Little Mouse Ornament

Hi, everybody! Welcome to our live event. My name is Brenda Kay Anderson. And today, I have a sewing project for you guys. We are going to work on the little mouse ornament here; he is, Isn't he adorable?

So cute. Um, this little ornament guy. Um, he was kind of born out of a thrift store shopping trip. And I noticed there were a lot of gray sweaters, brown sweaters, Neutral sweaters. I don’t mind wearing those colors.

I have some of those colors. But I was like, I wish there were sweaters and other colors. What can we do with all these gray sweaters? Then I thought, Oh my gosh, I know what would be cutest thing if we used the sweaters to make little Stuffies. And then I was like thinking about how the Holidays are coming up, and really I should be making an ornament, which would be a little more practical than just making a stuffy.

However, I did bring along the stuffy version of this, just in case you guys wanted to see it See, it's exactly the same. Um, the only difference here is that this little guy is, Uh, 175.5% of the size of this guy, so he’s like 1 and 3/4 the size. So just in case you’re watching this and also having the same thought, Like, wouldn't this make a cute little stuffed animal or a toy for somebody? It would make a really cute gift, um. All you need to do is take the same pattern pieces and then just use your copier to Then put in 175% to print at instead of 100%.

And you may need to, um, cut apart your pieces. And do a couple pieces at a time, because it's gonna blow them up into larger pieces, and it Wouldn't it all fit on the same page? Like it. Like it does in this pattern anyway, that was a little side note about the cuteness of this Project. It's, um, it's gonna be really good for making, You know, ornaments for friends or little stuffed toys for some, You know, if you have any grandkids or kids, who might appreciate this cute, or even adults.

Adults can love stuffed animals, too, um. But, uh, so today, you know, you can go ahead and download your instructions. These are the full instructions. There’s a picture tutorial here of that kind. Of trickier parts or things I felt needed a little bit of explanation.

Um, but this is meant to be used with this video, because the thing I really love In teaching with the video format instead of just written instructions, there are Little things, especially when you're making creatures or critters, Little things you can do to make things look cuter. Just little tips that are really hard to write out. I mean, if I wrote it out, no one would read it. It would be way too long and boring. But it's a lot easier just to watch someone do it on a video, and then, You know, I can say something like, and squish it a little bit, like this.

I mean, that would be really hard to write out. So, anyway, I love, um, I love teaching in this style with the, you know, Video but also live. So if you guys have questions, If you have comments about things, you know, definitely put those in the chat so I can Answer them, um, and address during this live event. So. All right, so, you've got your download.

Available, that's free for everybody, and you can go ahead and download that, then let Let me talk about the materials you'll need for this project. So, like I mentioned, this was made from a sweater. I'm gonna pull the remains of the sweater in here so you guys can see this, What this looks like, um, so this is just the front of my sweater that's left. I have cut apart all the other pieces, but you can see here that this sweater is pretty fine Gauge. It’s, you know, this is what I mean by That is, there are lots of stitches per inch, and I actually did list how many stitches per inch In.

Um, the download in case you really want to Compare, but basically, you just want to look for a thin sweater. Something that doesn't have a lot of texture, because when we cut apart all of our little Pieces, if it’s too thick, um, you know, it may, may start to ravel a little bit. But I have some tricks for that, um. But also, more importantly, if it's too thick, it’s going to be hard to do this on sewing machine. You could still hand-sew it, but there are a Couple little sections, um, where you're stitching a lot of layers together.

So really, it is best to find a nice thin sweater, and luckily, these are easy to find At the thrift store, um, keep in mind your mouse doesn't have to be gray. It could be, you know, there are multitudes of other colors your mouse could be. Um. And it doesn't even have to be realistic Colors either way. It could be a pale pink or light blue.

That would be really cute. All right, so anyway, I have this, this sweater. This is a size small, um, and this could make, let's see, 123,456, probably about 8, somewhere near 8 to 10 mice out of just this one sweater. So this is, you know, a fairly inexpensive project if you can find a sweater at thrift At the store, you can make a bunch of ornaments and give them out as gifts to people. Or you can have multiple little.

Um, mice on your one tree, and you could put little different colored scarves or maybe you Wanna make them hats or other sorts of accessories to decorate each one that'd be Like, really, really cute, too. All right, so the main thing is you need your sweater. Um, and I'm using an acrylic sweater here, but it could, It could be wool, it could be cotton, though cotton I would. You know, make sure it's nice and thin if it is a cotton sweater. I would be a little wary of using that, because I feel like that fiber is gonna be a A little bit denser, and it might be hard to stitch through.

Um, you could, you could hand-sew it, though. Once again, Um, but it might be a little hard to get under your sewing machine. Um, with a lot of layers. OK, so you'll need your sweater. You'll need some water and corn starch to mix up a starching.

