It’s all about ‘Space’ at the moment – at my daughter’s school anyway. It wasn’t part of the homework but my daughter, Amelie, decided to design a sock Alien to take into school and to write about. She even offered to make it herself – if I could help with the sewing machine bit (I still haven’t made the ‘plague’ rat she designed for the last topic!). So I made the one that features below and she made her own one, which she didn’t want to feature on my blog in case everyone copied it! The Alien does need legs because it can fly, obviously…
What you need:
- A pair of socks – I used boys socks, you can use any size – the bigger the sock the bigger your Alien!
- Stuffing – Amelie wanted polystyrene balls so that’s what we used (they go everywhere!), but normal toy stuffing will do.
- 2 x safety eyes, 1 x button and length of embroidery thread for sewing the mouth.
- 1 x pipe cleaners
- 2 x pom-poms
The cutting bit…
- Turn your socks inside out. Flatten them and cut out as per the picture below. This gives you three pieces for the arms, head and body.
The sewing bit…
Make the arms:
- Using a sewing machine, stitch two arm shapes, leaving one end open.
- Cut the arms out so you have two separate arms.
- Turn right side out and set aside.
Make the body:
- Turn your body piece right side out and stuff.
- Using a running stitch, sew about 1/2″ from the raw edge, then pull your stitches to gather the opening shut, tucking the in the raw edges as you pull it together. Secure with a few stitches across and back, then fasten off.
Attach the arms to the body:
- Close the ends of the arms in the same way as the body (see above) but leave the thread attached and use it to attach each arm to the body. Use a ladder stitch to do this.
Make the head:
- Carefully push the back of the safety eye through the jersey – don’t cut it as it will unravel (I’ve made that mistake previously!) and secure the backing.
- Turn right side out and add the stuffing.
- Sew up the end (same method as other body parts)
- Sew the head to the body (sewn up ends together) using ladder stitch.
Add your Alien’s features:
- I used a button for his nose and embroidered a smile – you can get creative here and come up with different silly faces.
- To make the antennae, thread each end of one pipe cleaner into a pom-pom using a big needle (you can hook the end of the pipe cleaner through the eye of the needle and then carefully ‘thread’ it through the pom-pom). So you end up with two pom-poms – one on each end of the pipe cleaner.
- To attach the antennae, fold over the top of the sock (the toe bit) and stitch over the middle of the pipe cleaner to conceal and secure it.
And you’re all done!
