Toys to Sew: Dozens of Patterns for Dolls, Animals, Doll Clothes, and Accessories

by Claire Garland

Book Overview

What could be more enchanting than creating homemade toys for the children in your life? InToys to Sew, designer Claire Garland leads you step-by-step through thirty whimsical projects for charming animals, dolls, and other soft toys. From classic patchwork hobbyhorses to colorful smiling dinosaurs, you will be amazed at the variety of results you can achieve using Garland's stitching methods. All of the projects stitch up quickly and easily for sewers...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307345416
• ISBN13: 9780307345417
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Potter Craft
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Such cute toys!!!

I absolutly love the toys in this book, and so does my daughter!! With all of the lead and recall issues lately we have taken aways most of my her toys and replaced them with safer toys; many from this book. They have their own special touch like the silly high placed thumbs, big googoo eyes, and more. I made the cat and one mouse skittle and my daughter loves throwing them at me and laughing. This is a soft toy that won't hurt a fly and they are soo cute. I did add more personality to one of the mice by making her into a ballernina. I will also do a pirate one. These toys can be made so inexpensivly that I am actually able to give gifts to my nieces and nephews for Christmas. I have a hard time controlling myself!!I want to make them all!!! They are soooo cute!! The only reason I gave this a 4 instead of a 5 is that I agree with the other reviewers: the instructions and pattern pieces are lacking. If you are a beginner you will find this frustrating. With a little experience you will be able to figure out what is not told to you. There are times also that the pattern will not yield the same results as what you see in the picture. For example: the gator has pointy claws in the pic but the pattern has round blunt claws. I have learned to look over the pic well, compare the pattern and make adjustments. As far as increasing the pattern piece sizes I too found this cumbersome. I didn't drive to a print shop, but I did have to have my teenager teach me how to use the enlarging feature on my home copier/printer/scanner. So if you can enlarge pattern pieces and figure out missing instructions here and there, this book will be excellent for any parent wanting to make cute, safe toys for their children and gifts for others!! Here is a list of what you will find in the book: 1 doll/ 4 variations: pirate, ballernia, Sony Sam, fairy. Other clothes. 4 sock animals: tiger, monkey, dog, puppy. Stuffed animals: pink elephant,gator, trutle, bear, spotted elephant Felt toys: 4 dinos and one baby dino hatching out of an egg and bag, cat and mouse skittles (boweling), cone shapped houses. A hobbie horse and a wooden pull toys (like a flat wagon).

Great book, but not for beginner

This book is packed full of really cute toys to sew. However, the instructions have much to be desired if you are a beginner sewer. I've sewn toys before, so I knew what to do, but more details are needed, such as how to sew on knit fabric (for example socks are used for the cover toys -- if too short a stitch length is used, you may have stretch occurring), placement of embroidered details like eyes and nose, and how to sew on limbs so that the seams don't show. That's another issue, many of the seams are visible on these toys, which means wear of the toys may be an issue. I also would opt to put on details like the dog patch and nose after stuffing and not before, especially as the knit fabric of the socks stretches but the felt does not (nose and eyes). Fabric instructions and sizes are not clear as well. If you are not a beginner, I think there is a great deal of inspiration in the toys in this book. They look like fun items kids will love. Okay, forget kids, I love them.

Excellent

Fantastic book. Heaps of ideas. Easy to follow instructions and diagrams. Only problem is where to start!!! Great for Christmas/birthday gift ideas too!

Fun & easy stuffed creations...

I'd forgotten how much fun it is to work with felt. The patterns & instructions in this book are easy to follow and the results are great. I made the mouse skittles (the mice are the bowling pins and the ball is a cat) and my only warning is that you will find yourself making more and more mice, just because the group looks so good. My only quibble with the book is that I wasn't able to locate the pattern for the egg (meant to hold a baby dinosaur), but I shouldn't complain. Surely we can all figure out how to cut out an egg shape.

charming

I love this book!!! The designs are so charming, creative and fun! I want to eventually make everything in it!! There is a large section about a rag doll and clothes to go with it. The sock animals are unique and playful....but the best patterns are the alligator and the turtle, they make really stunning toys. These designs seem simple enough for a beginner to do and are a really quick sew for the experienced seamstress. Did I say, I love this book!!?!!!