Uh, solution, because we're, you know, pretty stretchy, and sewing with this is gonna Get stretched out and kind of wonky. So what we're going to do is actually starch our fabric, and I'll show you how Process it in just a little bit, but that's the water. A spray bottle, and the cornstarch is for We'll be mixing that up in just a bit. Um, so you're going to need, in order to do the starching process, an iron. Some old towels, pieces of muslin, or some kind of press cloth or some kind of fabric Where you're not worried about, you know, getting cornstarch on it.

It should wash out of just about anything, but you know, Just don't pick your finest dress to do your starching process with. Um, then you're going to need, uh, a marking tool. I'm using this rinse-away marking tool. It's just used. You know, you can rinse it off with water.

You could, You don't have to have that. You can use anything you can mark on. Your sweater is with Um, it shouldn't be seen. You should know, it could be a wash away marker. But it also could be like a pencil or a pen, something like that.

Um, for marking the wrong side of your fabric. Let's see, um, you're going to need a little scrap of polar fleece, And that's what we're using for the scarf. So, I have dimensions listed in the pattern for you, what to cut it out at. I believe it’s 11.25 by 12 inches long, so just a small rectangle of polar fleece, And we're gonna make that into the scarf. And then, um, let's see, what else do we need?

Oh, I used a little bit of worsted weight yarn for the tail. Here's this little tail. So this worsted weight is like medium weight yarn, what you would, You know, it's very easy to find that in a big box store, um, At least in the United States, this is like the most prevalent thickness of yarn. But you can use a thicker yarn, whatever looks good A good proportion compared to the rest Little ornament; you could pick that out You could use gray, white, pink, whatever you have, so I'm using an acrylic yarn. Also, use wool that works fine, too.

Um, let's see, or you could use some sort of cord, ribbon, or something like that if you Have something else. Let’s see, we will need. Um, a lighter or candle if you're using acrylic yarn. And I'll show you why, um—that's just to keep the yarn from fraying. And then some sewing pins.

I like to use quilter pins because they don’t Get lost as easily, and then some, uh, sewing needle, and then also, Uh, an embroidery needle for embroidery and embroidery floss to go along with that. I used black embroidery floss and the sort of dusty pink for the nose here, Um, to embroider the features, you're gonna be needing those, and let's see. And then just something for you. Um, hanging your piece up. I'm using this, this sort of twine.

This very rustic twine. I had this; this came off of, Um, some cardboard tags, so I'm gonna use this to, To use as something to hang my ornament, but you could also use something else, like a cord, A ribbon, another piece of yarn, maybe not in the same color as the tail, because that might Look weird. Your eye might connect those two, and it might Looks like it's part of the mouse. So that's why I kind of like using it. That.

Doesn't really look like it belongs on him. So that's why I chose this twine; a ribbon would be lovely. Um, or, you know, like another piece of embroidery floss would work as well if you Just happen to have that. Um, and then, of course, you’re gonna need the Pattern printed out. The pattern is part of your download.

It comes in your download, so just be sure when you print that last page or the print, I guess it’s the second-to-last page in this pattern. Um, or in the written instructions, just make sure you don't. You, um, don't print it out, uh, two-sided at that point unless you don't care what you're Gonna be cutting up on the backside of it, um. Let's see, I think that that is it for materials. I know that’s a lot, but some of the stuff you may already have, Um, on hand, especially if you've ever made toys before.

But you know, embroidery floss and sewing thread, and things like that, Um, you know, you might have all that stuff already. Oh, and I forgot to mention you’re gonna need a little bit of this polyester. Um, filling—so this is for stuffing him with. Um, I would recommend using that instead of little scraps of fabric or other Stuffing materials, because, well, I guess this depends on the fabric that you choose. My sweater was really stretchy and quite thin, so, Um, it might have shown little lumps if it was cut up.

You know. Sometimes, people will stuff their toys with Scraps of fabric, and I think that works well great, especially for woven or other fabrics That doesn't stretch very much, but this is a pretty stretchy fabric. So it's harder, a little harder to make that look uniform. Of course, you can try it, or if you've done it before and have more experience with it That, you know, go for it if you'd like, OK. I'm going to, uh, so the first thing we're gonna do is talk about How to prep this fabric: you’re gonna need to starch it first.

Otherwise, it makes the sewing part really tricky, um. Oh, looks like we have some hellos here. Hello from San Diego! Oh, I love all your classes. Thank you so much for saying that.

Would it be possible to do a session explaining the different types of crochet colorwork Techniques like tapestry and mosaic, and when to decide which one to use? It's kind of confusing. Oh, that's a really good idea. Um, yeah, I'm gonna file that away. I think that's actually a really good idea.

