The Catalyst of Chaos Felt Squid Toy With Ominous Led Lights Eyes and a Simple Circuit

This is the perfect toy to bring joy and chaos into your household. This instructable includes a simple circuit to make the squid's eyes glow bright red, however, you can just make the squid without the circuit. I also decided to stitch a heart for the squid because even chaos needs a heart.

Materials-

1. 10 pieces of felt (depends on the size of the squid)

2. White thread

3. Conductive thread

4. 2 red led lights

5. A battery and a holder

6. Scissors

7. A pencil or pen

8. Sewing machine

9. A medium-sized needle

10. A bag of stuffing

Sketch a soft rhombus shape and a tentacle shape on pieces of felt. You need to sketch one body shape and 8 tentacle shapes. Then, put a piece of felt under each of the drawing pieces and go turn on your sewing machine. You can fit more than one tentacle on a piece of felt but make sure they have at least 2 cm of space in between them.

Carefully stitch over the lines you drew for all the parts, the body, and the 8 tentacles. It should look like this. Remember to leave a 4 cm hole to stuff the parts. Also, remember to backstitch at the end of the stitches so it doesn't come undone. Cut out the parts carefully leaving a half a centimeter amount of space in between the cut line and the stitch. Leave a much bigger hole for the body piece, it will be easier to stuff that way.

Turn the tentacles inside out and stuff them with toy stuffing until the desired thickness. Leave a bit of space at the end of the tentacles where the stuffing hole is so it's easier to close it. Then stitch the hole closed with either the sewing machine or by hand.

Take the body piece and cut it out leaving a cm of space in between the cut lines and the stitch. DO NOT turn inside out. Next, you will be building the eye light circuit. Skip the next couple of steps if you do not wish to include a circuit.

These are the materials you will need. Find a space where you would like to place the eyes and put the led lights through the inside of the squid into the outside. Remember which side is the plus and the minus side. Twist the strands so they are like this, opposite of each other.

Put the battery into the battery holder considering the plus and minus sides. Put the battery holder in this position 5 centimeters from the bottom of the squid's body. Cut 2 30cm pieces of conductive thread and tie one of them to each of the holes. One thread for the minus side and the other thread for the plus side. Make sure to tie a good knot.

Then, attach one of the thread ends to a needle and sew it in this shape towards the led lights. Make sure it doesn't go to the outside of the squid's body, so be very careful and sew lightly. Do the same with the other thread. Make sure they don't touch or the circuit won't work! Twist the legs of the led lights so they are in a little tight spiral. Tie one of the treads to both positive legs of the led lights and one to both the negative legs of the led lights. Then, turn the body piece inside out.

Cut a 2 by 6 hole in the back of the squid body and attach a piece of felt over it by hand sewing so you can close it. Cut a small hole in the cover piece and attach a button to the body so the hole could be closed. This hole should be on the other side of the body, not on the same side as the eyes.

Stuff the body peice with stuffing until full and then close the hole. Then on the same side as the eyes, cut out a small heart and hand stitch into the eyes side. Now the squid causes chaos but is adorable. Yay.

Place all the leg pieces onto a piece of felt and make sure there is 2 cm of space above and below left. Sew them onto the sheet of felt and make sure they are attached well. Then, hand sew the leg skirt to the body piece below the heart but a bit above the bottom. I did this by hand loosely and then pulled the thread and tightened it. Then I sewed the skirt together to the beginning side so it is a closed circle. Now you are done with your ominous squid!!!