A version of this first appeared on this site way back in 2012, however it wasn’t super clear and needed updating.

First, credit where it’s due, the original idea for this comes from the book “Happy Gloves – Charming Softy Friends Made From Colorful Gloves” by Miyako Kanamori. The author also has a book called “Sock and Glove – Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves.” When I originally posted this craft, I had no idea where the original idea came from, and several people kindly let me know in comments, so I wanted to be sure to credit properly this time around.

Now, I think it’s important to point out that I am NOT great at sewing. I can make basic stitches, but I don’t know enough to be any sort of authority. The good news is that if I can do it, so can you. Not knowing how to sew does not preclude you from joining in on this fun craft.

If you are someone who sews, this should be extra simple. The stitch I used is the whip stitch, which is basically a really simple in, out and around motion that works pretty well.

To begin, you’ll need a glove. I had these black ones on hand, but the Dollar Tree has loads of gloves in different colors for cheap, so you can always find yourself a better color. You’ll also need a needle and thread, scissors and any embellishments you may want to add. In my original version, I gave the bear button eyes and a felt nose. But for this version, I simply made the face with different colors of thread.

Turn the glove inside out, as you’ll want to make sure you sew INSIDE the stuffie so there are no weird lines. Refer to the photo above to know where to cut as you go.

Begin by cutting the thumb of the glove off. This is going to be the tail for your critter. You can make it as long or as short as you want. I chose to cut the tip off for a shorter tail, but you can make it longer if you want a different animal.

Next, cut between the second and third fingers so that you have two sets of two fingers. Cut all the way up to the top of palm of the glove and remove. This will become the body/legs of your animal.

Cut the very tips of the legs off so that you have two small half circles. You can trim the legs so they are more rounded, allowing you to sew them more easily. The two half circles will become the ears.

Next, cut the two fingers left on the glove, as these will become arms.

The final cut is the area above those two fingers, which should be enough for the head.

To help envision the final product, lay out your pieces in front of you to see how they will fit together.

Then, begin your sewing. Using a whip stitch, sew along the open side of your body/leg piece and down and around the feet. Make sure you close any gaps so that stuffing can’t escape.

Next, pull the glove so it’s no longer inside out, and add your stuffing into the legs/body, sewing the top of the whole piece closed. Be sure not to over-stuff, as it will make the weave very thin, and it may also cause your stitches to break.

Move on to the head, sewing around the entire piece, leaving a gap in the back to add more stuffing. Be sure to flip it so it’s not inside out before you stuff. Once you have a shape you like, sew this closed, as well.

Very carefully, sew the head to the body, using whatever method works best for you. I like to add a lot of back and forth extra stitches to make sure it’s secure. I also chose to sew the chin area to the chest area so that the stuffie would look more stable and to stop the head flopping around.

Moving on to the arms, you simply need to pull them right side out, stuff them, and then sew them to the body. There are many ways you can do this, but I chose to sew the shoulder areas to the body by going around the entire outer arm in a circle. I considered simply closing the arm hole first and then sewing it to the body, but I didn’t want a flat seam. I wanted a rounded arm, and this seemed the easiest way.

Once both arms are attached, you have the basic body of your critter. Now it’s just about adding a tail and ears. I added the tail first, stuffing it slightly and then closing it. I then sewed it to his backside.

The ears were simple, as well. I pinched them together a bit before sewing them to the head of the critter.

Next, I took some colored thread and sewed a pink nose and greenish eyes to give him character.

The final step was adding a little scarf. For this, I simply cut the very bottom of the glove off, where the wrist part is. It is stretchy and ribbed, and it looked just perfect for this job. I cut it out and then tied it around the critter’s neck, sewing a couple of stitches to it so that it would stay put.

And that was it. Our little critter is all done. I personally think it looks more like a mouse than a bear this time around, but regardless it’s pretty cute. I gave it to my six year old son, and he named it Barnabus. SO CUTE!

This whole process only took about an hour, and it would have been quicker if I was better at sewing. I think even young children could make this with a little direction from mom or dad.

I hope you love it and will give it a try. I know it’s the perfect craft for kids or adults who want to make a simple sewing project.

The post Turn a Glove Into a Stuffed Bear appeared first on It's a Mother Thing.

He does the same thing with doors. Open, slam shut! Open, slam shut! It’s what babies do, I guess.

In fact, it seems like his newfound enthusiasm for slamming doors is rubbing off on his brothers. They now seem to have figured out that their bedroom HAS a door (a fact we have tried to keep hidden from them so they’d leave it open and we could keep an eye on their play). As a result, about twenty times every evening, we can hear the windows of the house shake as they slam the door shut. It is usually followed by screaming and crying as one or the other of them has hit, kicked or pulled the hair of  the other out of mom and dad’s watchful eyes.

More frustrating than that is when we’ve put them all to bed (they currently share a room), and one of the older kids gets up and slams the door, waking the baby and extending our evening by at least two hours.

So what is a frazzled mom to do, eh? Easy! Create a super simple DIY Door Silencer!

The great thing about this (besides being easy to make and keeping doors from being slammed) is that it helps protect itty bitty fingers from being caught in the door. Sadly Baby Chester has learned all about that recently, getting his tiny digits caught in doors, drawers and even between floor boards! Poor kid.

So here’s how to make it.

