Egg pouch softie. Original Easter crafts by Hinterland Mama (for our local paper: Eumundi Green)

Egg pouch softies

I have made a bunch of these egg pouch softies this Easter. 

An original design that I would like to share with you

to make as gifts for and with your children.

These are very cuddly, as they have been made with thick felt 

- from fulled blankets and wool garments.

(the very same eco-felt I sell in my etsy store)

You will need:

*My egg pouch softie PDF printed out: Egg pouch softie template PDF

*around an hour of time 

*Felt (made or buy it here)

*a hand-sewing needle

*thread

*stuffing (If you have no fleece, 
make a beanbag using sand, rice or lentils) 

*and a pen.

Method:

       1/ Cut out the paper templates carefully, then trace around the template on to 
your piece of felt, (ie; twice where it says 2x and once where it says 1x).

       2/ Cut the shapes from the felt as carefully as you can. 
1x Egg pouch, 1x ‘back’, 2x small egg and 2x med egg.

      3/ Thread a needle with a long piece of thread (try the length of your arm 
from wrist to   shoulder), tying the ends of the thread together with a knot.

    4/ Start with an egg. Pass the needle through the (pen line side of the)
 felt and pull all of   the way until the knot is secure in the felt 
and the thread is now anchored, ready to begin.

      5/ Match the two same shapes together (pen lines on the inside) and sew around 
the entire outer edge, stopping to leave a hole to stuff from. 
You can use any stitch at all – make one up! As long as it joins the two pieces 
with minimum of space between stitches to avoid the stuffing falling out.

 

  6/ Fill with stuffing until spongy, not solid.

        7/ Once filled with stuffing, sew up the hole. 
Knot the thread and pass the needle back through the egg 
to hide the tail of the thread. 
Snip off any excess and your egg is now a soft toy/beanbag. 

      8/ Repeat with the Med egg pattern. Here you could stop 
and just sew a piece of ribbon or thread to the top of your eggs, 
to hang them on a branch for a more traditional ‘Easter tree’. 

          9/ To make the pouch itself. You will need the 'Egg softie pouch' piece of felt 
and the 'back' piece. Match the two egg shapes together 
and fold the base up. This will give you three layers. 
The base forms the pocket. Sew around these three layers, 
making sure to stop and fill the 'back' with stuffing before finishing.

         10/ Finally, place the small and medium eggs within the pocket of the pouch. 
Now you have a 3-part soft toy.  

You could of course put other treasures and surprises into the pocket. 

What ideas do You have?

Happy Crafting!

ღ