Thursday, November 5, 2015

DIY Stuffed Animal Fox Taxidermy for $4


Hello Everyone! Today I am FINALLY sharing one of the animals in my DIY Stuffed Animal Taxidermy Series! This is a fun way to show off your love for animals without hurting any of the cute little critters. 

The first one I will be sharing is this DIY Fox. It's in a bright coral-ish red color and, believe it or not, was made from a tee-shirt.

My little animal lover always points at each animal in her room before going to sleep. It melts my heart when she says their names in her two year old voice, and makes the noises for all of them. To see them all, go HERE.

To make your own fox, you will need to download my pattern by going to the link below: 




Please, don't redistribute or sell this pattern and/or items made from this pattern and tutorial. I reserve all rights to my patterns.

The only paper pieces in this particular pattern that need to be connected are Face A & Face B. The colors each piece should be cut in are indicated on each piece.


So to start off, I grabbed this  XL $3 tee shirt from Walmart... but then again, it could have been $4... I apologize if that makes it unafforable! Haha! 

Seriously though, that was the only thing I bought for this project. I had the fuzzy fabric from a baby blanket I made June when she was born, and the pallets I used to make the plaque were free.. oh, and the eyes and nose were made from electrical tape. I'm just thrifty/affordable like that.

But even if you need to buy a few more supplies than I did, and say spend $4 on the tee, $4 on the wood, $4 on the fuzzy fabric, $5 on the poly fill, and $0.25 on felt for the eyes, that would land you at $17.25, still making it a very affordable DIY.


First, you are going to cut out the above pattern pieces from your tee shirt. They look really strange, don't they? 



Now attach the two pieces using a hot glue gun (yes, you heard me right, HOT GLUE GUN) as illustrated above.



Off track fact: I have kinda been trying to avoid sewing, hence the glue gun, because (don't laugh) I dropped my sewing machine on my foot, and it still makes me cringe whenever I think of having to take it out for projects. So I cheated and used a glue gun for this fox. Haha! :)


Back on track: Next, you are going to cut out two pieces of fabric from this pattern piece. Use the fuzzy, faux fur for this. Place them on top of each other with the fronts facing, and hot glue gun them together leaving a medium hole to turn it inside out.


Remember that hole I told you to leave? After the glue has all dried, pull the inside of the "pouch" through the hole.


It should look like this now. Kinda like a Santa Beard. :)


Now glue it underneath the outside of the red tee shirt pieces. I folded the edges of the pointed face underneath and glued them in place so that the seams wouldn't get messy. Use a seam allowance of like 1/4" for that part.


Flip it over to the other side and you will see the underside of the "Santa Beard" instead of the face.


Turn it clockwise, so that the beard is facing away from you, and add the "triangle-ish" piece of fabric to one side of the red fabric, and glue them together.


Flip the fabric back so that the front is now facing you again (the face was flipped back in the photo though!) and repeat with the next wing. However, this time connect the seam of the fluffy fabric to the red fabric by gluing it so that the seam is invisible. That way both seams match.


Here they both are connected. Now the pattern pieces are starting to look less weird, right? :)


At this point, fill the Santa Beard with some poly fill by pushing fluff through the hole we used to turn it inside out. You can glue it shut after it's full, or keep it open until the end in case you want to make last minute adjustments to the face, and glue it together at the very end.


Here is what it looks like on top of our plaque. I made mine out of pallets; gotta love pre-aged wood! I'll show how to make your own pallet plaque in a separate post.


At this point, you want to start gluing the sides of the fox to the plaque in a circular manner. You don't want it to be too stretched out, because you want room for the chest to pop out in 3D when we stuff our fox.


I just glued the bottom half to the plaque to start off with, so basically just the edges of the wings. Leave the back of the neck unglued so that you can stuff your fox. Let the glue dry completely.


At this point, you can add fluff to your fox. I even put some stuffing in-between where the nose and the beard meet. Once it is nice an full (but not bursting) you can glue the edges of the neck to the plaque.


Sew the unattached underside of the "Beard" to the neck. Now your fox is all closed up!


I wasn't very happy with how the face was looking at this stage... the cheeks still looked too much like a Santa Clause Beard. Haha!


So I brought up the edges that were sticking out, and sewed them a little higher on the face. I still wanted them to look like fluffy fur on the side. Just play around with it until you like it.


Now for our foxy ears. Place your two fabric combos on top of each other, face forward, and glue the sides of the ears together.


Now for a really fun step. Add some black permanent marker to the edges of your ears. I brought it all the way up the white fur to give it a realistic look.


Sew the ears onto the sides of the head. Make sure to tuck the seams of the bottom's of the ears underneath so that they won't look messy.


Now add some eyes and a nose. I cut mine out of electrical tape, but you can use felt too. Once you like how they look, go ahead and lightly glue them on.

The other step for this photo is the one actually being illustrated in it:

I still wasn't happy with the face. So I added a cute little chin underneath the mouth area by sewing a knot on one side of the nose, and pulling through to the other side. Knot in place, and repeat back and forth if needed for strength. 

The end result is a dimple look. Aww!


I know it looks like I'm choking this poor fox (no animals, real or stuffed, were harmed in the making of this tutorial) but this is really just the last part involving the face. Just like the step above, I wanted the throat to tuck more into the neck, so I pressed in and sewed it together there.


Lastly, cut some lining for the cording around the body of the fox. I used the pre-sewn hem of the tee shirt for this part. One less step to do. :)


Glue it all the way around the fox to hide all the glue and seams, and you are done!


Looks pretty adorable, doesn't it? You could even add whiskers if you want. How cute would that be?


Gosh, all the animals in this room were a blast to make, and I can't decide which one I like the best. They all have their special elements. For me, I just love the color this fox brings into the room! It ties in all the coral and orange elements in the room.


So there you have it, a Pattern and Tutorial on How to Make your Own Fox!

Have a great day guys & let your creativity shine!


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)