How to Make Your Own Soft Toy

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From the scare of China-made products to all the undesirable additives in food and genetically modified food produce, it is tough to be a parent in this day and age.  Having to dodge milk containing melanine, clothes with unacceptably high levels of formaldehyde, toys with lead paint, perhaps it is time to adopt a more natural form of parenting.  By going back to basics, we can reduce the risks exposed to our children.

For instance, these are some of the practices I have started to adopt:

1. Practice Extended Breastfeeding and you won’t have to rely on modified milk formula with questionable ingredients.
2. Avoid buying China made clothes (yeah, I know this is a tough one since nearly everything is made in China), or make sure you wash everything you buy before wearing them.
3. Keep a check on toy recall lists to make sure none of the toys your child plays with are on them.  Alternatively, if you’re willing to go the extra milk, you can make your own home-made toys (like my BFF who makes her own 100% cotton stuffed toys for her son).
4. Make your own spreads to avoid buying products that have hydrogenated fats added to them to increase shelf-life.

Admitedly, I still buy China-made toys, but my consolation is that Gavin is pretty good with not putting toys into his mouth.  When I was in a shop browsing at clothes for my god-daughter, the shop owner was surprised to see that I had allowed Gavin to hold Thomas and Friends trains with small parts.  Alarmed, she asked me if I wasn’t worried that he would put the trains into his mouth and swallow the small parts.  Well, that’s just the thing -- Gavin doesn’t do that.  Not even when teething.

What prompted me to make my own soft toy for Gavin?  Well, my BFF suggested it initially when she was making stuff toys for her son.  She sent me a couple of patterns and I went out to buy the materials but never got around to it.

Recently, we were in MPH and Gavin took a fancy to one of those Dooodolls.  Since he was young, Gavin has never really formed particularly lasting attachments to any of his soft toys, so I wasn’t keen to buy him a soft toy that I felt he would discard shortly after.  I promised to make him one and he put back the toy.

A promise later, here is the toy I finally made for him:

In case you can’t figure out what it is, it’s a train -- well, the silhouette of a a train.  I was initially going to make a bear but then I thought better of it and decided to make something in the shape of a train.  Turns out it was a good idea because Gavin formed an immediate attachment to it the moment he saw it was shaped like a train.  Although it wasn’t my intention, Gavin instantly named the train Percy, after the green train Percy from Thomas and Friends.

Making the train isn’t difficult.  All you need are some felt squares (felt is a good material to start with because it’s very forgiving and easy to use) which you can buy from any craft shop.  I bought mine from Art Friend (in the Gardens, Midvalley) and Craft Haven (1Utama) for about RM2.50 each.  You can draw your own patterns or you can follow a pattern from a book like Aranzi Aronzo.  I drew the train myself (which wasn’t too hard after all the practice I had been getting whenever Gavin asked me to draw trains for him).

I stitched the sides with a blanket stitch (you can see how to do one in the Youtube video below).  I was initially going to use a different coloured thread to make it stand out.  In retrospect, I’m glad I opted for the green thread in the end because my needlework is somewhat shoddy and it doesn’t need a contrasting colour to draw unnecessary attention to it.

I stuffed the train with cotton and sealed the opening with more blanket stitching.  If you’re more creative, you can add embroidered features to your soft toy -- like I would have, but since Gavin was so eager to play with his Percy, I decided to keep it simple.  The fact that my son recognises it’s a train is already a great accomplishment in my book.

And here he is showing off his new toy for the camera:

Unfortunately, he decided to take Percy to the “wash down” immediately after (I forgot to tell him that this Percy can’t get wet) so now Percy is hanging out to dry…

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• Train Soft Toys – Project C
• Train Soft Toy Project D – Molly the Yellow Engine
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