So I thought to myself, “Hey, wouldn’t it be super fun to make that cartoon sheep you obsessively draw into a felt stuffed toy?”  And I answered, “No, but you’ll make me do it anyway.”  And I said, “How right you are!”

Then I grabbed my phone (for pictures), my giant bag of  felt, some caffeinated drinks, a better attitude, and all the stuff I’d need to make this sucker.

I decided that I’d take pictures of the process every step of the way.  It’s not that I think anyone reading this is slow or can’t figure things out on their own, it’s just that I know when I started out I needed extra help.  Lots of extra help.  And since I’m doing this with pictures, instead of video, there will be a lot of pictures showing you things.

Ready?  This is just Part 1, the head.  Which is actually the most in-depth part.  Know that I used all white thread so you can see my stitches.  Normally if I was sewing on dark colors, I’d use black thread instead of white and vice versa.

This is what I WANT it to look like (don’t get your hopes up people, these are unsewn pieces of felt laid on the table and there’s a reason this blog is called “badly crafted”)

  Notice the reading glasses.  Old lady eyes need to be able to see.

Here’s the pieces laid out so you see the shapes better.  You know, just in case you want to attempt this.  I ended up trimming the ears a bit.

With the exception of the eyes (black and white circles) and the yellow circle for the flower, EVERYTHING has a double.  Even the flower petals.  That’s because parts of this sheep aren’t stuffed, but there is double felt to make it “thick” enough to stand up to the stuffed parts.

You will need felt  (all of these are made from FELT).  You can buy the felt at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Walmart, etc.  Normally like 25 cents each):

FLOWER:  2 small green leaves, 2 small green stems (*ignore the larger green stem in picture), 1 small yellow circle and 8 flower pink petals

HEAD:  2 large brown “face” pieces, 2 white eye circles, 2 black eye circles, 2 white fluffy hair pieces

EARS:  4 black weirdly shaped pieces (see pic)

BODY:  2 large white “cloud-looking” pieces

LEGS:  8 brown leg shapes.  (see pic)

FEET:  8 black shapes (see pic)

STUFFING:  see my picture above.

Black marker for making his nostrils because I’ll be darned if I’m going to try to sew tiny little nostrils on this sheep.  That’s what I get for putting them on her face in the drawings.

I started by sewing the eyes.  Sew the black circles into the center of the white circles.  Then you sew  the two eyes together in the center like this:

  Then you sew the eyes onto the brown face part.  BUT, don’t sew the entire round white part onto the brown.  Only sew it halfway up the eyes, like this:

  Next you sew 2 of the black ear pieces together to make one sturdy ear.  You’ll do the same with the other two ears.  Then you’ll attach it to the head like this:

      After you get the ears on, you’ll get ready to sew the white fluffy hair on the sheeps head.  THIS is where stuffing starts coming into play.  You will sew all around the curvy parts and leave the bottom FLAT part of the shape open (so you can stuff).  Then you stuff and sew it shut.  Remember, don’t over stuff or you split the seams.

      Now you need to attach it to the head behind the eyes and ears and IN BETWEEN the two pieces of brown felt FACE pieces.

    (look closely in the 2nd picture. You can see my big toe! It’s so cute with the pink nail polish!) Don’t sew all the way around the face just yet.  You’ll need to sew the flower parts on the lower jaw area before you do.  I find it easier (and less messy in the looks dept) if you sew them to the back piece (from the inside) instead of having a bunch of different messy seams everywhere.  Certainly someone with more craft know-how would tell you to sew it exactly into the seam that will be going around the face, but I’m not that person.  I craft badly.  I have ugly seams on the back of my sheeps head.  I’ll show you later.  If you’d like directions on how to sew it beautifully, you’ll have to find another blog.  And then let me know because if it’s easy I may try it.

  Now stop (HAMMER TIME!) and take a moment to sew your flower together.  I just sewed the petals together and then put the circle in the middle and sewed an inner circle and outer circle to make sure all the petals were securely attached to the center.

As I type this I realize I did NOT add the other green stem to the other side of his mouth to attach the flower.  It looked weird and flopped the flower around.  So I  just attached the pink flower inside the side of his mouth and then sew around the head leaving an opening on the side so you can stuff it.  After you do that, stuff, then sew it up and voila! A sheeps head.

I’m worn out.

Ok, so tonight I’ll be working on the body (which is totally easy) and the legs/feet (which is just time consuming) and will post that tomorrow.

If you’ve made it this far without eye rolling, harfing or plotting my death, good for you! I appreciate it!  Tomorrows stuff won’t be so…busy.

Later taters!