Sort of like, uh, these are the different types you can use, And these are the areas where you would use them. Yeah, that sounds really good. Like a really good idea. Thank you for your suggestion. I love it when people give suggestions.

Uh, thanks for the compliments, you guys. I'm glad you guys like this little mouse. It's really fun to make something that lasts Being so cute. OK, so first of all, you’re gonna want to put Your sweater, or cut out a chunk of your sweater that you know is about the size of Your pattern. Let me pull out my pattern pieces for you guys.

Can see. I've already cut these out, but I'll show Them to you here so you can see the teeny-tiny scale we're working on here. So, we've got it. Um, just cut along all the lines. Your pattern to cut out all your pieces.

So, we've got the front, So that includes the head and the body. So, this is the front. We're gonna cut out two of these. This is the back, so there’s the head. Here’s the body.

Um, we're gonna cut out two of these as well. This little triangular piece sits right on the top of his head, right here. So, we're just cutting out one of those. And the ears, we're going to cut four. Doing a front and a back, then both ears and the arms; we'll cut four as well Because we've got a front and back of each arm, so there are two arms, All right, so those are your little pieces that you need to cut out of your pattern, um, and Then you're going to cut out a chunk of your fabric that's about the size you want, You know that you'll need this for starching, sorry about that.

The size you'll need for cutting out all of your pieces, rather. OK, so I'm just going to cut a small chunk out of my sweater here so you guys can see Starch, starching process. I like to save the ribbing at the bottom of my sweater because I like to make lots of mittens Out of, um, repurposed sweaters. This is actually something I've done before. The uh for the National Sewing Circle, and there is a pattern and a tutorial for that if you Guys are interested.

Um, but I usually save my ribbing for things like that for putting on them, The cuffs of mittens. OK, so here’s my piece. I know I can get, you know, All of these pieces, even, you know, the doubles; some of these have to be cut too. I know for sure that I can get them out. Actually, I'm gonna cut this off as well.

Just because it’s still connected to my sweater, OK. And then I'm going to place this piece of sweater on top of Some folded-up towels. Like this, and then we're going to mix up our starch solution. So, in this spray bottle here, I've got 1 cup of water. And we're going to use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, and then we'll mix those Together.

And if you have a funnel, that's best. You just pour it right into your bottle. I don't have a funnel, so I'm just gonna kind of make one out of paper here. Just ripping away a little notch. And then I'm going to do this, and pour my cornstarch in.

All right. Once you get your cornstarch in there, You can just shake it up. And then you're going to spray your sweater with cornstarch until it's pretty saturated. You don't want it to be dripping wet. So I'm going to spray just a little on the front, and then I'm going to spray it more Heavily on the back.

So by the back, I mean the wrong side of the sweater—whatever side you want to be the Inside your piece. And you don't actually have to spray any on the front. I sometimes do that to give it a little bit of extra stiffness. But it'll kind of, um, you know, soak through. So once, and you know, like I said before, you don’t need it to be dripping wet, But you do need it to be fair.

Fairly saturated. And then you can, um, let that dry, you know, until it’s just a little bit damp. I'm going to skip that step here, though. Um, just because we don’t, we can’t sit here and talk about things while we’re waiting for That to dry, um, and then you can take a press cloth. And just add it on top.

And then it's going to start to soak up water kind of here. I'm just using an iron directly on top, and you're gonna want to, And this is a medium heat, but you're going to want to test this out a bit beforehand. Because you just want to make sure, especially since we're probably most of the sweaters you Guys will find will be acrylic, and we just don't want to melt those, and we don't want to cause Any, you know, we don't want to ruin our sweaters. But I've done this with a few different sweaters, and I was actually surprised that the Ironing the sweater when kept on medium heat, It doesn't really seem to. Does much to the texture of the sweater.

I was a little surprised. I thought it might make it a little shiny or just not look very good. Um, but yeah, it didn't seem to matter. Okay, so you'll do this, and then you'll check until, you know, Until your sweater is dry. Mine is not dry, um, it'll stick to your press cloth, maybe a little bit.

Mine is still damp, um, and this will take a little more time to actually dry this, But I can feel that it’s a little bit sticky, and it’s starting to get a bit, You know, a little bit stiffer. Um, I'm going to move this out of the way, though, and I'm gonna show you what the end Goal is here with your sweater once it's dry. It should look like one of these, so I've got two examples here. This one is very stiff. You can see it's almost like.

I don’t know; it’s thicker than paper. I mean, it's stiffer than paper, even um, this one's very stiff. This one, it’s stiff enough to work with. This one feels a little more like almost. Like felt or like an ultrasuede feeling like it doesn’t have the stretch anymore.

