DIY: Thrift fabric characters

The thrift store is quite the hotspot for finding fabric. I’ve found awesome upholstery fabric and vintage pieces in my thrifting adventures that is on budget. I’ve also repurposed clothing that is dated or worn into fabulous DIYs. You can easily turn thrift fabric into super sweet creatures.

Supplies:

• thrift store fabric or old clothing
• needle and thread
• random buttons
• paper and pen
• scissors
• chalk
• felt (optional)
• sewing machine (optional)

I am not a sewer. I’m more of a hack when it comes to using my trusty 1950s Singer. For this DIY you can use a sewing machine or just hand sew your creature. First step in making a stuffie is to create your pattern. I drew out my cat then cut out the pattern. It doesn’t need to be perfect since this is a handmade stuffie.

Trace your pattern on your fabric using chalk. I made a couple of creatures at once. You’ll need to trace a front and back per stuffie.

Cut out your pieces. Then start creating the face. I used a fabric sample for the face then added random buttons for the eyes.

Sew the face to the front of your creature. I have buttons for the eyes, black felt for the nose then I stitched a mouth and whiskers. You can use part of your fabric to add ears.

Once you’ve finished adding a face then you’re ready to stitch the front and back together. You can either hand sew them together or use your sewing machine.

Here are the two cats I’m making out of my thrift store fabric.

When you’re stitching up your pieces, add the stuffing when you’re 80% done. I used scrap pieces to add stuffing to my cat then used a pen to push the stuffing into the legs and arms. Once you’ve finished stuffing your animal then finish stitching it up.

And you’re done! Now you can try creating other animals like an owl, a dog or maybe a made up animal or creature. These are super cute gifties for friends. Each animal cost a couple of dollars in materials and maybe an hour or two to make. An easy, super sweet and very fun DIY!