is from carol's zoo. i'll put a link in the description. what's great about it, there is only two pattern pieces. you cut them twice, front and back, so

you only have four pieces per elephant. makes it quick and easy. i'm using three different fabrics; they're all from shannon fabrics in the cuddle line. they have the cuddle suede, the cuddle hide, and this is a double-sided cuddle. so each one of these is going to give the elephant a different look so you're going to be able to see how they look when they're put together.

so there are two pattern pieces per size. you have a mama elephant and a baby elephant. now when you get it you're going to find that there's writing on the outside of the pattern after you cut off. and what i like to do, and i do this with all of my patterns, anything that is written on the outside i take it and i glue them either on the back of the pattern or, if i have room, on the front of the pattern. that way these little extra directions i will not lose and i'll always have

them handy. and i will do it for all the pieces. the hide fabric looks like the fur is going in different directions, and when i saw this i thought of an old-man wrinkled elephant. so the first one i'm going to make is out of this hide fabric. it's 100% polyester so you're going to have no problem working with this and washing it. so there's two pattern pieces, i need to cut them twice

and i need them to be reversed, so i'll put the fabric together so that the right sides are touching; the wrong sides are out. i still want to follow the grain line and i want to use as little fabric as possible so i'm going to adjust the pieces how i want them. and it doesn't matter if you take the piece and you cut it in this direction or this direction as long as you have two pieces of fabric that are together when you cut them. when you open them you're going to have both on the opposite so when

they go together they'll make that animal piece. and when i use a really thick fabric i don't pin the paper piece onto the fabric. it's sometimes a little bit too thick so it is very hard to pin and it distorts, so i'll take something to mark the cutting line instead of pinning. and because i'm going to be cutting that line, i can use anything that's going to mark on that fabric. so i will take this and i'm going to trace all the way around the outside on both pieces. and i know that that grain line is

still correct. and when i finish tracing all over them i will take the pattern piece off and i will pin those layers together. i do it this way because it's going to save me pinning. i need to pin it in order to cut it but i also need to pin it to sew it. this way, i've already pinned it once and i'm ready to go. i will pin the lines that need to be sewn first, exactly the way that i would pin them as if i was going to bring them right to the machine. my ends are not going to be in the way of my scissors, but they're still there so

i don't have to remove them. the other pieces that are not going to be sewn right away, i can just put larger spaces so that i can cut them out. at this point i can now transfer any of the marks from this pattern onto my pattern piece. and for that eye marking, instead of making a hole right in the pattern, i'm going to take that pattern piece and i'm going to fold it in half right through the center of that eye. then i'm going to be able to mark that area right there.

once it's pinned and all the markings are done, you're now able to cut them out. i already have my right sides of my fabric together, so i won't have to put them together in the right way; they're already there. when i'm cutting out a pattern i don't want to twist and turn the fabric. i want to leave it as flat as i can while i'm cutting it, but sometimes my arms are not going to go in that direction. so what i will do is i will cut into the pattern, it's sort of a star formation, right up to that line.

then i'm able just to pick up that little piece and cut. i can cut this way but now i'm able to cut this way. and all those little pieces are not going to be used anyway so i'm not going to worry about them. and if i'm going to go right into a corner i'm able just to take the scissors and cut right into that corner and then i'll be able to follow the line as i go along. and by cutting these little star lines it's just going to be a little bit easier to maneuver those scissors around these odd shapes.

after the pieces are cut out, what i want to do is i want to shake these pieces to get any of the extra fluff off of them before i start working with them. so i'm just going to pick up the piece that's already pinned and then stick it into a bag at the bottom and shake it. now sometimes a pin or two will fall out but what's going to happen is now all of that fluff is in the bottom of the bag. and i will do this to all of the pieces, even the big leftover piece that i want to keep. before i go any further i'm going to

vacuum up all of this extra little fluff because i don't want that fluff into my machine or on to another project. i'm also going to make a second large one. this one is going to be grandpa but. i want to make mum, so i'm using this double-sided cuddle. it also is going to give some lint so i'm going to do the same thing even before i sew this. i'm going to cut out the second piece and just as i did i'm going to pin them all together and i'm going to shake out all the lint, vacuum the counter, and go to

the next piece. for the baby elephant i'm going to use a fabric that looks like suede. to me it made me think of brand new elephant. and it is a polyester it's just fabric so you're going to be able to treat it exactly the same way as you did the others. and when you're working with fabric that looks like suede or fur there is a nap, so you're going to keep in mind the direction of the nap as you're cutting the

pattern piece. the one thing you have to remember when you are doing something with a nap that you have the bodies going in the same direction. so i have the legs both at the bottom. if not you're going to have the one side of the animal look different than the other side of the animal. so i have the baby cut out and the two large elephants cut out. the pattern pieces for the large and the small are slightly different however the construction is the

