My boys are exchanging the cutest gifts this year! I was inspired to make these after watching Kimbo on My Craft Channel. Side note: I watch My Craft Channel episodes when I am running on the treadmill…I am telling you, I live and breathe DIY…even when I am running.
You basically cut small stuffed animals in half and turn them into scarves. I knew my boys would flip for these. At 5 and 2 years old they love their stuffed animals. They are also totally into playing dress up with their Halloween and action figure costumes. I figured this gift will combine their two loves.
Normally I would want the boys to help make the gifts, but I though this site might be a little traumatic for them:
So the biggest challenge was finding inexpensive stuffed animals that are laying on their bellies. You can’t use sitting up stuffed animals, because it will look like you cut a stuffed animal in half and sewed it into a scarf. But, if you use the kind that lay on their bellies, it looks like they were meant to be on the ends of a scarf…just laying there all cute.
I looked at every local store…every store I went into…and came up empty-handed. Then, by dumb luck, I wandered by the pet section at Target and saw all the stuffed animals for dogs. Jackpot! Boots & Barkley makes these adorable “stompers”. The colors are bright and fun. They were also the perfect size. I bought two large stompers for my boys. They were each $5. I also grabbed two small stompers to make some mini scarves for my baby niece. The only difference when using the dog toys is you have to remove the squeaker when you remove the stuffing. I opted to leave the crunchy sounding stuff in the feet…kids love that stuff.
I could have used any fabric for the scarf section, but I opted for jersey. And, since I needed jersey for a few other DIY Christmas gifts, I went big and bought a couple of twin sized jersey sheet sets. They were $17 each. A twin sheet set has about 6 yards of fabric in it…if you do the math that is a pretty good deal. Each set came with one pillowcase, which I cut up to make the boys scarves. From the two pillowcases alone, I cut two scarves for the boys and two mini scarves for my niece. The rest of the sheet set was reserved for my other project.
Look how adorable these are!!! I cannot wait for the boys to open them tonight. These will be their presents to each other. I imagine they will where them everywhere for the next 10 days straight. To get the complete how to check out Girl with a Glue Gun (Kimbo) on My Craft Channel.
Super cute idea! Merry Christmas.
Really great idea! My niece would just love this. I like that it will probably encourage the little ones to learn to wear their scarves and not pull them off and leave them on the floor like usual.