Pacifier Animal Buddy

So I am finally getting around to posting. My apologies! I had a very bad flare up of Iritis (in case you're wondering what the heck that is I included a link to the Mayo Clinic's info) that then caused a 5 day migraine. That combined with having to keep my eyes dilated for a few days, and I ended up way behind on just about everything.

Here on the Funny Farm the monkeys and I spend a lot of time singing and dancing (well them dancing me just singing). We usually get stuck on a song for a while and right now it's one from the Newsboys God's Not Dead. I cannot express how grateful I am that this is true. I honestly don't think I would be able to hold onto the funny and let go of the crazy if God wasn't a very real part of my life, and very much alive! Wherever you are in your life; know that if you are hurting or scared or need a friend all you have to do is Cry Out to Jesus. Life is a Roller-coaster (ooo and that gives me another song going old school with 4Him) and I am so very glad that the one manning my ride is the Big Man upstairs. Other than music one of the ways I maintain my sanity is crafts so that brings me to today's post :)

My two best friends in the world are pregnant, which means baby stuff!!! I love love love making things for babies, and now that we know one is a boy I can focus even more. They are doing a sea turtle theme, which I am going to have a lot of fun with. Now. I think one of the coolest paci holders I have ever seen are the little animal buddies. However they are expensive, so I got to thinking.... I knew I had extra minky that I bought for a blanket so I decided I could make a sea turtle animal buddy. He turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself, although not perfect by any means hopefully the next one will turn out even better. :)

As I was looking at the pics to figure out what to post here I was like awwww he looks like he could just swim away with the fishes. So then I'm like "swim through your veins like a fish in the sea"....Yep and that my friends is how my brain works, everything is a song. I don't hear voices in my head I hear an unending soundtrack. It's really a terrible song about a guy screwing around with a married chick, but there is something about Uncle Kracker's voice, plus the college days nostalgia it brings back. Follow Me- Uncle Kracker

My first step was to go to Coloringpedia for a sea turtle coloring page to use as a pattern. Click on the link there to go to their turtle coloring pages. I found the one I wanted to uses for a basis then sized it where I wanted it. I cut out two turtles. one turquoise and one white. I think next time I will go a little bigger though.

Next step was to figure out what I wanted to do to give him some weight. I didn't have any dried beans on hand, but I quite literally have thousands of buttons. It's a crazy obsession really, but that's for another post. I didn't want to just fill him, because what if he pops a seam? So I used some scrap fabric to make a pouch and filled it with buttons. I stitched the seams with a triple straight stitch, 3 times, to make darn sure it would hold.  

I missed taking pics for a couple steps, sorry :( 

But. with right sides together stitch around the turtle leaving in between the back legs open. Turn him right side out then stuff the head and front arms with batting. Place pouch (with whatever in it) inside and finish stuffing him. I then folded my edges under and top stitched his rear end. I think it gave his tail a little more dimension, but if you wanted to blind stitch by hand that would work too. Now you're probably thinking ummm what about the pacifier.....

Now this might seem strange, but for me this method worked best, on a Phillips Avent Soothie 0-3 mo pacifier there is this little lip. (Look at my snazzy graphics aren't I sooo clever, haha)

Anyway I put this up to Mr. Turtle's mouth seam and ripped out the stitches just to the width of it. Then inserted the lip right into him. The cool thing about this silicone material is that you can hand stitch right through it. So I knotted my doubled heavy duty thread ( I don't want this sucker popping out) pulled it through from the inside so the knot is hidden and stitched him closed. Just make sure to get both layers of fabric and that portion of the paci all stitched in there tight. I tugged really hard on it to make sure I had it all the way. I also stitched a little farther on each side so to catch where I had machine stitched. Then of course poor Mr. turtle needed eyes so instead of tying off I went up to where I wanted an eye and did several visible stitches in all directions then went over a little ( yep that's the technical measurement) and stitched another eye. I knotted the thread at the eye, so it doesn't look out of place. 

I forgot to get a picture of his tail and he is already in the mail, but I will get one of the next one! The animal for my other bestie is undecided as of yet, she wants to wait to pick till she knows gender, but I will post about it as well. If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. :) 

Take care and don't forget to "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" yep I went there!