Felt Sewing: Salesforce Astro Ornament

 

Inspiration: I've made a whole bunch of cute little felt creatures lately and I felt like doing one of the Saleforce Astro mascot.

How I Made It: I started for the coloring page below that I traces from an old image of Astro.  

I made 5 photocopies of it and then started cutting out the parts as I thought I'd cut them from felt.  I used these paper cutouts to make templates in card stock.

I cut out the templates and then used them to cut out the felt.  To help ensure I got the shapes right without having to draw on the felt, I used little tape loops to temporarily security the template to the felt. The table below specifies the colors I used for each piece.

Part(s)	Felt Color
Body (cut 2), Front Leg, Back Foot, 4 Tail Stripes	Medium Brown
Belly, Front Foot Pad	Goldenrod
Ears	Dark Brown
Face	Cream
Hair, Eyes (cut 2), Tail	Black
Rt Hand, Lt Hand	Light Gray

Once all the pieces were cut, below are the steps I took to assemble the ornament.  I referred to the original coloring page above for the placement of the parts.

1. Glue Tail Stripes to Tail (I used Aleene's Tacky Glue).
2. Glue Font Foot Pad to Front Leg.
3. Using an applique stitch with 2 strands of DMC 435, sew the Belly to the Body (only 1 piece, 2nd is reserved to be the Back).
4. Using an applique stitch with 2 strands of DMC 838, sew the Ears to the Body.
5. Using an applique stitch with 2 strands of DMC ECRU, sew the Face to the Body.
6. Using an applique stitch with 2 strands of DMC 310 (Black), sew the Hair to the Face/Body.
7. Using an applique stitch with 2 strands of DMC 310 (Black), sew the Eyes to the Face/Body.
8. Using an applique stitch with 2 strands of DMC 801, sew the Front Leg to the Body, but do NOT stitch the Foot.
9. Using an applique stitch with 2 strands of DMC 3072, sew the Lt Hand to the Body with some overlap on the Front Leg.
10. Place the Back (2nd Body) aligned to the back of the sewn Body.  Using 2 strands of DMC 801, start sewing a Blanket Stitch to join the two large pieces just to the right of the right ear.
11. Pause at the top of the head to stitch in a hanger (I used a Lobster Claw Charm Lanyard) and then continue around the 2nd ear and rest of the head.
12. Continue the Blanket Stitch around the arm but pause just before finishing to position the Tail and Back Leg between the Body and Back.  Then continue stitching.
13. Stitch over the Body, Back, and Front Leg until you get to the foot, then fold over the foot to avoid stitching it.  Continue Blanket Stitching.
14. Pause about 1/2 way up the Belly to position the Rt Hand.  Then continue stitching.
15. Pause just after returning to the head to stuff the figure with PolyFill Stuffing.  Do Not Overstuff.
16. Finish the Blanket Stitch to where you started it, then tie it off and trim the extra.

Tips:

• Use tape loops or double-sided tape to secure the template to the felt when cutting.
• Keep all cut pieces in an envelope or small container so you don't loose any of them.
• Before stuffing, use a finger inside the ornament and make sure there are no gaps where you already secured the piece together.  If there are, fix them before you stuff the ornament.

Alternatives:

My daughter asked me to make her one in Purple (her favorite color).  So I made the following substitutions:

• For the Body, Front Leg, Back Leg, and Tail Stripes, I used Medium Purple Felt.
• For the Belly and Front Foot Pad, I used Light Purple Felt.
• For the Ears, I used a Dark Blue Felt.
• For stitching the Belly, I used DMC 209.
• For stitching the Ears, I used DMC 796.
• For stitching the Front Leg and doing the Blanket Stitch, I used DMC 208.