Sew Sock Monster Softies!

Sock monster softies are easy beginner sewing crafts.

       These little softies are easy to sew and also include three different sewing stitches for young people to learn as they stuff, sculpt, attach eyes, horns, shells, big teeth, tails and anything else a young artist can think of!

Supply List:

• old, clean socks
• giant wooden beads for eyeballs
• white felt or white pom-poms for teeth
• an extra red sock for the mouth
• wool or cotton stuffing
• blue and black felt for eye-balls
• white sock for eyeballs too
• a plastic critter for eating or a companion
• a long sewing needle and matching threads

Step-by-Step Instructions: 

1. First, draw a picture of the sock monster you would like to make. You may make one like ours or design very own. 
2. To sew a large, exaggerated, red mouth similar to my own examples shown here, cut away the heal portion of an old sock. 
3. Turn the sock inside-out and replace the heal opening with a red sock scrap the same size as the one you cut away. Make this replacement by placing the cut heal from the first sock on top of a red sock and cut around that shape.
4. Sew the mouth in with the right sides together while the sock monster is turned inside out. Use a straight stitch.
5. Now turn the sock right sides facing out and use a whip stitch to attach the red mouth knitting more firmly in place. The whip stitch should overlap the straight seam already in place.
6. Now you are ready to stuff your monster softie, stitch the openings at the end of the sock closed  and add strange attachments wherever you would like! 
7. To make big eyeballs like mine: cover a large wooden bead using white sock scrapes. 
8. Then sew the iris onto the eyeball using a whip stitch again.
9. Cut and shape a long narrow tube using a straight stitch from sock material and then push the eyeball down to one open end of the tubing. 
10. Stuff the tubing with a chenille stem and cotton batting, to give it flexibility and strength. 
11. Use the invisible stitch to firmly attach the sock material around the eyeball. 
12. Then thread a needle with red thread and add sew random stitches around the top of the eyeball to make it look a bit more scary, just like a monster with 'red itchy eyes' of course!

Cut away the heal in a sock and replace it with a red mouth.

"Horrible Horned Hare" sock monster is actually made using a single knit glove. I made the 
horn for him from a scrap of grey sock, a tongue from a scrap of pink sock and his teeth from
white felt. He has four ears instead of two, that's what makes him a monster...

"Creepy Crocodile" sock monster with his rubber 'snake' dinner. He also has scutes and a tail feature 
attached down his back. These were made from the second matching sock.

"Savage Snail" Sock Monster and ladybug companion attached to the stripped shell on her
back side. Her teeth are white pom-poms sewn between her exaggerated red lips.

Agnus & Ruby Rescued from Resale!

 

      Agnus pictured here in a faded black dress and right, in red, is Ruby. These old gals were rescued from a dusty and forgotten toy box at a local resale shop. Both are sock dolls and I think they were sewn in the 1940s or 50s? In any case, they are safe now and have plenty of opportunities to relax, drink tea and gossip with a variety of travel dolls. They no longer need fear the trash heap.

      Great Aunt Marlene donated the lovely pocket watch pin to Agnus. I think it suites her attire. She is a bit elderly and sometimes forgets to wake from a nap for afternoon tea. The pocket watch should come in handy!

       Agnus and Ruby are immigrant sock dolls to our family's collection. But they are greatly esteemed by other sock dolls in the playroom. Each has a unique story and adventure to tell! They have endured many hardships at the hands of romping toddlers with sticky fingers and have met many dust bunnies beneath antique Victorian furnishings. But now they have earned pleasant retirement and merely live vicariously through the trials of more contemporary playthings.