It's still a little bit floppy, so anywhere you know. In between those two is perfectly fine. We’re basically just stating the reason we’re using This is because we don't want our stretchy fabric to get all stretched out when we're Sewing these tiny little pieces on the machine, and we’re going to be sewing in some Curves and things like that tend to stretch things out. Especially, um, when you're kind of pulling on it to help it through the sewing machine. Um, to help it turn and that sort of thing, so.

All right, once you’ve got your piece all starched and dry, Then you can go ahead and trace your pieces onto the back. And we're going to be using that washable marker here. So we're gonna need. Um, oh, and I should mention all of these pieces—none of these pieces Include seam allowance, OK? There isn't any seam allowance included.

So what happens is when we trace these patterns pieces onto the wrong side of your fabric. You have to know when you’re cutting around them that you have to allow for a little bit STEM allowance. Okay? And I'll explain that a little more after I get this piece traced out. So you're just going to trace right around the edge and anywhere you see these Little notches—make a little notch in your fabric like this.

Notch, notch, okay? And then, when you pull this away, you'll have your piece all traced out. Just know when If you cut this, you'll want to cut it out with about a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Or however much seam allowance you'd like. I, I, even if you're used to larger seams allowances because we're sewing these teeny Tiny pieces—I really don't recommend using like a 5/8-inch seam allowance or 1/2-inch seam Allowance.

If you feel like, no, no, Brenda, I really need That, then go ahead and cut it out with that And you may find that you need to trim it away Later. When we're sewing these little curvy seams, It really helps to have only a small amount of seam allowance on your pieces. So we're gonna cut; we're gonna trace two of these. So, these are the fronts. And I can see through; probably you can’t see these lines.

But I can see through my pattern pieces to those notches. There are two notches over here as well. Let me just check, yeah. So, there’s one here and one over there. Those are, These are notches for the arms.

This shows how to put that triangle into the top of the head. So these are the fronts. And here is a back piece. Those little notches are for the tail placement. And then we need two of these.

Just remember when you're laying these down, just give yourself enough space. I feel like this didn’t get starched well right there, so I’m gonna scooch this down Just a little bit, um, just make sure there’s enough space to give yourself seam allowance Between your pieces, if you feel like, "Oh, I will never remember to do that when I trace" Those out, you can always cut these out of your pattern page, You know, out of the download, you can. You know, always give it that little bit of seam allowance, if you like. I really prefer when I’m working at a tiny scale like this, I really prefer to have my stitching lines drawn onto the pattern, because Um, or drawn onto the piece that I’m cutting out, because when you’re working with such tiny Things and all these little curves, I feel like it just helps to see where you're actually Supposed to be sewing like you have a line to sew on instead of a certain distance away. All right, let's see.

I'm just—what I'm doing is feeling how well this was stretched here and moving it A place that's starched a little more because this one, There’s a couple areas here that I did not starch very thoroughly. So I'm just picking the starchier spots. That's why I keep moving things around. OK, so there's one of those. There are going to be two of these, and here’s a little cheat for this one you can use Trace out just two pieces, and then.

Lay those onto a backing of another layer of fabric, and then just cut around that. Um. So that way, you're cutting out four because we Need a total of 4 pieces for the arm. So we're just going to trace two, and then we'll put them onto two more pieces of of fabric. And I'll show you that in just a minute.

I'm going to cut the ears off this because I like my ears to be nice and stiff. Oops, I'm going to flip this over. Really, you don't have to flip the ears. They're symmetrical from side to side. Um, so you can just leave them.

And cut them out just like this. So, again, with the ears, I am just going to be cutting out. I'm just going to cut out two of them or trace out two of them. And then I'm going to use those two traced out ears to cut out two more kind of rough cuts Around. All right, whoops.

So what I mean by that is I'm going to Cut these out. And then placing the right sides together. That's going to be one ear. So, I have two layers right there, and then I'll do that for another one. Oops, I'm going to place the right sides together.

And just sort of rough cut around them, because we can trim this off later. We don't have to worry about being too precise there. All right. Oh, and I've got a cutout. Doubles of the arms are here as well.

So, let me cut out all these pieces. So, you're just going to cut around them? Leaving yourself about, you know, a quarter. Of an inch. They don't; it doesn't need to be perfect.

See how it’s not really perfect on mine? It doesn’t really matter. You're just going to basically cut around them. Then you're going to do the exact same. Thing with these arms; cut them out, cut a larger shape around them.

Put them with right sides together and cut them a second time. So, just in the interest of time, I'm going to switch over to these pre-cut pieces. Because I already cut them out because I knew with this project there are lots of little Details, and I want to make sure I can show you all the embroidery and everything at the end. So we've got the two backs, the two fronts. For arm pieces.

Okay, so these ones were traced, and I just Stacked them on top of another set, same process with the ears. I traced two of the ears, then cut a second layer for each of those ears. OK? And then we've got the little triangle for the Top of the head. All right.

