Octopus and Baby Blanket

I wanted to make something cute and cuddly for a friend's baby shower and so came this project. It is a baby blanket within an octopus that can then be used a pillow or stuffed animal. This project took about 10 to 12 hrs and was very enjoyable. I hope you have as much fun as I did; Enjoy!

For this project you will need material. I went to Joann's and also Walmart for material. I purchased 1 yard of the large whale and the dots, 2 yards of the small whale, and 3 yards of the yellow. You will need good, sharp scissors, pins, hand needles, thread to match the project, 3 large craft foam sheets (that can be purchased at Michael's or Joann's. Used to make templates.) A sewing machine, a baby rattle/ teething ring, eyes, a marker or marking pen, measuring tape and ruler and black embroidery floss or black thread folded over. I kind of free handed this project folding things into squares to make them even and correcting as I went. I really didn't do a lot of measuring and so I don't have exact lengths for things but the blanket ended up at 44" by 44".

I started by making a square out of the yellow material by folding it into a triangle and cutting along the edge. Doing this made the material bigger than what I wanted but gave me less to work with. Next I cut a template for the large and small squares out of the craft foam. Unfortunately I did not measure but I did make sure to cut the small square a quarter of the size of the large square(you can fit 4 small onto 1 big). next I cut my squares and laid them out in place, I did account for seam allowance by making the squares slightly bigger than I wanted. The yellow material I used was textured so I was able to line up my squares with the texture to create a straight line. When it came to sewing I first pinned the small squares front sides together and sewed, then I pinned the large squares to the small with right sides together and sewed. I did the large and small squares in four sections then stitched it all into a large square of all the large and small combined

To do the center of the blanket I laid the border of the blanket on the small whale print and made a pin line at the inside border. Next, I removed to border and cut the material 1/2" bigger than it needed to be. Then, I pinned the border to the inner material right sides together and sewed in place. I clipped the seam allowance leaving a 1/4" and clipped the corners so it would lay nice. For the rattle I cut a piece of dotted material that would be just long enough to wrap around the rattle and sew to the blanket. Last I sewed the dotted material length wise with right sides together.

To cut the back I laid the top of the blanket on the yellow material and cut a square that was two dots width around the outer edge. Next, I rolled it once on itself and once onto the blanket and pinned in place to be sewn. Once I got to the placement of the rattle I wrapped the material around the rattle and sewed it to the bottom of the blanket.next I wrapped the yellow material over the dotted rattle holder and pinned it in place as well. Then I sewed a 1/4" from the edge and stitched the corners in both directions making a sort of triangle with the stitches. That finished the blanket and then I was on to the octopus.

I created the top of the octopus with a basic beach ball type pattern. I cut a piece of foam into the shape shown;then cut 6 pieces in that shape out of the yellow material. Next, I pinned and sewed each piece right sides together in a set of three then I sewed those together one by one until it was one piece. Then I made the draw string by cutting a piece of the dotted material longer than the width of the head and sewed it right sides together with a piece of string inside; The string makes it easier to turn right side out. After, I placed the string along the bottom of the head and made a tunnel by folding the edge over the string and stitching. I opened one of the seams in the center of the tunnel enough to pull the ends of the string out then reinforced the edges of the seam and hand stitched the ends of the string to close it off. last, I test fit the blanket.

Cut a craft foam square that is 12" by 12" . Find the center of the square. then with a ruler make 4 12" long lines through the center in a star pattern. next make 4 6" lines through the center also in a star pattern. Then draw curves from the top of the long lines to the top of the short lines for the tentacles. cut the shape out then cut the dotted material out of the shape for the bottom and the yellow for the top. I cut straight edges then curved them when sewing to create the rounded edges. Once sewn together I cut a hole in the center of the tentacles then turned them out. I stuffed the material then hand sewed the inner edge to close it off. Last I opened the head by loosening the drawstring to the width of the tentacles and hand sewed it to the edge of the head. I stopped stitching the tentacles at the seams where the face would be on the head and left an opening but reinforced the sides of the tentacles to the head. I did this so the drawstring would open slightly more then the width of the tentacles.

Last of all I used animal eyes with fasteners through seams in the face and drew on a smile then sewed it with floss. I then put the blanket inside and called it completed. I hope the lil guy likes it and I hope you do too. Thanks for peeking!