A monster for charity: stuffed monster tutorial

Hello again everyone!

I was really honored when the Spina Bifida Association of Eastern New York contacted me after seeing a cute stuffed monster in my etsy store, and asked if I would donate one for their upcoming auction to raise money for Spina Bifida research. Of course I said yes! I made one especially for them, and I wanted to share how I did it.

First, I made a pattern on some newspaper by just drawing it on and trying to eyeball it to get it even enough. As you can see, I made many revisions. :) 

Then I cut out the patten-monster...

...and pinned it on my fabric of choice. What I love about this project is that any fabric can do, really, so it is an excellent stash-buster project!

I cut out two of these, one for each side of the monster.

I chose the colors of felt that I wanted to use to make the eyes, belly and tooth, and I cut those out. 

I set everything on the monster, to see if it looked good, and it did. I changed the orientation of the little belly, though. It looked better vertically-oriented.

Then I sewed everything on by hand. It is a little bit of work, but I like watching TV, and I like to be doing something productive while I do it, so it really works out well. I used separated cross-stitching thread (again, stash-busting!).

I made a little bellybutton by making an X. :)

I didn't picture this, but I placed the right sides of both monster-pieces in, pinned them together, and sewed them together, leaving a hole at the top to stuff.

I stuffed him and sewed his head closed! Voila. Stuffed monster.
 

I will totally be making these for our future children, btw.

I also made one for Desiree's son in March's Cara Box exchange (see Wifessionals for details).

Although I do a lot of volunteering my time, I have never made anything that would be in a charity auction before! I am pretty nervous. I hope they like it!

Have you ever made something for a charity auction? Have you ever made a stuffed toy? Feel free to leave any tutorials or posts as a link in the comments! I would love to see them. :)