Wood Mouse & Bobbit

Sorry, I'm rushing to finish this tutorial for you....

First cut out only the pieces you are about the construct & transfer any instructional markings onto the reverse of the fabric with a coloured pencil or a special vanishing ink fabric pen. Please feel free to cut more seam allowance than shown on the design.

Start by constructing the FEET, ARMs, WINGs, TAIL & EARs,

1/ FEET:

Right sides facing sew all the way around, the cut along the dotted red line & turn right sides out.

Stuff the FEET firmly & neatly whip stitch the opening closed. With thicker embroidering thread sew his toes

2A/ ARMS with Separate CLAWS:

Start by making the CLAWS. Fold in half, right sides facing & sew down the side leaving the bottom open. Turn right sides out & press so the seam runs down the middle, then fold in the two corner sides so they overlap the middle seam & tack down to hold in place.

Now tack the CLAWS to the hand as shown below, so the CLAW seams are facing the palm of the hand.

Right sades facing sew all the way around the ARM piece in a mid yellow thread, leaving the end open.

Turn right sides out & stitch the brown lines between the fingers. Once stitched, lightly stuff just the hand & finger area making sure the stuffing is evenly distributed.

Next stitch along the dotted line that divides the hand from the arm & then stuff the arm too.

2B/ ARMS with Included CLAWS:

Right sades facing sew all the way around the ARM piece leaving the bottom (shoulder) end open.

Turn right sides out & stitch the brown lines between the fingers.

Once stitched, lightly stuff just the hand & finger area making sure the stuffing is evenly distributed.

Next, in a mid yellow thread, stitch along the dotted line that divides the hand from the arm & then stuff the arm too.

3/ WINGS:

The wings are a little fiddly & are made always right sides out.

Cut out all wing pieces, adding extra seam allowance when ever possible. Then iron each wing onto the Fusible Fleece. Next with the white thread sew (preferably with a machine) over these dotted lines on each WING piece.

(Dotted lines are pale coloured on the actual Cut'n'Sew panel)

Next wrong sides facing lay each WING TOP piece onto each WING UNDERSIDE piece & with small invisible stitches join the top piece to the underside piece in these exact locations along the dotted lines on both sides of the WING. This way you can be sure the two pieces are exactly aligned, so when you machine sew the two halves together, the stitching will be in the same place on both sides - along the dotted lines.

Carefully machine sew in white thread along the outside dotted line. Working with the wing underside piece underneath. The fusible fleece will be between the two wing layers

Then trim off any excess unprinted fabric up to the outer dark brown dotted line.

The edges stay raw giving a slightly feathery appearance.

4/ TAIL:

Now cut out the TAIL pieces and machine sew, in beige thread, all the way around the outside, leaving the bottom open.

Turn right sides out & stuff the end lightly.

After stuffing lightly sew the small V shape that divides the tail end.

5/ EARS:

Now cut out the four EAR pieces. Right sides facing; tack together and machine sew, in beige thread, all the way around the outside, from A to B, leaving the bottom open.

Trim excess seam allowance at the EARS tip, this will enable the EAR tip to look more pointy when turned right sides out.
Now turn right sides out, press flat & neatly top stitch, fairly close to the outer edge, from A to B.

Now set aside the finished FEET, ARMS, WINGS, TAIL and EARS for later.

6/BODY:

First cut out the three BODY pieces (cut more seam allowance if possible). Transfer any instructional markings on to the reverse of the fabric.
Fold the main BODY piece in half & pin in place & machine sew both BODY darts.

Now fold each LEG over, right sides facing, along the Groin Dart line.
It should look like this diagram below. Tack in to place & machine stitch, in beige thread, the curved dotted line - This groin dart will cause the legs to point forward, rather than lay flat to either side.

Trim off excess fabric from both, left & right Groin Darts as shown below:

Next, right sides facing, pin & sew the BODY BACK LEFT piece to the BODY FRONT & sew the leg from A to B as shown. Be careful at the point marked by the green arrow it can be quite awkward to sew this area without getting puckering.
At point B there is marked, on the pattern, a small yellow arrow, this indicates where to join the LEFT ARM - which you will do later.

Now repeat the same instructions for the BODY BACK RIGHT piece, as shown below.

Now you are ready to attach the ARMS. Right sides facing, tack both ARMS on to the BODY FRONT piece with CLAWS facing up.
RIGHT ARM between the blue arrows, LEFT ARM between the yellow.

I know we haven't machine sewn the ARMS on yet, but first we have to attach the wings.
First cut the red dotted line on both BODY BACK pieces, the WINGS will slot in here.

Push the WINGS all the way down to the bottom of the wing slit as shown above & pin in place.

From the view above the WING underside will be underneath.

Now machine sew the WINGS to the LEFT & RIGHT BODY BACK pieces - like a dart but with a wing in between.

Now that the wings are securely sewn in, it's time to finish sewing on the ARMS, but don't sew all the way across the neck area yet - just sew across the ARMS and a little into the shoulders, as shown below:

Before sewing across the neck area you first need to sew in the tail and then the top half of the back seam. Tack or pin the TAIL into place then when you're happy the tail is in the right place machine sew. Click to enlarge this picture to see details.