Make your own dinosaur soft toy

This week I whipped Carter up a big soft toy dinosaur… he loves it- and maybe you might know a little boy (or girl) who might like one too…

You will need about 30cm of fleece, a small amount of contrasting material for the spots and felt for the spikes. Ive included a copy of the pattern for you to print here.

Cut out 2 of the pattern on the wrong side of your fleece:

And the eyes, the spots and the spikes.  I didn’t include the spots or eyes on the pattern…  these bits are what gives each dino its own personality so let your creativity go wild (ok… I admit I forgot to add them :)). Carter’s dino has 11 spikes, but this could vary depending how close you space them so Ill leave the number of these up to you. Choose a heavyish felt so the spikes stand up.

Once you have all the bits cut out, sew the eyes and spots on the RIGHT side of each piece.

Then with RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER pin the spikes in place – evenly down the length of the entire body/tail.  They will be facing downward (if that makes sense), in between your two body pieces of fabric with the spike facing the toes and the long piece of the triangle getting caught between your seam along the top of the dino.  I hope this makes sense! Once you’ve pinned it, sew the entire way around (allowing about 1cm seam allowance) leaving a 5cm ‘hole’ in the belly between the legs to stuff it.

Take care not to catch the tip of the spike in the seam on the other side of the neck… Like this. Ahem… unpick and resew if you do.

Snip any bulky seams and turn right side in, using a knitting needle or something similar to poke the corners (carefully) out. Stuff it and hand sew the final seam closed… give to impatiently waiting child… who doesn’t put it down for the rest of the day!

Enjoy! Hope you are having a lovely weekend, Jxx