A is for Alligator

It is fitting that my first post on this blog is something completely new for me to make.

I have wanted to make a quiet book for my darling daughter MD ever since I saw one on Pinterest (darn you Pinterest for all your crafty ideas!).

Since we are crafting 365 projects this year I thought at least some of them need to be made with her. I know you weren’t apart of the first 33 projects but I promise that we will go back and revisit those early projects I made!

She and I sat down with Pinterest and reviewed all the Alligator quiet book pages and felt alligators I could find. I wanted to make her alligator fun and interactive for her. I was originally thinking we would have a peek-a-boo alligator where he hides in the swamp and she can lift the swamp and see him peeking out. She however took one look at Chompy and said him. So after looking at our sample I figured I could come up with one similar to the one she saw.

I started by sketching an alligator head and came to the quick conclusion that I would only need to draw half of a head to make it symmetrical and cut it out. I used freezer paper to make my pattern but I am sure any paper will work.

Freezer paper could have been pressed on to the felt to make it super easy to cut out but I was feeling too lazy to get out the iron and ironing board.

We took a little break to give MD a bath and came back to work on Chompy some more.

I cut out the “face” portion of the head and then using my first attempt at the head cut out (since it was about the same size and shape as the original) to make the lower half of his face. I added about an inch in order to round him out and make sure he lined up nicely with his top. I folded both in half and trimmed up any felt that didn’t match. MD practiced her scissor skills while we were cutting things out.

I wound up doing this on the fly and had to cut out teeth twice because the first time I failed to leave myself a place to sew them in place and I didn’t want to use hot glue. I cut about a 4” piece of felt for each set of teeth for the bottom and a 2” piece of felt for the top teeth. I folded in half and cut out triangles. This was not the easiest way to do this I think, but it worked.

Now it is time to sew! I sewed the teeth on to each side of each piece of the head. I also sewed one quick line up the back to hold the top and bottom together.

I took out my felting tools and felted the teeth together to hide the inside seam and make them nice and sturdy. MD insisted on helping with the felting which made me extremely nervous because those needles are long and sharp so she had lots of help (mommy’s hand didn’t leave the tool) and she felted some too!

I felted on the eyes and the snout.

About this time I realized Chompy needed a tongue and so I cut out a piece of pink felt that I had already felted onto itself so it was double thick. This one I just cut out a tongue shape and cleaned it up by folding in half.

I felted this in place and we are done! I will have to put him in the book when I start pages and he is both going to go into a swamp and have a tooth brush. I am still trying to decide if he is going to get a single cut out body or not. I will keep you posted.                                                                                

MD practicing her cutting!