Button Turkey

I heart my new button turkey! He's so cute! I can't wait to introduce him to James! I love exclamation points! :)

This lil' bird will be a great learning tool to teach James how to button. And bonus - the buttons and feathers create a color matching game!

This was fun and easy to make and I finished it in about 2 hours (sewn by hand). I first found the idea on Itty Bitty Love, but I've also seen it on My Montessori Journey (two of my fav blogs!). I didn't follow an actual pattern to make it, I just eyeballed the photo in the link and copied it as best I could. That said, here's my attempt at giving you a tutorial so you can make one of your own!

Materials needed:

• Felt...
• Brown - for the body. One sheet was enough to make two circles about 5" in diameter.
• Light brown - for the head (fyi, I tried the brown on brown and it was just too hard to see the turkey's head).
• Red - for the wattle
• Orange - for the beak
• Cream - for the eyes
• 5 Various colors of your choice - for the feathers, which I made to be about 4" long.
• 5 Buttons - color coordinate with the feathers.
• Stuffing (I used Poly-fil) - for the body
• Scissors, needle & various color thread to match your felt (if you care about matching, that is!)

Instructions:
Step 1:
Cut out the head and sew it onto one of the brown circles.

Step 2:
Cut out the wattle, beak & eyes and sew them onto the head. I used black thread to make the pupils in the eyes, but you could use sequins instead.

Step 3:
Sew the buttons onto that same circle. Space them out a bit to make room for the feathers.

Step 4:
Stitch the two circles together, but before you close it up completely, fill the inside with stuffing. Not too much though or you'll have a really plump turkey!

Step 5:
Make the feathers by simply cutting feather-like shapes out of the felt and then cutting a slit in the bottom narrow part of the feather. Be careful when you cut the slit - start with a small slit and check it with your button. Adjust the size of the hole as needed. I made the mistake of making too large a slit and the feather wouldn't stay on the button.

That's it! Now you have a button turkey of your own!

I made a button snake recently, too. Click here to see how to make one.