Make a Valentine's Day Sock Monkey!

A few weeks ago I got an idea for a new Instructable. It's actually pretty easy to make and doesn't take very long. They also make great Valentine's day gifts!

My sock monkey's ears are lopsided....

NOTE!!!Do step 10 befor step 9. The thingy didn't let me re-order the steps.

For this you will obviously need a pair of socks.
You will also need:
Scissors
Red felt
Buttons
Some sort of fiber-fill
Some sewing skills, not many though, all you need to know is how to sew something toghther and tie a knot.
A needle and thread and a sewing machine
or
A needle and more thread

Our sewing machine is messed up so I had to hand sew this. You need to hand sew a lot of it anyway because it isn't exactly possible to sew arms onto this with a sewing machine.....

Turn the sock inside out!!!

You will need to flatten the sock so that the heel can be kind of folded up. Don't flatten it like socks are usually flattened. Then draw a line on the sock kind of like the purple one in the second picture. You will sew to the SIDES of the line NOT ON the line because you will be cutting on the line. The first picture shows how it will look flattened out, just ifnore the stiching.

It may help when you are sewing to remove the elastic at the part of the sock that goes up your leg.

Now that you have finished sewing TO THE SIDES of the line you will cut down the line. There should be a convenient little hole between the monkey's legs. You will turn it right-side-out using this hole and put the stuffing in it. Now, turn it right-side-out.

Turn this sock inside out as well.

Now you will flatten the other sock the way socks are usually flattened. Like it's profile.

Then draw the line you will sew on to make the tail or arm. Also when you sew it make sure that one end is open so you can stuff it. Then cut that section out. I accidently used the wrong part of the sock, the one that should be used for the ears.

Be careful you don't cut the heel because you WILL need it.

Then make the arms and cut the part you want to be the ears out. Be sure to look at the third picture in this step!!

Now you should have the arms and tail done. Here are what my monkey's arms look like unstuffed.

The second picture is of all of the pieces. The ears haven't been made yet, they're just a piece of sock.

For your tail you can either stuff it or make a small strip of material. When I made mine I stuffed it but made it to fat and short and when I sewed it on it didn't look, er, right. So I made it a strip of cloth.

Now you need to stuff the pieces. When you finish stuffing the body you will need to sew the convenient little hole between his legs shut.

Now make the ears. I cut two rectangles and folded them over so that one side was already done. Then I sewed up two other sides, leaving one side open. After that I turned them right-side-out and they made a great ear shape. In this picture I put the squares next to a rechargeable AA battery to show you how big they are. The second picture is what they look like afther I sewed them.

This part is pretty self-explanatory. It isn't very hard to sew them on, just to get them placed right.

Or something like that. He doesn't have knees or toes though.... His eyes are buttons and you already saw his ears.

The heel will be his nose/snout/muzzle or whatever you want to call it. Sew it on just below where you want his eyes to be, make sure to leave room for his eyes. Leave a hole to put the stuffing in and when you finish putting the stuffing in, sew it shut.

Every Valentine's day monkey needs a heart, right?

Cut a heart out of red felt and sew it on the monkey, you can sew it so that it looks like he's holding it or just sew it onto his body somewhere.

You can give him a mouth but I didn't because I didn't want to go find a different color of thread.

If you make one of these I would love to see pictures!

Also, if you need help, feel free to ask.