Gumball Machine Softie

When Trixi Symonds from the Sew A Softie initiative approached us about sewing another softie this year, we jumped immediately on the bandwagon. What a fun wagon it is too! Have you been following the month long blog hop of epic softie tutorial goodness? You must! You simply must! Here is the link for your viewing pleasure. While your there, read all about this wonderful initiative to get kids sewing! I applaud Trixi on her efforts as I highly value this skill and wish to pass the skill on to my kiddos!

For our submission this year we decided to try making a Gumball Machine Softie! It's super fun to squeeze, really easy to create and looks cool laying a round the house. What's even better? It's super soft! I'm hoping this fits all criteria for the initiative. My daughter and I really enjoyed stitching this together. Maybe you and your little one would enjoy a Gumball Machine Softie too?

Let's get on with it!

Gather:

*1/2 yard of red felt

*1/2 yard of white felt

*1/2 yard of grey felt

*White embroidery thread and needle

*White thread for sewing machine

*Sewing Machine

*Gumball Base Pattern, Gumball Middle Pattern, Gumball Coin Insert Pattern, Gumball Top Pattern

*Scissors

*Pins

*Polyfill (12 oz)

*Hot glue/gun

*One large bag of mixed size pom poms. (We used poms with tinsel too!)

Create:

1. Print all the patterns onto cardstock paper. Cut them out.

2. Pin the Gumball Base onto felt that has been folded over and doubled. Align the Base pattern dotted line to the folded edge of the fabric. When you cut it out, you will have one symmetrical Base piece. Do this twice.

3. Apply the Gumball Top pattern onto folded red felt. Cut out 2 pieces. There is no need to align to the folded edge as you need two separate pieces.

3. Pin the Gumball Middle pattern onto white felt that has been folded over and doubled. Align the Middle pattern dotted line to the folded edge of the fabric. When you cut it out, you will have one symmetrical Middle piece. Do this twice.

4. Pin the Gumball Coin Insert Pattern onto grey felt. Cut out one piece.

5. Pin the Gumball Top to the Gumball Middle with the Top overlapping the Middle by .25 inch. Hand stitch to achieve the vintage look. Be sure to stitch close together as the stuffing process will otherwise cause a gap.

6. Pin and hand stitch the white Middle to the Base piece. Overlap the white on the base piece by .25 inch. Again, keep the stitches close.

7. Hand stitch the Coin Insert piece to one of the Base pieces.

8. For the next portion, I recommend machine stitching. Put the two Gumball Machines right side together and stitch around the outside. Align the edge of the fabric with you presser foot. Leave the bottom open partially for stuffing with poly fill.