Five Little Ducks

Here is a gift I made for our little niece on her 1 year old birthday.  The idea started with this little book. I thought it would be fun to have ducks to play with when you sing the song.   I also remember all my children wanted to do at that age was put things into something.  So I made 5 little ducks and a container 
to put them in.  

These little duckies are made out of polar fleece and felt. 
and I can see now that they desperately need eyes, oh well, too late!

Polar fleece is so easy to sew and stuff. It is great for stuffed animals because it's stretchy.  You just have to be careful because there is one direction that it is stretchier so you make sure the "stretch" is going the right direction. 
For example, these ducks were cut out with the same pattern. The duck on the left was cut so the stretch was going up and down, and the right was cut out with the stretch doing from side to side. Totally different duck shapes!

For the ball I used the Fabric Beach Ball tutorial from the Purl Bee.
I wanted to make it so it was lined and sturdy, so I cut out twice as many pieces and put 2 layers of felt and 1 layer of heavy stabilizer in the middle.  I put the ball together using a quilt as you go method (which I cannot find a very good tutorial for so let me know if you want me to show it). 


To finish it off I cut a hole out of the last two pieces, turned the raw edges in and stitched it closed by hand.  Lastly, I stitched around the opening with embroidery floss.

This is what it looks like inside.  Ready for stuffing with Ducks.

Doug took it to her and reported that she new exactly what to do with it.  YES!





3 comments:

  1. Such an AWESOME idea!!! I need a quilt as you go tutorial! I'd love to make one of these. It's a great gift idea!

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  2. Super cute! I love it. Lovely.

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  3. So cute! My gifts tend to grow in the same way that you described! And I love that the ducks stretched in different directions-who wants 5 identical ducks? Easier to name them this way! :)

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