Armstrong the Elephant

Late on Christmas morning, my almost 8-year-old Jamie, curled up next to me and asked, “You didn’t make us new stuffies for Christmas this year?” He was so sad that I hadn’t followed through with my normal holiday tradition of sewing new stuffed animals for him and his brother! Of course, since he has a birthday just three weeks after Christmas, I promised that I would rectify my lack of cute, cuddly sewing with whatever stuffed friend he wanted!

His specific request? A stuffed elephant WITH tusks! Sounds easy enough, right? But, I was so surprised at how hard it was to find a pattern that didn’t leave off the tusks. A Pinterest search led me to the Funky Friends Factory Ellie Elephant pattern, and I knew it was the perfect choice.

Tusks!I let Jamie choose from a few fabric coordinates that I had in my stash, and he went with these Rocket Age fabrics from Riley Blake Designs, and then, inspired by the fabrics, Jamie named his new elephant “Armstrong”!This was my first time using a Funky Friends Factory pattern. I found it easy to follow, and I adore the end result! I would recommend it for advanced beginners/intermediate sewists and above. Unlike the PDF patterns that I’m used to, this one does not include photos of the steps, but you can find a photo tutorial for Ellie Elephant on the FFF blog, right here. I tend to be one of those people who relies heavily on photos, so I was relieved to find the blog post!I always seem to forget about ordering safety eyes for making stuffies, but I sort of love the traditional look of hand-stitched button eyes!This little guy turned out so cute! I’ll definitely be back for more FFF patterns! (Have you seen the Hedgehog?!) Jamie loves his new stuffie, and I’m thrilled that he still wants me to sew new ones for him! Armstrong is the first finish on on my 2015 Finish-Along list! Next on my sewing list is a “Pirate stuffie” requested by my youngest who will be five next week.