Supplies:

1/4 yard of fabric
fat quarter of either batting or fleece
thread
scissors and/or rotary cutter (will need a cutting mat if using a rotary cutter)
ruler
Iron and ironing board
straight pin needles

Directions:

First, take your desired fabric and cut two 6in x 6in squares.

Next, cut two 6in x 6in squares of batting or fleece.

Cut four 9in x 1 1/2 in strips out of your fabric.

With your iron hot, take your strips and fold both edges inward until they meet in the middle. Press down with the iron to create a crisp seam.

Take the ironed fabric and fold in half and iron again.

After folding, sew a straight line down the middle of each strip. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of each strip. Once you have done this for all your strips, you have your door ties.

HINT: If you are not great at sewing, you can use sewing tape to keep it together. It won’t be as strong, but it’ll work!

The next step is to lay out your fabric, batting (or fleece) and ties. You’ll want the batting first, then the fabric with design facing up, and then your ties. The two ties should be on top of each other on opposite ends and facing inward. Pin them about 3/4 inch inward to ensure proper placement. Then your last fabric square should be on top with the design facing down.

Pin about 3/4 inch inward all around the square. As you come to each of the ties, unpin them from between the fabric and repin them (in the same spot) on top of the fabric.

Starting on either the top or the bottom (not the sides with the ties) start sewing with a 1/2 inch inseam, removing pins as you go. Be sure to do a few back-stitches when sewing over the ties, as this is the area that will get the most tension. Do not sew completely closed. Leave about 3 inches.

Turn your door silencer right side out through the three inch gap. Where the opening is, use your iron and fold rough edges inward, then press and pin.

Sew with a 1/4 inseam all around the outer edge of the door silencer to give a finished look.

Tie around door knob.

No more slamming doors! No more kids getting themselves locked in a room! No more squished fingers!

And the best part is, it is totally portable, easy to remove so you can switch it up between doors. Or do yourself a favor and make a few at a time and leave them wherever you notice the kids playing.

Check out these Sewing Hacks from Andrea’s Notebook for more tips and tricks!

The post DIY Door Silencer – Never Wake a Sleeping Baby Again! appeared first on It's a Mother Thing.

While randomly browsing online recently, my attention was drawn to a little graphic about how to make a plushy chipmunk from a retired glove. With so many winter gloves roaming around our house, I thought it could be a good idea to give Dexter a new toy and recycle my tatty mittens at the same time.

Forgive me because I don’t know where this image is originally from. If you do, let me know and I’ll add a credit. Anyway, this was the image that randomly popped up a few months ago, and I’ve been dying to do something with it ever since.

For the record, I know nothing about sewing, nor do I know how to follow a pattern. So everything I’ve done was just eyeballing and using (or possibly abusing) a needle and thread to get the effect I wanted. If you are knowledgable about sewing, you’ll probably be better at this than I am. As it is, as long as it works, I don’t really mind the approach.

The first step is to take your glove and turn it inside out. All the sewing should be done on the inside of the glove so that there will be neat seams when you turn it the right way around.

The next step is to cut out the shapes. I didn’t mark anything beforehand. I just took a pair of scissors and started cutting, based loosely on the infographic above. The main difference is that I shortened the tail to make it more bear like than chipmunk like. I also didn’t make the arms thinner than the legs, as it seemed a lot of extra work.

 I then stuffed and sewed the head to the best of my ability.

Again, I’m not great at sewing, so it probably took a lot of unnecessary thread. I tried to keep it as neat as possible, and I think I did an okay job.

One note I would make is that here and on the body, I think I may have OVERstuffed them. The weave of the knit is very stretched because of all the stuffing I added.

I think next time I will add less and see what that looks like.

My big worry is that the thinner weave will mean it will be more likely a seam will rip more quickly.

Then we can go ahead and add the ears to the side of the head. This one was trickier than I’d imagined, and I found I needed to sew the bottoms closed before adding them to the head. But if you’re more experienced, I’m sure you can figure out how to do it more easily.

The other problem I had was that I seemed to keep getting knots in my thread, which meant that there were clumps of it behind the ears. I will be more careful in future.

I did the body in the same way as the head, stuffing it and then using my primitive sewing methods to close the top of the neck. I then attached the head to the body as best as I could. I ran into the same problem with clumps of knotted thread. This is an ongoing issue for me it seems!

The infographic suggested adding pipecleaners to the legs, which allows them to be adjustable. I did this for the bear (in the arms as well as legs), but I won’t do it in future. I don’t think it adds anything special, and in fact because of the thin weave, you can SEE the pipecleaner through the bear. But then again, maybe I did it wrong…

I attached the arms after stuffing them. As with the ears, I had to close them off before attaching, but I think it would have looked better if I could have figured out how to add them open.

For the final touches, I added a couple of buttons for eyes, a piece of black felt for the nose, and using the ribbing on the bottom of the glove, I fashioned a little scarf for the bear. This was great, as it covered up the shoddy job I did attaching his head to the body!

So the end result? My kid still prefers his toy truck, but he at least let the bear ride along!

I have half a dozen gloves laying around, so I may try this again soon, learning from the mistakes of this one. I’m thinking about trying a bunny rabbit for next time! Wish me luck!

And if you try this one out, please come and share your results! I’d love to see them!

The post Craft Tutorial – Turn a Glove into a Plush Bear appeared first on It's a Mother Thing.