Snail making instructions

A few years ago, I made alot of felt toys for my kiddos. I found a Waldorf inspired craft book that had a pattern for some really cute snails in it. Well, I was on a board that had alot of mamas on it also making felt toys for their kiddos and they were confused by the instructions in the book. So I made a set of detailed instructions. The book is called: Feltcraft by Petra Berger





Here are my instructions:

Materials
Pattern from Feltcraft by Petra Berger
wool felt or wool blend felt
pipe cleaner or thin wire
embroidery floss to match or compliment felt
card stock or scrap piece of cereal box or other thin cardboard
wool for stuffing



Tools
scissors
needle
bamboo skewer (or anything skinny with a blunt end to stuff the shell)

Hints
1. I cut the "horns" for the snail wider than the pattern. Basically double the thickness of the pattern. I've found it makes it easier to sew on.
2. Use scrap pieces of felt to cut out the horns.
3. I've found cereal boxes to be the best thing to use in the bottom of the snail body to ensure that it stays upright.
4. Using a bamboo skewer's blunt end to fill the shell was the best thing I found to stuff the shell.
5. I've found that stuffing the shell as you sew it is the easiest way to stuff it. Because of the small size of the shell, the wool tries to ball up before it gets where you want it.
6. The shells look good plain or decorated. You can do strips, dots, flowers, etc.
7. Shape the cardboard with a little notch for the neck, so that it makes the head of the snail look nicer. The pattern for the cardboard piece is not in the book but its well worth the effort to make yourself.



Instructions

Cut snail pattern out of felt.

The shell
*If you are going to decorate the shell with embroidery, then do so now.
*Take the embroidery floss you've chosen for the shell and cut a piece 36-42 inches long. Separate 3 pieces of the floss to use to sew up the snail body. Set aside the other to use later.
* Start at the small end of the shell. Fold over and begin sewing. Take the pipe cleaner and bend the tip so that when you stuff it into the shell, it won't poke through the stitching or felt. When you get about 1/2 inch - 1 inch down the long side, insert the pipecleaner.



Continue to sew and stuff with wool (using the bamboo skewer if needed) as you go all the way to the end of the long side. Before you get to the end, cut the pipecleaner to the same length as the felt & fold the tip over.



When you get to the end of the long side, start a running stitch



and pull the floss tight



and knot the floss.

Creating the shell's spiral
Take the piece of floss that you set aside earlier and begin to spiral the shell. To do this, fold over the tip of the shell, keeping the seams to one side (this will be the underside of the shell)



Take a couple of stitches to hold it in place.



Begin to spiral the shell. I found that if you come up through the part you've already folded and down into the new section that your spiraling



is the easiest way to sew it together. Oh and spiral which ever way is most comfortable to you. I had to do it backwards once because I did a directional print on the shell wrong and it was soooo awkward to sew.



When you get to the end of the shell sew down the gathered end.



Knot the floss and trim one of the floss "tails"





Body

Sew across the front of the head on the body and knot floss. Then sew the top seam starting from the head and stopping in the middle of the body where the shell will be and knot the floss.





Sew across the tail end of the body and knot. Insert the cardboard. Stuff the head portion of the body with wool. Start sewing up the tail from the tip of the tail to the middle of the body. After you get about 3/4 of an inch sewn, finish stuffing the body. Sew the hole closed and then knot. Trim the extra floss and you end up with this:



Attaching the body to the shell

Sew the shell onto the body using the floss that is still attached to the shell. You may have to shape the shell a little by pinching it to get it to site properly on the body. There is no real trick to sewing the shell on, so I didn't take any pictures. Just go in and out of the body, then go in and out of the shell, repeat all the way around the shell until the shell is firmly attached to the body. Knot and trim the floss.

The Horns

Take one of the horn pieces and fold the felt over. Sew up one small side and down the long side. Then sew onto the head.



Knot and trim the floss. Repeat with the other horn.

Now you have a snail!!!!!

Your snail options are unlimited!

Snowman Instructions

Body

I used 1 skein of white Red Heart yarn and 1 skein of pearled baby yarn (left over from another project and didn't have the name of the yarn. Sorry). I used a size H hook.

1. Create a magic ring and sc 6 sts into ring. Or ch 2, crochet 2 into the 2nd ch from the hook. (total 6 sc)
2. 2 sc in each sc; repeat until you get 12 sc
3. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next sc; repeat until you get 18 sc
4. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc; repeat until you get 24 sc
5-8. 1 sc into each sc.
9. sc2tog, 1 sc into next 2 sc; repeat until you get 18
10. sc2tog, 1 sc into next sc; repeat until you get 12
If using safety eyes, now is the time to place them.
Take time to stuff head now
11. 1 sc into each sc
12. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next sc; repeat until you get 18 sc
13. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc; repeat until you get 24 sc
14. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 3 sc; repeat until you get 30 sc
15. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 4 sc; repeat until you get 36 sc
16-21. 1 sc into each sc
22. sc2tog, 1 sc into next 4 sc; repeat until you get 30
23. sc2tog, 1 sc into next 3 sc; repeat until you get 24
24. sc2tog, 1 sc into next 2 sc; repeat until you get 18
25. sc2tog, 1 sc into next sc; repeat until you get 12
Take the time now to stuff the body.
26. sc2tog; repeat until you get 6.
Tie off leaving a long piece of yarn. Use yarn needle as pull 6 stitches together, tie off and finish.

Nose

I used 2 skiens of orange embroidery floss together as yarn.

The directions for the nose are approximate, since its up to the creator to determine how long they want the carrot.

