Grey Babies - Stuffed Animals

These cute stuffed GreyBabies are easy to make and a hoot to pose in funny positions. They look especially impressive in small groups. They make great items for Christmas bazaars or fall picnic fundraising.

Materials Needed:

• 2 18-inch pieces of 20 gauge floral wire
• Polymer clay in appropriate colors (I get good results with Sculpey III, but Fimo or Primo will also work. These bake rock-hard when baked in the oven for 20 minutes at 225 degrees.) You'll need black and white for nose and eyes.
• 2-inch strip of quilt batting 40-60 inches long
• 12 x 24-inch piece of fabric for snowsuit (fuzzy felt, wool, corduroy and flannel all work well)
• 10-inch knitted or crocheted scarf or 10 x 1-inch piece of fabric to use as scarf

Step 1: Twist Wire Frame

Bend the 2 18-inch pieces of 20 gauge floral wire into the basic shape shown below. When you're done, you'll have two shapes that look like the one below.

Place the two parts next to each other and twist the 4 wires at the top together with a pair of pliers.

Step 2: Form Head and Bake on Wire

Making greyhound heads is very simple. Just follow these steps:

1. Get a piece of polymer clay about the size of a walnut (1/4 to 1/3 of a brick) and roll the clay into a smooth ball.
2. Roll the ball into a worm shape, about 2 1/2 inches long.
3. Make a 90 degree bend in the middle of the worm.
4. Shape the long end of the worm to look like a greyhound nose.
5. Carefully pinch two areas on the top of the head to form ears. Initially, they'll stick straight up like a Pharoah hound's ears. Shape the ears as triangles. After the ears are formed, bend them forward.
6. With a nut picker or the edge of a spoon, make indentations that correspond to the bottom of the hound's jawbone. You'll be making this indentation on the neck part of the head.
7. Optionally, you can use a small amount of black to make a nose and mouth for the hound.
8. Optionally, you can make eyes with a small ball of white and a dot of black. If you make eyes, be sure to make an indentation in the head. Then set the eyes into the indentation.
9. Work the head onto the wire frame.
10. Bend the frame as necessary so the construction can sit on a cookie sheet for baking. The head should not touch the cookie sheet while baking.
11. Bake at 225 degrees for 20 minutes.

Neat trick: For brindle, form three thin worms of black and 4 thin worms of fawn. Put these together alternating black and fawn. Work these together into one thicker worm. Fold the worm in half and work it some more. As you do this, you'll get wonderful brindle-like swirls. Form this worm into a ball and shape as above.

Neat trick: For parti colors, make a ball of white then attach small bits of other colors (or brindle) to the outside of the ball and smooth out the ball. Form the head as above.

Step 3: Wrap Frame with Batting

After your head and frame have baked and cooled, take a 2-inch wide strip of quilt batting and wrap the frame. We like to start at the bottom of the left leg, wrap up the left leg, down and then up the right leg, around the body, then out and back from each arm. When you are finished wrapping, tuck the extra end into the previously wrapped batting. You will need to pay attention to the paw areas to be sure that the wires will not stick out. This will require some folding and tucking with the batting.

Step 4: Make the Snow Suit

Expand Pattern

1. Using the pattern provided, cut the fabric for the snow suit. Note that Pieces A and B must be placed on the fold. For Piece C, cut two. On Piece A, don't miss the inside cut that separates the hood from the arm.
2. Fold right sides together on Piece A and sew a short stitch line with a 1/4" seam along the diagonal line that forms the hood. Do the same for Piece B.
3. With Piece C right sides together, stitch up ONE HALF the distance from the crotch to the neck. It is very important to only stitch one half the distance so that you will be able to insert the stuffed wire frame into the finished snow suit. After stitching is complete, iron the assembly flat.
4. Match Piece B to Piece A with right sides together. Stitch around the edge with a 1/4" seam. Piece B will extend below Piece A. This reduces raw edges later.
5. Match the Piece C assembly to the Piece A assembly with right sides together. Stitch all around the edges with a 1/4" seam. There should remain an inch or so raw edge on the neck area of Piece C and the hood of Piece A will have some raw edges. Fold these with right sides together and stitch. This will cause the hood to wrap around the front of the snow suit and better encase the hound's face. This will be somewhat awkward, especially with thick fabrics. No need to be perfect here, as the scarf will later cover any small defects.
6. Clip the corners and cut off any threads, then turn the snow suit right side out.

Step 5: Knit Scarf or Cut Scarf Fabric

The scarf can be knitted or crocheted if you know how to do that. We made a simple scarf about 10 inches long and 1 inch wide. We also made a few GreyBabies with fabric as a scarf. These also came out very nice. Just cut a scrap of fabric to be 10 inches long and 1 inch wide.

Step 6: Assemble GreyBaby

Slip and squish the GreyBaby frame with the batting into the snowsuit. This will take some wiggling and bending. When the GreyBaby is properly dressed, use hot glue to secure the neck portion of the snowsuit.

Use hot glue to secure the scarf into place. Use the scarf to hide any imperfections or raw edges. Now pose the GreyBaby as you'd like.

Project Courtesy: Greyhound Manor Crafts