First Attempt – Scrap Cloth Turtle

Ok, so I have found a tutorial on how to make a turtle using fat quarters of material. But I have loads of scrap material so I am making a Scrap Cloth Turtle. You can see the original tutorial over at Hobby Craft.

First I Needed Templates

Luckily they supplied templates in the tutorial, phew.
The tutorial says a thin card is best for this, but I don’t have any to hand. so paper it is.

So here goes.

Templates for Scrap Cloth Turtle. You can save this image and just enlarge to a4 to get the same size I am using.

Print out the templates

I have printed out the templates.

Cut out the Templates

I needed some sharp paper scissors for this.

As if by magic…poof, here is my pile of templates all nicely cut out.

Time To Build My Scrap Cloth Turtle

Right, so I have my templates all cut out. It is time to start making this Scrap Cloth Turtle.
I have a pile of different materials and have decided to go with old denim bits for the top shell of the scrap cloth turtle.

Beginning With Top Shell

Take the hexagon shell center template, place it on your material of choice and cut out the material allowing a border of about a cm all round.

Turtle Centre

Not what I would call perfectly cut out, but no-one is going to see the inside and it works for me.

Using a different colour thread, tack the cloth to the template.

Well, that was amazingly fiddly.

If you are like me you may want to iron the edges down to keep them in place. Or just tack the opposite sides first to stop the template moving around.

Centre piece complete

Right, next up, time to do the same for the six shell edge pieces. I am using different colours in the denim material I have chosen.

Outer shells ready to go. I’ve chosen 3 different shades of denim for this.

Putting The Top Shell Together

As you can see from the image above, I have laid out the pieces in the way I will need to stitch them, with the arrows pointing to the middle section. I am now going to join the outer parts to the middle section.

Close up of stitches

I made sure I placed the right sides together, with the arrow pointing towards the middle hexagon. Using small over stitches I joined the first edge together. I used red cotton as I felt seeing some of the red stitching might look cool.

There, the first hexagon joined. I then proceeded to join the other five.

First round completed

Next, join the sections together.

Done

Time to add the infill sections.

Adding the infills

Now that’s all done I can remove the tacking stitches and take out the templates. Turtle top shell complete.

Top shell complete. Tacking stitches all gone and templates removed.

So let’s move on

Top shell complete. What’s missing? I know I need an undershell, a head, tail and four little legs.

Time to start cutting again.

Underside of shell

Head x2, tail x2, feet x8

Let’s Get Back to Stitching, Stuffing

I stitched together the two head sections, the two tail sections and the feet in two’s as well.

I stuffed the sections – like so.

Time To Build A Scrap Cloth Turtle

Ok, you probably noticed the sudden change in colours here. I forgot to take pictures of the next two steps. So I borrowed these two from the original article which you can find at Hobbycraft.

I tacked the legs, head, and tail like so.

And then the underside.

Then, I stitched around the edge with a sewing machine. Leaving a gap so that I could turn it right side out and stuff it. Once stuffed I hand stitched the remaining small section.

And tada, here she is Terry the Scrap Cloth Turtle.

Oh dear, something missing I think.

That’s better, she has eyes.

I thought about using buttons for the eyes, but this one is a toy for dogs. Buttons would be a choking hazard.

And eyelashes – haha.

Well, there you have, Terry the Scrap Cloth Turtle. She really is a bit scrappy. Not quite perfect, but not bad for a first attempt.

On reflection though, I think I would use a lighter material next time. Denim is a bit hard to work with on such a fiddly piece.

The Creative Patch

by Tina Hayden

How To Make A Scrap Cloth Turtle