1. 4 sc into magic ring
2. 1 sc into each sc
3. 2 sc into 1 sc, 1 sc, 2 sc into 1 sc, 1 sc
4. 1 sc into each sc until carrot is as long as you desire.

After tying off leave a long enough piece so that you can use it to attach to the snow man's head.

Assessories.... I made a scarf out of 2 pieces of wool/rayon blend felt. One piece was 11 inches and that went around the neck. The other piece was 9 inches and was tied around the first piece of wool. But you could easily crochet or knit a scarf for it. Or you could crochet a top hat or even sew one out of felt. You could also use buttons for eyes or wool felt for that matter. These are very easy to whip up and dress.

Have Fun!!!

Acorn Ornaments

Here are the acorn ornaments I made this week for the Thanksgiving Tree.





They were pretty quick to make. And they turned out way better than I thought they would.

Here is the pattern:
1. Create a magic ring and sc 6 sts into ring. Or ch 2, crochet 2 into the 2nd ch from the hook. (total 6 sc)
2. 2 sc in each sc; repeat until you get 12 sc
3. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next sc; repeat until you get 18 sc
4. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc; repeat until you get 24 sc
5. 1 sc in next sc repeat for 24 sc6. sc2tog, 1 sc into next sc; repeat until you get 18

That's it for the cap. Then you just create a pompom much bigger than you need and shape it down to the right acorn nut shape.

Tipis or Teepees, however you want to spell it.

I know, I know, its most likely that the indians that the settlers ran into didn't live in tipis. They most likely lived in something like a wigwam or some other more permanent structure. But when you think of indians, tipis is often one of the things that comes to mind. So I made some for my thanksgiving tree.

They were really easy to make. It would be a great craft for adults to do with kiddos. I wouldn't consider it a kids only craft because you need to use hot glue at one point but other than that, its a kids craft.





Supplies
tan craft foam
permanent markers or paint with brushes
wooden toothpicks
brown embroidery floss or other matching colors
needle for floss
hot glue gun
hole punch - very small or something to carefully poke small holes into the craft foam

Enlarge the pattern to size.
Trace pattern onto tan craft foam.
Decorate the outside of the tipi with permanent markers or paint. Find books with tipi designs. I recommend "The Indian Tipi" by Reginald & Gladys Laubin. Its a great reference book on indian culture as well (for a few tribes anyway).
Punch holes where the pattern indicates.
Circle the tipi into the correct shape and sew together with embroidery floss.
Fold back smoke flaps and glue underside with hot glue to keep open.
Glue wooden toothpicks into top but running a bead of hot glue on the inside then inserting the glue through the hole into the glue.
Your done. I just put mine on the tree branches of my Thanksgiving tree, but you can used them for any kind of decorations.

Pattern:



Enlarge until the longest side is about 9 inches long.

Don't forget the bats!

I love the way my bat turned out. I used the simple ball pattern then added wings.

Here is the pattern for the wings, crochet 2(let me know if you find a mistake):

1. ch 8 , slst in last stitch, ch 8
2. slst in last stitch, 1 sc in next 2 sc, 1 hdc in next 2sc , 1 dc in next 3 sc, 1tr in next sc, 1 dc in next 3 sc, 1 hdc in next 2 sc, 1 sc in next 2sc
3. 1 sc , 1 sc in the next 2sts , 1hdc & 1dc in next st, ch 1, slst into ch, dbc into next st, sc2tog, sc into next st, sc2tog, 2 dbc in next st, ch1, slst into ch, 1dbc into next st, 1 hdc into next st, 1 sc into next st, sl st.
Tie off.

Sew wings onto the sides of the ball with matching yarn.

Use felt and/or buttons for eyes and stitch a mouth on with embroidery floss. Don't forget to add a loop so that you can hang your bats.

The Basic Ball

Here is a pattern for the basic crocheted ball. I used this ball pattern for several of my patterns so I thought I'd post it seperately also.

1. Create a magic ring and sc 6 sts into ring. Or ch 2, crochet 2 into the 2nd ch from the hook. (total 6 sc)
2. 2 sc in each sc; repeat until you get 12 sc
3. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next sc; repeat until you get 18 sc
4. 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc; repeat until you get 24 sc
5-8. 1 sc into each sc.
9. sc2tog, 1 sc into next 2 sc; repeat until you get 18
10. sc2tog, 1 sc into next sc; repeat until you get 12
Take time to stuff ball now
11. sc2tog; repeat until you get 6.
Tie off leaving a long piece of yarn. Use yarn needle as pull 6 stitches together, tie off and finish.

Personally I don't like to see polyfil through my crochet efforts so often I stuff my creations with the same yarn or matching yarn. If I'm using a cheap yarn, I just use that yarn, if I'm using a more expensive yarn, I will find a yarn that matches.

I use this basic shape for several of my creations.

Eek! Spiders

His pic is a little fuzzy, sorry.

Supplies:
Large wooden beads
smaller wooden balls
pipe cleaners in halloween colors
black paint
paint brush
strong glue, I used Goop, but you could use a high melt hot glue gun
craft glue or school glue



Take a wooden bead and a smaller wooden ball and glued them together with a strong glue.
Then paint the spider bodies black.
I found some really cool pipe cleaners in Halloween colors to use as the legs. Take 2 pipe cleaners and cut them in half. Thread them through the wooden bead until the pipe cleaners were sticking out evenly on both sides.
Put a small amount of craft glue or school glue in the hole to secure the pipe cleaners. Let the glue dry and then shape the legs.

You can place these around or you can add string and hang them from a tree branches or light fixtures, etc. These would be great to do with kiddos as long as an adult glued the wooden pieces together first. You do have to do it in stages though, there is alot of waiting for glue and paint to dry.