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Clyde the Sharky Monster
Add a friendly fishy to your mantel this holiday season with this stocking that is part shark, part monster, and 100% adorable! Clyde’s toothy underbite and thick eyebrows give him a derpy yet lovable look. Great for little boys and shark lovers alike, make this stocking for a special guy in your life or sew a whole shiver of sharks for your family.
Supplies & Tools:
- Printable template (download here)
- 0.5 yard dark green felt*
- 1 sheet (9" x 12") felt of each: smoke grey, white
- 5/8" wide brown grosgrain ribbon, 10" long
- 2 wiggly eyes, 1" diameter
- Black Sharpie marker
- Scissors
- Tape
- 0.25 yard 807 Pellon® Wonder-Web® fusible webbing
- Press cloth, such as this one
- Straight pins
- Thread: dark green, grey
- Fabri-Tac® glue
- Iron
- Sewing machine
*If felt fabric is 72 inches wide, you only need 0.5 yard. If felt fabric is 36 inches wide, you will need 1 yard.
Directions:
Prep the Template and Supplies:
- Print the template.
- Cut out the template pieces, then tape together, as necessary.
- Body Front – Line up the dashed lines, overlapping the shaded tabs, and tape pieces together.
- Body Back – Line up the dashed lines, overlapping the shaded tabs, and tape pieces together.
- If needed, iron the dark green felt on low heat to remove any wrinkles.
Make the Side Fins:
In the following steps you will fuse two pieces of felt together for the side fins. Fused felt is firmer than a single piece of felt and is perfect for this shark’s fins. If you were to make the fins from a single, non-fused piece of felt, the fins will be floppy.
- Cut an 8.5" x 11" rectangle from dark green felt.
Note: Use an 8.5" x 11" piece of printer paper as a guide.
- Cut this rectangle in half so that you have two 8.5" x 5.5" rectangles.
- Cut one 8.25" x 5.25" rectangle from Pellon Wonder-Web fusible webbing.
Note: You don’t have to measure this rectangle exactly. Basically, you want the webbing to be slightly smaller than the felt so that when you iron everything together, you don’t get the adhesive on your iron or ironing board.
- Place the fusible webbing between the two pieces of dark green felt.
- Cover the felt and webbing “sandwich” with a press cloth to protect your iron, then press the felt with your iron according to directions on the fusible webbing packaging. Let cool. (See Elfy Hints below for tips on working with fusible webbing.)
- Place the side fin pattern on the fused felt and trace two fins with marker. Cut out and set fins aside.
Make the Back Fin:
- Cut a 5.5" x 12" rectangle from dark green felt.
- Cut the rectangle into thirds so you have three rectangles measuring 5.5" x 4" each.
- Cut two rectangles of fusible webbing measuring 5.25" x 3.75" each.
Note: You don’t have to measure these rectangles exactly. Basically, you want the webbing to be slightly smaller than the felt so that when you iron everything together, you don’t get the adhesive on your iron or ironing board.
- Place one rectangle of fusible webbing between two of the pieces of dark green felt.
- Cover the felt and webbing “sandwich” with a press cloth to protect your iron, then press the felt with your iron according to the directions on the fusible webbing packaging. Let cool. (See Elfy Hints below for tips on working with fusible webbing.)
- Add the remaining rectangle of fusible webbing and cover with the third felt rectangle.
- Cover this “sandwich” with a press cloth, then iron. Let cool.
- Place the back fin pattern on the fused felt and trace with marker. Cut out and set the back fin aside.
Cut Out the Remaining Pieces:
- Place the body front, body back, and head patterns on the dark green felt and trace with marker. Set pattern pieces aside, and cut out the shapes.
- Place tummy pattern on grey felt, trace with marker, then cut out.
- Place tummy pattern on fusible webbing and trace with marker. Set pattern aside. Cut inside the marker line about 0.25".
Note: You don’t have to measure exactly 0.25" inside the marker line. Basically, you want the webbing to be slightly smaller than the felt tummy so that when you iron everything together, you don’t get the adhesive on your press cloth, iron, or ironing board. - Place teeth pattern on white felt and trace with marker. Set pattern aside.
- Place eyebrow pattern on white felt and trace 2 shapes. Set pattern aside.
- Now cut out the eyebrows and teeth from white felt. Set aside.
Sew the Tummy:
- Lay the fusible webbing tummy in the middle of the body front. Then place the felt tummy on top of the fusible webbing tummy.
- Cover the felt tummy with a press cloth to protect your iron, then press felt with your iron according to the fusible webbing directions. Let cool. (See Elfy Hints below for tips on working with fusible webbing.)
