DIY Sock Monkey Tutorial – Part 3 (Face & Tail)

DIY Sock Monkey Tutorial – Part 3 (Face & Tail)

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Are you looking for the perfect stocking stuffer or Easter basket filler?  Sock monkeys make great hand made gifts!  This week we’ve been working through a tutorial on how to make your own sock monkey from a pair of crew cut socks.  You’ll need one sock to make the body and legs of the monkey and one sock to make all the other pieces of the monkey.  If you’re just joining us, make sure to go back to Part 1 (body & legs) and Part 2 (arms & ears) before you read on for finishing up the monkey!

 

How to Make a Sock Monkey Face

1. You’ll need white felt to make the eye base.  I folded a piece of white felt in half and then cut out a rounded shape, like this.  I eyeballed it (no pun intended!)
2. Now I will admit, I do not know much about embroidery!  I attached the white eye base to the sock monkey head using some matching embroidery floss and the stitch I used is called an outline stitch (who knew it had an actual name??). The graphic below should give you an idea of how to do an outline stitch.
 3.  Trace all along the edge of eyes but leave the tail end of your embroidery thread long at the end.  You’ll use the same piece of thread to sew on the mouth details.
4. The heel of your sock will become the monkey’s mouth.  Position it so it is centered on the head and will overlap the bottom of your eyes.
5.  Tuck the raw edges of the sock under as you stitch it on.  I used a regular whip stitch and sewing thread to attach the mouth to the body.  Start from one edge of the face and work your way around.
6.  Stitch the mouth on all the way around until you’ve almost gotten back to the beginning.  At this point you can stuff the mouth with some fiberfill.  I went for pretty firm on the mouth to give it a nice round shape.
7. Before I closed up the mouth, I stitched on the black part of the eyes.  I saved this part for after the mouth was sewed on and stuffed to make sure the eyes were right above the mouth.  You can do this part before you sew on the mouth if that makes more sense to you.  You’ll want to do a satin stitch for the eyes:
8.  Sew up the rest of the mouth using a whip stitch and then use another outline stitch to sew on the mouth and nose detail using the tail end of the eye floss.  For the nostrils I just made a X after sewing the mouth across.

How to Make the Tail

One last step on how to make a sock monkey tail and then your monkey will be complete!  For the tail I used a roll of white felt instead of fiberfill because the tail is so long and skinny, I didn’t want it to get lumpy from stuffing with fiberfill.  If you’d prefer fiberfill, or no stuffing, you can certainly do that too!  Here is how I made my sock monkey tail…

1.  Take the part of the sock meant for the tail and sew the right sides together with a sewing machine, making a shape similar to the arms.  Cut a rectangle of white felt that is just a smidge longer than your tail and about 5x as wide.

2. Roll the felt up and do a quick whip stitch so the tail stays rolled as you work.  You can hot glue it instead if you’d like.

3. Stitch the end of your felt roll to the bottom end of your tail to keep the roll in place.  I just laid them flat against each other and did a quick whip stitch to secure the roll to the tail.

4. Using a stick (I used a chop stick but a wooden spoon handle, pencil, That Purple Thang or some other sort of stick will work),  turn your tail right side out with the felt roll on the inside.

5.  Put the stick right on the top of your end and slowly work the tail backwards over the felt roll. Keep the stick inside the tail until you’ve gotten it worked all the way down your felt roll.  Remove the stick.

6.  Do a  running stitch along the end of the tail and tuck in the raw edges.  Sew the base of the tail closed (just as you did to make the ears and arms in Part 2).

7.  Attach the tail to the bottom, back of your monkey and you are all done!

 

How cute are these monkeys??

 

I hope you have enjoyed our 3 part tutorial!  These sock monkeys make great gifts!  Who doesn’t love a hand made present like this? With a little imagination you can make all kinds of sock animals too.

Leave a comment below- what is your favorite hand made gift to give??

 

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