OK, so let's get started with sewing. I am going to do a little rearranging here, so that. I've got to get rid of the pressing board I have. And we're going to start out by stitching. Prepping all the little pieces first is how I like to do it.

So I usually start with the arms, um, that's how it is listed in the directions, Um, and with the arms. Actually, I’m gonna pull this pattern piece in here just to show you something up close. So, this little dashed line shows where it goes. To be seamed into the body through that line Right there. So I added this bit just to make sure you would have extra, Extra seam allowance when we're adding that into the sides of the body.

Um, so when we cut around, you know, here, here, it is. We have cut around it. I'm going to show you the other side. Let's see. Here it is.

All right, here's where I traced. So, I made a little notch right here. Reminding me that this is from here on over to the side, This is all going to be hidden inside the body. And so when we're gonna do our stitching, we're gonna start here, and we're gonna stitch past This line here and all the way around here. And I find that I'm able to stitch a bit away here and still be able to turn it.

If you're worried, or using something a little thicker, or you're concerned You're not going to be able to turn your arm, so you can stop right here. I'm going to go; I'll turn from here. Then go over there and stop right here. OK? So basically, my path on the sewing machine is From here around the arm and over to here.

I'm just going to do a straight stitch. And, just you know, medium length I, I actually kind of err towards a slightly shorter stitch Length, especially if you're having any trouble going around those curves. Um. Just because you have a shorter stitch. Length gives you more ability to turn as you're working.

If it's longer, sometimes it looks a little bit faceted when you're trying to turn it Um, and you're not gonna get as smooth of a shape. Um, and actually for this arm, I'm gonna Start here, go and go in this direction instead of starting here and going this way. OK, so I'm gonna place that, and you can go ahead and put some pins in here. Especially if you're newer to sewing. I find that this doesn't really tend to slide.

Around, and it’s so stiff; it makes it really easy to sew. So I just stack them up and put them under the machine like that without any pins Part. So, I'm going to go ahead and start here. And there's no shame in going slow, especially if you're new to sewing. We're starting right here on a very small piece, and it can be a little difficult.

So if you feel like it’s easier, you can do it like this, where you’re just turning the hand Wheel, the flywheel on the side as you're working, you know. Especially if you're at a tricky point, and you feel like you need a little help, Uh, you know, you really need to slow down. But don't worry too much, as long as it's pretty close to that line. You should be fine if it’s, you know, not completely perfectly stitched. It's not gonna matter because, um, your fabric is going to have stretch, and I know you know we Took all of the stretch out of it, but that's just for the part while we're sewing it, so Being able to stretch later is going to, you know, that's going to really help us, um.

You know, fixing anything that got stitched a little bit wonky or a little bit funny, So don't, don't stress about it. OK, so we’ve stitched. This line right here, all the way around, here. And I'm gonna go ahead and trim off, leaving a little less than 0.25 inch or somewhere Around 0.25 of an inch or so. And I'm going to leave a little extra here, because it doesn't hurt to have a little extra.

There. That's just going to help us. And then I'm going to cut one little snip. Almost all the way into that small corner. That's going to help us when we're turning it, later.

All right, so I'm going to place mine. And actually, you can go ahead and just do the same step on the other arm as well. So just go ahead and stitch that, then you’re going to take both of your arms and You're going to stitch, um, wash them underwater. So you just kind of rinse them off and get them wet. Now it's up to you if you want to rinse a lot of that starch.

Away, or if you wanna leave a little bit for this part, for the arms, I usually just kind of rinse it for, you know, 30 seconds or so until it’s wet enough that you Can turn it because it’s so stiff once you stitch it, you’re not gonna be able to turn It fits very well because it's so small in circumference, then we'll turn our arm So it's the right side out. It is a little tricky to get this going, but once you get about half an inch or so turned, Then it gets easier. And you can use, like, a little, The end of a pencil to push it in there, help you turn it, as well, if that's, If you're having a hard time or chopstick, or something like that. Here we go, here we go. Here it comes.

All right, so you're gonna do that with both Arms. You're going to rinse them off. And then I take a little moment and just sort of. Mush it around like this with my fingers, and what I'm trying to do is get the seam. Allowances in there which we didn't trim super close, and the reason I don't like to trim super Close on these is because this is knit fabric and I don't want it to start to unravel.

Um, but you're gonna take a little minute to sort of shape it so it doesn't have any Like Angular. Edges, and that looks pretty good. It looks nice and round to me. And then you're going to go ahead and stuff it. And actually, what I usually do at this point, is I squeeze out any excess that I have.

