Hand Made Christmas - Bean Bag Giraffe

My nephew is just 18 months old and I wanted to give him a Christmas gift that he could play with. I've made blankets in the past and they are not very exciting for the kids. I decided to convert a pair of dreadful socks into a keepsake he can play with and perhaps treasure as a lovey later in life.

I cut the socks up into sections - one for the head, one for the body, 4 for the legs, one for the neck and one for the tail.

I used the top elastic portion for my head. I turned it inside out and sewed the just behind the elastic to create the mouth. Then I sewed 1/3 in on both sides so that I had a 1/3 hole in the center so I could turn the sock right side out. I filled the head with rice and pinned the opening closed. I set this part aside for later.



Next, I turned the end of the sock piece inside out and sewed 1/3 of it closed on both sides so that there was a 1/3 size opening in the center. I turned it right side out, filled it with rice and pinned the center hole closed.

Next I sewed the neck, tail, and four legs. so that I had 6 tubes total. Once they were turned right side out, I filled them with rice.

Since the holes were quite small, I made a funnel from a piece of paper to pour the rice in.


Once all six of the tubes were filled and sew up, I attached them to the head and body. For the neck, I inserted one end into the head and sewed the hole closed. I also sewed around the entire hole and limb so that the animal could withstand tugging, swinging and dragging.

Next I sewed the other end to the body in the same manner.Because the body was larger than theneck, I sewed some of the gathering tightly around the neck so that the animal became one piece rather than several pieces stitched together.

To attach the legs and tail, I cut tiny incisions into the bosy, inserted the end of the tubes and sewed them up tightly just as I did for the neck.

To create the face, I cut two small circles from white felt and sewed black buttons on top, then sewed the the eyes to the face. I used black thread to sew "X"'s for the nostrils. To create the eyelashes, I sewed folded embroidery floss into 1 inch sections and sewed it on top of the eyes. I cut the sections at their folds to make lashes.
I used this same technique in attaching the mane hair and the hair and the end of the tail. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm excited to give it to him because it was made with love!