Felt Pocket Sloth

My fabulous friend Andie* of Red Roving made this amazing felt pocket sloth and totally said I could share it with you guys.

Clearly everyone needs at least one pocket sloth in their lives. You probably need several. You’ll be swimming in a sea of friendly sloths urging you to take it easy in no time because the other Andie has laid it all out for us. Cue adorable sloth construction.

*Yes, we are both named Andie and own craft supply stores and make things with felt. Yes, she is an actual person and not my imaginary friend or alter ego, although it would be awesome if she were any of those other things.

Materials and Supplies:

Felt pieces:

• Chocolate  (eyes and claws)
• Camel (body)
• Sand Dollar (face) 

3mm safety doll eyes 

Poly-Fil 

Sewing needle  

Embroidery Floss and thread to match

Fine point detail scissors 

Hemostats (optional)

Step One:

Cut out pieces of felt and arrange felt eye pieces onto the face.  Stitch the eyes onto the face with matching embroidery floss or thread.

Step Two:

Stitch face to body using the template as a guide.

Step Three:

Sew two pieces of the chocolate felt to the legs.  These will become claws.

Step Four:

Using a large needle or a leather hole punch, poke holes where the safety eyes will go.  Make sure you go through all layers and be sure that the holes are not too large.  You want to be able to put the safety eyes in without them falling through. Slide the eye portion into the holes and press the safety nuts onto the back firmly against the felt.

Step Five:

Using embroidery floss, stitch the nose and mouth onto the sloth.  You can use the template as a guide or make your own guide.

Step Six:

Line up the body pieces and stitch the two sides of the sloth together.  I used a blanket stitch, but you can use an overhand or running stitch as well.  When you get to the feet, sew a backstitch across to secure the pieces together.  Continue around leaving a 1.5 inch gap for stuffing.  Leave the thread attached.

Step Seven:

Lightly stuff.  I use a pair of hemostats (which you can buy here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/107119953/hemostats-for-use-in-doll-and-toy-making?ref=shop_home_active_6 ), but because this is a tiny project, you can just poke the stuffing into the legs and head with a pencil or knitting needle.

Step Eight:

Using very fine point scissors, cut triangles out of the claws to make points.

All done!  You can now take your little pocket sloth wherever you can take a pocket.

Too Cute!

Happy Crafting – The Andies