I'm just going to grab my towel right here. I'm gonna just squeeze out any excess I have of the water, just to let it dry a bit Quicker. And then you're gonna go ahead and stuff the Arms. So this applies unless you have tiny little Pinky fingers like I do, which I can fit in all the way into these little arms, Um, you're probably gonna need a pencil you can use, like, uh, the eraser end of a pencil, you Could use a chopstick, um, anything that's kind of a small circumference like that you can use That to help you get the stuffing in. So, you just take a little bit at a time.

And push it down into the arm. And I definitely recommend doing this while it's wet, because if there's any starch in it, It's gonna dry, and you want it to dry into a nice, pleasing shape. So you want to basically be able to mold this with it. The stuffing is wet inside this material. OK?

And there’s my little arm. It looks really good. So, you do that for both arms, then sort. Set them aside while you work on the other pieces of your project. Of your little mouse.

So, the next thing we want to do. If we want to create the ears, you're going to pin this again if you wanted to, Um, but we're gonna be stitching on the ear We're gonna stitch from this point around to This point right here, don't worry about the dart. We're gonna deal with that in a minute. I know that seems backward, so just hang in there for a minute. And again, I'm just using a straight stitch.

And I do, um, I do want to go, you know, back and forth at the beginning when I start and stop On all of these pieces. All right, now we're going to deal with that little dart. So you don't worry, we didn't trace a dart on the back. We only want a dart on the front side. So, we're going to open this up here.

I'm going to put my finger in there. We're going to open this up, and we're going to fold it where that dart is. And we're going to take a little tiny stitch here to sew up that dart on the, That's the front of the ear. OK, so we have a little dart, and unlike the arms, you should be able to turn the ear right. Side out, even though it's stiffened, because there's a larger hole right here.

So go ahead and trim, trim down the edge of your ear to just a little bit, Maybe just a tiny bit, uh, less than 1/4 of an inch. Like that. And then we're gonna turn our ear right side Out. And this will. Kind of, you know, pulling on it this much might allow it to stretch just a little, But that's okay at this point.

And we're going to do another little stitch. Line that goes around the edge of our ear. What we're trying to do is create. You may not Be able to see the actual sewing, but you can probably see the little shadow it creates right Here, uh, around the outer edge of the ear, and that keeps the outer edge of the ear nice. And stiff, and it just makes a cute little kind of a little, I don't know, almost like a cartoon drawing there.

So we're just going to be stitching about a quarter of an inch away from the edge there. You could just eyeball that. It doesn't have to be perfect. So, whenever you want to reposition your ear and turn it, If you're a little newer to sewing, keep this in mind. Um, you always want to have your needle down in it, so you can use the, The hand wheel, the flywheel on the side, make sure the needle's down.

And then you can lift up the presser foot, and rotate it as you like because that needle is Going to keep it in its correct place. So it doesn’t slide to the side or something while you’re just trying to Turn it. OK, so here's our ear. The next thing we're going to do on the ear is we're going to fold the two sides inward. OK, so here's the little opening edge.

We're going to fold each one so that they meet up with the little seam where the dart is Like this. And then we're going to do a little stitch line. About 1/4 of an inch. Away from the edge, right there, you know. About where that line would be—it doesn't need to be perfect, so if you're like, I don't know Where my line is—just, you know, stitch it where it looks like this would be a cute ear shape, OK?

So you're just gonna do a little straight stitching here. And go nice and slow. Because this is one of those areas where there are a lot of layers. And if you're worried about it, you can certainly use it, You know, just use your hand to hand-crank it and go nice and slow. All right, so this is what our ear looks like right now.

I know that doesn’t look quite as cute and full, but that part will happen later when we Kind of open this up a little bit, like that. OK? So, you're going to do that for both ears. Get those both ready to go. And then the next thing you're going to do is prep the tail.

So, for me, let's see—where did I put my yarn? Here it is. I am using acrylic yarn, and I’m going to. And I don't want it to fray. I'm just imagining, You know, this will be around for a while.

If you're worried about it fraying, You can use a lighter to just sort of melt the ends. And kind of—I know this seems crazy to be touching that, You know, you don't want to get super melty and then touch it, because you might burn Yourself, but if you just wave it through a couple of times, then you can kind of pinch The end of that tail in; that'll keep it from raveling. If you’re using wool yarn. If you happen to have wool yarn, you can get your yarn a little wet, Um, near the tip of the tail, just a couple drops of water and roll it between your Hands until there's enough friction that it feels it. So this tail, just in case you guys are wondering, this is the larger guy.

I actually made a braid from three strands of wool yarn. I just sort of loosely braided it, then I rolled it between my hands, small and tiny, You know, a couple of drops of water, and then I felted it so you can't really see the braid very much anymore. And then I felted the tip of it so that all three of those strands would stay together. So just in case you’re using wool yarn, you can certainly do that to prep it a bit that it won't unravel. And then you're going to tie a knot in your yarn about three inches away.

