Little Dot Mouse Softie

Jodie Carleton

Final size:

Dot 25cm (10in); toy 7cm (2¾in)

USD $11.37

Intermediate

Sewing

For USD $11.37 you get

Easy to print at home digital pattern sheet

Simple step-by-step instructions to follow

Large detailed images and diagrams

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Description

Little Dot the Mouse, is getting ready for her birthday party! Create your own Little Dot with Jodie Carleton’s mouse softie pattern, including little cat toy, dressing gown, party hat and dress, Little Dot is the sweetest playmate for a child.

Full materials list included in instructions
Pattern sheet includes shapes for mouse softie, little cat toy, dressing gown and dress, ready for tracing
Use high-quality fabrics to ensure the toys can ensure the wear of your child’s play
Embroidery stitches used include colonial knot, ladder stitch and straight stitch
Detailed step-by-step instructions, clear diagrams and colour photographs take you through all the steps to create this pattern, from constructing the mouse soft toy, through to making the cat toy, dressing gown, party hat and dress
Makes the perfect gift for a child, making one or many versions of Little Dot, but not suited for children under the age of three due to potential choking hazards
Includes Jodie’s tips on cutting and what tools to use for soft toy making
A great intermediate-level pattern for crafters with some doll and softie making experience

Materials

Fabric requirements specified in instructions
Four-hole buttons
Black safety eyes
1cm (⅜in) wide hook and loop tape such as Velcro
Tiny black buttons
3mm (⅛in) wide hot pink double-sided satin ribbon
3mm (⅛in) wide white double-sided satin ribbon
Silver braid
Small pompom
Stranded embroidery cottons
Machine sewing thread to coordinate with wool felt
Fibre fill
Doll needle
Sharp hole punch or screw punch
Template plastic or freezer paper
Permanent-marking pen
Water-erasable fabric-marking pen or chalk pen
Sewing machine
General sewing supplies

Designer

Jodie Carleton

Why do you make softies? Toys make me smile. I love walking into my sewing room and calling out “hello everybody”. I figure there are plenty of people to make practical things; I specialise in cute but useless. Sometimes, when you get something just right and a little face looks back at you with a certain twinkle in its eye, you know this is what you should be doing.

How do you come up with such cute ideas? One thing just leads to another. When I first made Elsie Cabbage, I just knew she had to have a brother and that he would be called Arthur and wear a little newspaper hat. Sometimes, an element of a toy, like a style of foot or a particular construction method, sets me off on a whole path to determine what kind of toy it fits into. Occasionally, a whole personality just invades my brain and drives me crazy until it becomes real.

What’s your favourite softie design ever? Oh! Man, that’s like asking a mother who her favourite child is. My favourite is usually the one that I happen to be working on.

If you weren’t doing this, what else would be you doing? Apart from being a zookeeper, which is my all-time dream job, I can’t imagine not being a maker of things. Those things might change or evolve, but I really have no idea what I’d do if I didn’t make stuff. What do non-makers do with all their time?

What does this craft mean to you? This craft means I’m always on the lookout for the perfect fabric. It means I buy felt in bulk and have whole tins labelled ‘eyes’. My sewing room is always littered with body parts and half-finished heads and torsos. It is the cute and macabre all together. I love that I make things that make people smile. I love watching people interact with my toys. If I had endless amounts of time, I would make toys to sell at a market, just to watch people smile as they come along and chance upon a toy that they can relate to. This craft means I get to have fun.

Is it hard to find time to do this or is it a profession? I wish I was in a position to say this is my profession; instead, I refer to it as my ‘jobhobby’. I work in the library of a primary school part-time, and I use almost every other minute possible to make toys. Crazy, but true!