Gingerbread Man Rattle - {Tutorial}

Hello everyone!!  First off, I want to thank Courtney for inviting me to guest post on her lovely blog!!  Such an honor and how fun is this?  

Well, I'm Victoria of vixenMade (a.k.a. Vixen) and I've been blogging for almost a year now, which is so crazy now that I think of it!  The year flew by!  I started blogging because I wanted a way of keeping my projects and crafts in a special place.  Plus, I figured why not make tutorials to share with others and, of course, to keep for myself.  I love crafting, sewing, diy-ing, and inspiring others so I knew I had to start a craft blog.  Besides, you can only stalk other craft blogs for so long!I'm also a SAHM of 3 little ones (4 year old girl and 2 year old twin boys) and a wife.  I'm from Canada, too, so a shout out to all you Canadians!!  Whoop!  Here's a few of my favorite projects/tutorials to check out!  Infinity Scarf TutorialFabric Covered Shoe TutorialRuffle Pillow Tutorial Anyways, today I'm sharing a fun Christmas project with you.  It's a perfect gift for a baby or any little person really!   Here's my tutorial on how to make a Gingerbread Man Rattle.  What you need:  brown feltscraps of red, green, white feltscraps of red ribbon2 black buttonsblack embroidery threadjingle bellpieces of a plastic bag or packagingpoly-fillsewing supplies First of all, get yourself a drawing of the outline of a gingerbread man.  I sketched one out, but you can find one here to print off.  Then cut out your image. Take a piece of brown felt and fold it in half widthwise.

 Pin your image onto the folded piece of felt and cut around the shape so that you'll have two gingerbread man  felt shapes.

Take a scrap piece of white felt and cut 4 wavy strips.  The only need to be as wide as the arms and legs of your gingerbread man.

Then cut out two green circles and a red smile shape.  Use a red scrap piece of ribbon for the belt and two black buttons for the eyes.

Pin on all your felt and ribbon pieces and sew them on with coordinating thread.

Trim your pieces.

Now sew on your button eyes with black embroidery thread.

Now sandwich the two gingerbread man shapes together, right sides facing in and pin together.

Sew around the edge, leaving a 2-3 inch gap for turning it right side out.

If the toy is for a young child, just stuff with poly-fill, otherwise place your jingle bell inside the head of the gingerbread man.

Then stuff the pieces of your plastic bag in each leg.

 Fill your gingerbread man with the poly-fill, then sew the opening shut using a ladder stitch.

And you're finished!  Give your guy a little jingle and crinkle his little legs.  Perfect for a learning baby.  Or cute for a child.

Enjoy!  Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!