Want to make a creature come alive with your little ones? This tutorial will guide you through how to make a stuffed, lovely elephant with your child.

You will need some fabric — maybe from an old t-shirt or sweater, some felt pieces, and poly-stuffing. You will also need to know how to sew.

As your children create drawings of new creatures, or explore building and planning — making creations by sewing and stuffing them can help them understand a few things:

• the design process of drawing plans, making first prototypes, and gradually making the real thing
• creating a pattern to reuse in the future
• constructing and detailing a physical, 3-dimensional thing

Plus it’s fun, and you will create something beautiful!

These detailed + illustrated instructions on how to make your very own Elephant! Any color, any size, any mood, it’s up to you!  Mine was yellow and pink, with a spaced out look.

Here’s a tutorial for a plush elephant.  It requires just a basic level of sewing skills (it’s recommended you use a machine for most of it), and can be made out of repurposed materials — old sweatshirts, sweaters, flannel shirts, upholstery fabric, anything that has some sturdiness to it.

You’ll need to choose two main fabrics: Fabric A, for the main body, Fabric B, for the underbelly.  Avoid anything sheer, flimsy, or too stiff — you want something durable, flexible, and soft.

Here we go!

The materials you need:

Sewing machine

Fabric A, 1/2 yard

Fabric B, 1/4 yard

Felt squares: 1 white, 1 Green, 1 Blue, 1 Purple, 1 Red

Polyfiber stuffing

Use the pattern from printing out these pieces and possibly expanding them out to be larger

Part 1: CUT

Cut the pattern pieces from the downloaded sheets (and if you then trace & cut them from  a light stiff cardboard, like a cereal box, then they will be easier to use).

Cut 2 Body Pieces from Fabric A

Cut 1-on-fold Underbelly Piece from Fabric B

Cut 2 Ear Pieces from Fabric A

Cut 2 Ear Pieces from Fabric B

Cut 2 Eye Pieces from White Felt Cut 2 Eye Shadow Pieces from Green Felt Cut 2 Eye Balls from Blue Felt Cut

4 Paws from Purple Felt Cut 1 Snout from Red Felt

Part 2: APPLIQUE

Sew Eyeball onto Eyepiece, repeat Sew Eyepiece onto Eye Shadow piece, repeat

Sew Eye onto Body Piece, as marked, repeat for other set

Part 3: EARS

Sew One Fabric A Ear Piece to One Fabric B Piece, from point X to point Y.  Repeat!

Turn the ears right side out Stuff them until they are plump.

Turn the raw edges in, pin them close Sew along pins Stitch the ears to the body piece, on the marked line,  using an overcast stitch if possible

Part 4: BODY

Sew one Body piece to the Underbelly piece, from point A to B,  then from C to D, then E to F (Be sure to leave gaps at the leg openings!).  Repeat for other Body piece and second half of Underbelly.

Sew two Body pieces together, from point J to K – leave a gap, and then from N to O

Part 5: STUFF & FINISH!

Turn your elephant right side out through the gap along its top

Stuff it plump – paying special attention to making the legs stiff enough to stand up straight

Handsew one paw to one leg, repeat for remaining three

Handsew snout to the trunk Handsew the gap along the top closed

And there you are: ELEPHANT!