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DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Octopus Sock Craft
The project requires either sewing or hot glue skills. A child of age 9
or so could do the project with adult supervision. Younger children can
help stuff the project and would love to receive it as a gift from an older
sibling, parent or grandparent.
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You could put in rice instead of stuffing to make this more of a beanbag.
This is a terrific first sewing project for children. If using it as
such, I recommend having the children sew the body pieces together using a
running stitch or a blanket stitch and then glue the remaining pieces
together. I would fill with pillow stuffing instead of rice ... stuffing
won't leak out as easily if the child didn't keep their stitches tight enough.
Pam, from the Cornerstone Academy,
adds: The socktopus can also be used as a door stop if a few clean rocks are intermingled with stuffing.
Materials:
 | one old sock (adult size) |
| two pieces felt (legs) - we used pink |
| one scrap black felt (mouth)
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| small piece fun foam or thick cardboard
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| two wiggly eyes
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| hot glue OR sewing machine OR needle and thread
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| pillow stuffing, cotton balls or toilet
paper (or uncooked rice if you prefer a bean bag)
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| scissors |
| scotch tape |
| printer and paper |
Instructions:
| Print out the template (see bottom of this page)
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| Cut out the template pieces
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| Scotch tape the body template to one of the pieces of felt.
 | Cut the shape from the felt |
| I scotch tape templates onto felt instead of pinning them as I find it
easier... it doesn't "buckle" as much. It's very easy to
just pull any tape off the felt after cutting |
| Make sure you scotch tape liberally!
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| Repeat with the second piece of felt.
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| Scotch tape the mouth to the black felt and cut out.
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| Scotch tape the bow pieces to a scrap of the main body felt and cut out.
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| Scotch tape the circle to the fun foam or cardboard and cut out.
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| put the two legs pieces together and hot glue
them, leaving a space at the top to add stuffing.
| I actually glued the legs one at a time, let them sit for 2
minutes and then stuffed the leg before gluing the next leg. |
| I used an unsharpened pencil to poke the stuffing into the leg
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| If you're hot gluing, do a 2 to 4 inch section at a time (so the
glue doesn't harden on you).
| The less experienced you are with hot glue, the shorter the
section should be. |
| I usually have my daughter use a popsicle stick to press
pieces together without getting any of the heated glue on her
skin... I just use my fingers. |
| My 9 year old daughter has been able to use my "low temp
craft glue gun" with supervision for a couple of years.
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| Fill with rice or small beans (a funnel or a home made funnel made of
paper will help with the pouring). Sew or glue the hole shut.
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Printing the Template:
| Close the template window after printing to return to this
screen.
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| Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the
template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).
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| You need to print both templates |
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