From the tip. So here’s my melted tip. I'm going to tie a knot somewhere around here. Doesn't need to be perfect again; you're just kind of eyeballing it. And that is going to be that knot going to go just to the inside of the seam on body.

So, that one’s a little bit short. That ended up about 2.5 inches. But that's okay. We're gonna call it good. All right.

So now we've got all our little bits prepped. And we can go ahead and start putting together the front. So here's our two front pieces, and first, the thing we're going to do is we're going to Connect them with the little triangle on the head. So these pieces will be stitched like this, that little notch right there on the nose. Goes to the tip of the triangle.

So I'm going to go ahead and place that triangle behind here, and I'm going to poke my Pin through and make sure it's coming out. Through the tip right there. And just pin it in a couple of places to keep it in. In place. Like.

That, and then we're just gonna sew across there, stopping right at that notch. All right, now we're going to add the other side. To right here. So, I'm gonna place it this way. And I’m just using my pins to make sure those lines are lined up because we can’t really rely On the edges because we just sort of eyeballed that.

We are actually making sure we put one line right on top of the other and use Our pins to do that. OK, so we're going to start there and go to the end. All right, so now we have these pieces put together, and we're going to sew the rest of them Center front. So, to do that, I'm going to place my Finger in here, and fold this triangle. Actually, I think we’ll do it this way.

You just want to make sure, Yeah, that should be fine. Um, you can go ahead and just push this down. That you can fold this in half. And go ahead and throw a couple of pins in there. I usually just pin this where you see the notches, for the most part.

And then one more down here. Right on the end, so we get that lined up. OK, so we're just going to sew right here. So I'm in that little corner where the neck is. You’ll probably have to reposition it a couple of times because it’s very sharp Curve right there.

All right. And then I’m going to trim this just a bit. Bit, especially where the curve of the neck is. I'm going to make a couple clips there. Just.

Not all the way up to your line, but maybe About halfway through that, you know, 1/4 inch seam allowance. About halfway into it. And then, if anything seems like there’s a lot of excess, I'm just going to trim this down a little bit here. You can trim off anything that seems like there’s excess, and I don’t generally, When I'm making these, I don't generally clip except for little concave U-turns like that. I don’t generally take notches out of anything or anything like that when I’m clipping.

Turning. I'm really just kind of trimming it. Most part. I don't feel like you need to notch out Of here or anything like that. OK, so we have this kind of front-shaped piece, and that's all ready to go here.

Oh, let's add the ears, though. OK, so I'm going to grab some ears. I prepped both of these ahead of time, so I would make sure that I had everything ready to Go. So we're going to place the two ears here and We're going to sew them to the front. So the ears straddle this seam on each side of the head.

OK, so one ear is going to go here, and one ear is going to go here. So I'm going to open up this seam allowance like that and just sort of finger-press it My fingers. So, we have that open. Then I'm going to place this ear with the kind of opening on the ear. The front of the ear will go down so that it’s touching the surface right here That, OK?

And we're going to go ahead and steam that. In. You can go ahead and pin it if you like. I'm just gonna kind of hang on to it and stitch right across here. And again, this is, you know, a place where there is quite a bit of thickness.

Um, so, you know, definitely go nice and slow or if you're worried about it, You can certainly do this part by hand. But I chose a pretty thin fabric just so that, you know, I wouldn’t have to worry about the thickness of things. I really wanted to do this whole thing—pretty much the whole thing by machine. All right, so here’s the other ear that’s going to go where that little seam is. So we're going to open this up, split it open.

Oh, we have a question that I missed. Can you use a spray starch that can be purchased, or do you have to make it? You should be able to use spray starch. That should be just fine. I was just trying to cut down on materials people would need to buy for this project.

But if you already have that, you can go ahead, or, I mean, if you want to buy it, Of course you can, but, um, yeah, you can definitely use the spray starch like a, uh, a Pre-mixed, you know, commercial spray starch You can absolutely do that. OK, so I'm just gonna go ahead and stitch across here. For this year as well. All right, we have those two little ears already stitched in. Ready to go, and we're stitching the back pieces together now.

So, we're going to do the seam that goes along the center back. Which is right here along that curve, and right here—that's where we're going to add the tail. So, to add the tail, we're going to place our tail between the two pieces, and the knot is Going to the seam allowance side, OK? So the knot will be on the inside of the Body, and that's what's going to help keep this yarn from just pulling. Pulling out.

So, we just want to match that up as best we Can with that notch, both sides and pin that in place. I'm going to pull that down so the knot's a little closer. There we go. And I'm going to put a pin right here in the neck where it curves in. And then a pin up here.

Where we start. OK, so we're just going to go ahead and stitch. That seam there. All right, here is the back of our little mouse. OK?

