Making a Stuffed Animal Stuffed with Animals

Redding was given this big fun pillow pal animal lion dude for Christmas. A friend and I have been throwing around the idea of making bean bags stuffed with stuffed animals for a while, and I decided this was a perfect way to try out the idea without buying fabric. 

Start by marking with safety pins where you want your zipper to go based on how long your zip is.

 
 Begin ripping open your seam between the pins. My animal had this bias tape inside to support the seam. Work around it when ripping the seam and cut it out.

 Decide if you want to take the stuffing out of the feet or not. If so, cut out the middle bias tape and take out the stuffing. Leave the bias tape around the outer circle where the feet attach to the body. If you want the feet to stay stuffed, you'll need to sew in a scrap piece of fabric by attaching it to the bias tape.

Pin your zipper in place. It's a bit tricky because the seam is a curve, so be generous with your pinning. You may even need to adjust the placement as you sew.

Mark the end of your zipper and don't sew past your pins. Sew down the other side of your zipper.

I had this extra fabric from at the end of my zipper and the seam was loose on the animal from where I ripped it open to install the zip. So, You can either whipstitch this closed, or you can zig zag it.

I chose to zig zag at the top and bottom of my zipper going through the fabric and zipper to help support the seams. The dude needs all the help he can get. My boys are rough on their toys :)

And there ya are! I drew some new eyes on with a sharpie for this well loved dude.

And there he is stuffed full of all the smaller animals I could fit. He holds a surprising amount. I guess I should note that I didn't take the stuffing out of his head. The head was an entirely separately stuffed piece and attached with more bias tape, so I just left it alone.

Wyatt thinks lion is pretty cool now. 

An excellent floor cushion :) Project Stuffed Animal Stuffed Lion was a success.