Sock Monsters

Don’t throw your odd socks away. Instead, transform them into monsters! Simply stuff the socks and sew funny features onto them to make a whole array of crazy creatures. This is a great project for young children, as the sewing is very simple, and little hands will have lots of fun stuffing their socks!

Project excerpted from Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy.

Materials

• Sock
• Scissors
• Yarn (wool) and needle with
• a large eye
• Fiberfill (stuffing)
• Scraps of felt
• Needle and thread
• Buttons

Instructions:

1. To make ears on your monster, turn the sock inside out. Cut a length of yarn (wool) and tie a knot at one end. Thread the large needle and sew running stitch from the top of the sock down 2 in. (5 cm) and then back up to the top, leaving a 1⁄2-in. (1-cm) gap between the lines of stitching. Finish with a knot and trim the yarn.
   
   
    
2. Cut the sock between the stitch lines, making sure you don’t cut into the stitching. Turn the sock the right way out and push the ears out.
   
   
    
3. Fill the sock with fiberfill (stuffing), pushing it into the ears, or into the toe of the sock if your monster doesn’t have ears. Tie a knot at one end of the yarn and sew up the end of the sock with running stitch. Finish with another knot and trim the yarn.
   
   
    
4. To make a funny mouth, squash the heel part of the sock slightly so that it looks like a mouth. Sew running stitch along it with yarn, starting and finishing with a knot, then trim the yarn. Next, sew buttons onto your monster to make eyes).
   
   
    

Variations: Instead of sewing up the heel to make a funny mouth, you can use thread to sew on a felt mouth in running stitch, starting and finishing with a few stitches to hold the thread in place. If you wish, you can cut out felt circles for the eyes to stitch onto your monster before you sew on the buttons. Sew them on your monster in the same way as for the felt mouth.