same, so i'm going to show you how to make the small one but the large one is the same. so the first thing i want to do is take care of those eyes. so i have the marking on the eyes on both sides. the eyes come in two parts. you have the outside and then this washer that's the inside. and when they're snapped together they're permanent, so don't snap them now or you won't be able to get them apart. and what you need to do is do a hole in the pattern where the eye

is so that this is going to fit through. now you can't make it too big because then the eye is going to be floppy so you need to do just a tiny little hole so that it can be forced through and stay nice and tight. so i'm going to put those little holes right there now. i can separate the fabric and fold right where that mark is where the eye is and do a tiny little snip. i would rather start small and go bigger as i need it. then you're going to be able to test to see if you're going to be able to get

that in. if not, then you can just do a little bit bigger. and i'm going to do that hole on both sides. so i've tested and i know those are going to be big enough. i'm not going to put the eyes in yet. at least now it's going to be easier to put those eyes in. i won't have to make the holes once it's sewn together. now the directions are great but i'm going to give you another way of putting this together. because you already have it sewn together, i want to sew the lines that are needed without

taking the pins apart. the seam i'm going to need is going to be along that back, so from that square line up around the tail to that line, and this is the center back where you're going to be able to turn it rightside-out, and then up to the top. on the front i'm going to sew his head around his trunk all the way down to the bottom. and those are the two seams you're going to be able to do before you take the pins off. and you can do the same with the large

elephants. now as you're stitching around, if you have a small piece that you know is going to be a little difficult to turn rightside-out—for example, his little tail— there is a way to help you pull that out after you've had it sewn. sew all the way around his tail but leave a little opening at the very end. you'll be able to stitch that after. get a very strong thread, one that's not going to break as you pull it through. you want to make sure your thread is a lot

bigger than that piece. and tie the thread together so you have one big loop. now if you can get a crochet hook to go up into that tail, great. if not, you're just going to have to use a sewing needle. so i'll take that hook and i'll put it through the tail right up into the end. take the loop of the thread and then pull it with that hook all the way out. now continue to stitch up that tail so that you have to pick two ends of the thread coming out and you do have the loop on the other side. so just stitch

right over top of that thread. the tail is completely sewn but it has this long thread running down the center. and you can do the same thread technique here as you did with the tail. before we go any further let's put the eyes on. so making sure i put in the eyes on the right side, i now will be able to put those eyes right through that hole that i made previous and i'll be able to snap on that washer.

now we're going to sell the front and the backs open up the back, open up the front, and place the right sides together. you're now going to be able to sew following the seams together, but you're not going to sew the ends of his feet and little hands. that will remain open. so that will be this area and this area down here. you will notice that the back arm is slightly larger than the front arm. that's going to make it so that the arms are going to come forward. so you're going to

have to ease in a little bit of that fabric right there in that area, so when you stitch this make sure that the back is at the bottom of the machine and the feed dogs are going to help you ease that in. the next is we're going to close up the feet and the hands. so you're going to take the side seam and the side seam and match them together. so you'll just take that and pull it so that those two seams match. however, you're not going to stitch it straight across.

you're going to stitch it in a curve. and just eye it. it's going to be fine whatever curve you do. when the feet and arms are done, well, you can turn him rightside-out. now the pieces that you can get your fingers in to turn are going to be fine. and to turn this tail inside-out you're going to need to trim that seam allowance so it's nice and close to that seam, only for the very end of that tail. then you'll be able to take that thread you'll be able to pull it and pull that point out.

so i was able to pull that tail right out to the very end. now i'm going to be able to just trim that thread right off. now you have a nice thin tail and i'm able to use that string to help pull out his trunk. now you're able to get some good stuffing and stuff him. as you're stuffing you need to avoid putting stuffing right here in the corner where his arms are, so that his arms will move, and right here where his feet are, so that

he will be able to sit. and a little less right up at the ears so that the ears can come forward. you'll be able to do a stitch to close up the back. and to stitch the back closed you need to take a stitch on one side, and where you come out you want to start in the other side. and this is what the stitches are going to look like. when you pull them, that seam allowance is going to tuck inside. on the hands and the feet you can do some little finger

and toe marks, and it's just a matter of taking your thread, and if you have pearl cotton that's great to use, and you're going to stitch from one side right to the other so that when you pull it's going to make this little dimple. then you're going to be able to tie it off. and do that to his feet and his little hands. so now let's get mama done and wrinkly grandpa. so we have elegant mum with some nice new jewelry, baby boy, and wrinkled old grandpa.

it's amazing how three different fabrics can make the one pattern look so different i do hope you give this a try, and try some different fabrics and see which one you like best. thank you for joining me today on sewveryeasy and, as always, feel free to subscribe and come on back. let's see what we're sewing next timein the sewing room. bye for now!

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