Hi everyone! I'm Alicia from Felt With Love Designs where my husband, Patrick, and I write about all of our crafty and artistic endeavors. Patrick is the artist behind our designs. I create patterns from his sketches and bring them to life with a needle and thread. While we specialize in felt creations, we are also passionate about sewing, family, creative writing, crafts, drawing, reading, and education. Enough about us...
Although I never really dress up, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays so I am really excited to be apart of the 31 Days of Halloween here!! I love decorating, crafting, and designing costumes in preparation for the big day.
Today, I am sharing a tutorial and free pattern for creating a skeleton Blankie Buddy. We came up with the idea for Blankie Buddies after designing a stuffed monkey for a friend and decided to start our series with some Halloween critters. Yesterday, we shared a friendly little ghost with our readers to kick things off!
Funny story about the skeleton ... I decided the skeleton was a bit plain so I cut out a bow to add but then I couldn't decide if I should make a girl and a boy version, or just one. So, I asked on Instagram and everyone said they liked the bow version best. I sewed her up with a bow and proudly handed her to my daughter, thinking she would love it. Her immediate response? "No bow! Don't like it!" Great. To make your own skeleton Blankie Buddy (with or without a bow), you will need:
- The body pattern and the arms/legs pattern
- Fleece (black, white, and pink - if you want a bow)
- Matching thread
- Fabric (2 - 9" squares)
- Needle
- Scissors
- Sewing machine
- Cut all of the pieces from fleece (leave a seam allowance for the arms, legs, and body pieces - not included in pattern)
- Stitch the black eyes and nose to the white skull piece
- Stitch a "smile" beneath the black nose on the white skull piece
- Stitch the white skull, ribs, single bone, and pelvis to the front black body piece
- Position the pink ribbon piece over the skull and stitch in place
- Stitch the smaller, center ribbon piece over the ribbon
- Stitch 2 of the 8 remaining smaller bone pieces on each of the 2 arms and each of the 2 legs
- Sew the backs to the 2 leg pieces and 2 arm pieces, leaving a gap where it connects to the body (to flip and stuff)
- Flip right side
- Stuff legs and arms
- With right sides facing and the arms pointed in, toward the center of the body, sew the arms to the decorated front body piece
- With right sides facing and the legs pointed up, toward the head, sew the legs to the decorated front body piece
- Pin the plain black body piece (legs and arms should be folded up inside still - as shown above) and sew all the way around, leaving a gap big enough to turn (I left a gap on the left side, under the arm - you can see the gap in the photo in the next step)
- Turn right side and check all seams for holes (fix any problem areas before moving on)
- Stuff to your liking
- Using a ladder stitch, sew the opening closed
- Stitch the corner of the blanket into the skeleton's hand (see below for steps to make the blanket)
- Cut two squares of fabric
- Place squares with outsides facing and pin together
- Sew around squares, leaving a gap at one corner
- Turn blanket right side out
- Hand-stitch gap closed
- Top-stitch all the way around blanket
As I mentioned above, you can leave off the bow for a more masculine skeleton. A boy and girl skeleton would be a cute addition to any Halloween decor or fun surprises for your favorite trick-or-treaters!
As you can see, our skeleton and ghost are best buddies. Don't forget to stop by to grab the ghost pattern and check out our month full of Halloween fun while you're there! In the end, what do you think? Bow? Or no bow? Thank you for having me!! I look forward to seeing you all over at Felt With Love Designs soon!! ~Alicia
That skeleton is so cute!
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