Note: We chose to fuse the tummy to the body before sewing it because this gives the stocking a more polished look. Fusing the tummy makes it lie flat on the body; whereas, if you sewed it down without fusing it, the tummy would look a bit puffy. - Using grey thread on your sewing machine, sew the edges of the tummy. We used a wide zigzag stitch. The settings on our machine are stitch length = 2, stitch width = 3.
- As you begin sewing, back tack to lock stitches.
- Continue sewing around the tummy. We find it’s easiest to turn tight curves by sewing slowly.
- As you finish sewing the tummy, back tack to lock the stitches. Trim excess thread.
Connect the Mouth and Body Front Pieces:
- Glue the teeth to the head. To do this, apply a thin line of Fabric-Tac along the bottom edge of the head, then quickly press the teeth down, aligning with the lower arc of the head.
Note: You do not need to use much glue, as you will sew the pieces together in step 6.
- Place the body back pattern on your work surface.
- Place the head/teeth on top of the body back pattern, lining up the top edges.
- Place the body front on top of the head/teeth and body back pattern. The body front will overlap the head/teeth by 5/8". Make sure the pieces fit within the body back pattern.
- Gently lift the top of the body front and apply a thin line of glue along the bottom edge of the white piece of felt. Quickly press the body front into place. Set body back pattern aside.
- Using dark green thread on your sewing machine, sew the three pieces together. The placement of the head, teeth, and body front are secured with glue, so you don’t need to use pins. Simply sew through all three layers using a zigzag stitch. The settings on our machine are: stitch length = 2, stitch width = 4. Sew across the top arc (see below), making sure to back tack at the beginning and the end. Trim excess thread.
Assemble the Pieces:
- Place the body back on your work surface.
- Place the side fins on the body back, as shown here:
- For the stocking hanger, fold the ribbon in half and place near the upper right “corner” of the body back piece. The loop should extend above the top edge, and the ends should be extend past the right side, as shown:
- Place the body front face down on the body back/side fins.
- Use pins to hold everything in place.
- Review the template to note where you will start and finish sewing the stocking. Mark with pins, a marker, or tailor’s chalk. The start/finish sewing points are important, as you want the stocking opening to be centered.
- Using your sewing machine, begin sewing a straight seam (NOT a zigzag stitch) with a 0.25" seam allowance. Back tack to lock the thread, then sew forward over the ribbon. Back tack over the ribbon, then sew forward again to reinforce the ribbon; this will make the hanger stronger.
Note: An easy way to get a 0.25" seam allowance is to align the edge of the felt with the presser foot. - Continue sewing around the stocking, removing pins as you go. As you sew the final stitches, back tack to lock the thread.
- Trim thread and cut darts as shown below. Be very careful not to snip the seam.
Note: Cutting darts (little triangles) in the corners of the seam line will keep the stocking from looking lumpy once it’s turned right side out.
- Turn the stocking right side out. Press side seams with a cool iron.
Note: Pressing the side seams gives more definition to the stocking’s shape and keeps it from looking bulky. See how the pressed side looks better than the side that is not pressed?
- If, for some reason, the body back piece of your stocking is now taller than the front of your stocking, simply trim the excess felt.
- Decide where you want to place Clyde’s eyes and eyebrows, then glue in place using Fabri-Tac.
- Glue the back fin on the back of the stocking.
- Place stocking face down on work surface. Decide where you want to place the back fin.
- Hold the back fin in one hand and, with your other hand, apply a line of Fabri-Tac on the straight edge.
- Quickly press the back fin onto the stocking and hold the fin as it dries (about 1 minute).
- Now your sharky monster stocking is ready to be hung on the mantel!
Elfy Hints:
- When cutting out felt pieces, always cut inside the marker line so you don’t have marks on your stocking pieces.
- When using fusible webbing to bond layers of felt, you may need to set the temperature of your iron higher than what the manufacturer recommends. If you do need to increase the temperature, raise it only a little at a time until the fusible webbing melts and bonds the felt. Felt has a tendency to flatten significantly under high heat, so you don’t want to make the iron too hot. And, make sure you use your press cloth to protect the iron!
- Speaking of felt flattening when you iron it, let the iron do the work and don’t push the iron down on the felt. In one felt fusing experiment, we did press the iron down firmly and ended up with indentations in the felt from the ironing board!
- To make sure your felt layers are well bonded, after ironing, let your felt cool, then try to separate the corners.
If the felt layers do separate, iron it again. You want to make sure the layers of felt are well bonded before proceeding to cut out Clyde’s fins. - If you don’t have a press cloth, you can use a white tea towel or muslin fabric. Don’t use colored or printed fabric because the colors from the towel/fabric might bleed onto your stocking.