Then we can go ahead and stitch the back The, actually, we're going to sew the arms to the back first. Looks like I didn't make my notches on this piece when I traced it. So I'm going to transfer them from the other side. So here’s my arm notches. There we go, so I'm gonna grab two arms that I made.

Last night here, um, by the way, I have stitched the arms while they were still Slightly damp. I have stitched them many times on my machine. But I would recommend you just wait until your arms are dry or at least almost completely dry. Um, before putting them in here, just because I don't want to recommend everybody putting wet things into their machine. That sounds like a bad idea, even though I do That’s so you know, do as I say, not as I do, kind of thing.

Um, so I'm going to place the arm right there, centering it as best as I can over those. Notches. It doesn't have to fit within those notches. But you know those notches are there just to kind of tell you where your arm should go And keep in mind the bottom of our arm, so this arm wasn't stitched in this direction Here. Um, I'm going to tuck those in a bit.

There we go. Um, that point right there is where it should be. Be hitting that seam allowance, you know, along the side of the body. So we're going to place that in the same spot, along the same line there. OK, so we have a line.

Right here on our arm, we're going to be stitching it right through. Um, to where the notches are. Just to get it all placed first, before sewing the body together. Um, the back together with the front. All right.

And then here is the other side. Placing it where those notches are. And then, of course, you can pin that if you like. I'm just going to kind of pinch it, hold it until I get it under the machine. All right, so now we've got our back stitched.

Together, we've got our arms and our little Tail, we've got the front with the ears, and now we can go ahead and put them together. So we're gonna place them together. I find it easier to just sort of push one in The other, like, let them kind of both cup in the same direction. Um. And I do actually—oops, I forgot we on the Back, we need to do these little darts first, so I'm gonna fold that, then just put that Under the machine, stitch a little here, and do a little on the other side as well for that Other dart, other dart, and you can sew that first, before you put your pieces together, if You like it.

I don't know why I like doing it this way. Better, for some reason, I just like to add the darts later. Um, but it really doesn't matter what order you do that in, just as long as you don't forget, Which is what I almost did just now. All right, here’s the other dart on the back of the head. Just gonna sew that up.

OK, so now we're going to put right sides together. And I always try to kind of split open all the seam allowances, so that you don't have quite as Much bulk, all in one spot. And I actually do use pins for this part of it for the most part. Um, that dart in the back of the head—there's one on each side that should line up in the Center of the ear. And make sure when you’re doing this that you have the tail tucked safely out of the way.

You don't want to get that caught in a seam. Also, the ears—you know, you just need to be mindful; make sure the ears are, You know, in the spot they should be pointing that way instead of being caught, Um, in your seam allowance, of course the arms as well. You just have to kind of you know, pin your way around and make sure That’s what all the little pieces are. Are where they're supposed to be, and nothing's gonna get caught by accident in a seam. And I start and stop, so there’s about 1.5 or so of it Opening between.

The bottom of the arm, then the foot. So, for example, You know, right here at the bottom of the arm, the underarm area. I'm going to start right here, go around, and then I'll stop after I come around that. Curve in the foot and leave a little space open right here, and that’s how we’ll Turn him, uh, right side out. So I'm making sure that ear is tucked out of the way.

And if you feel like this is it. You know, a lot of pins in here, and you don't want to deal with turning tight, tight corners On the sewing machine. You can certainly stitch this by hand. I would do very small stitches, or maybe go back and forth a couple of times if you're sewing by Hand, or you can baste it by hand; take all the pins out. And then run it through your machine.

That’s probably going to be a little more Sturdy, um. But I usually just leave the pins in, and go really slow so I don’t stab myself With pins as I'm going around the corners. I mean, you kind of have to go slow anyway, to make sure all the pieces are correct, Are pushed out of the way, and you don't have like an arm trying to come out or something Like that. OK, I'm gonna start right here under the Underarm section, and work my way around, and I'm gonna stop just above. Just after I turn around the bottom of that foot.

If you're worried you'll forget and you'll sew all the way around, Then, of course, you should just put a little notch there or something like that. That you know, you know, some visual cue to make you stop sewing. So whenever you're going over kind of a lumpy bit here, like, You know, we're going around that. That arm or going over that arm, you're gonna wanna go nice and slow, especially where the Ears are there because, you know, the most thickness is really where those ears are. So, just sew a little at a time, and keep checking to make sure everything is aligned Right spot.

I'm coming up on an ear here, so I'm going to Try to go nice and slow. And I'm just making sure that center seam is from sewing the back two pieces together Is split open, so we have. You know, thickness on each side. And here I am coming up on the next year. Here's my next arm coming up here.

So I'm just about done. I'm just going to try and come up with a Little on the foot. And backtech, and then we’re good. OK, so I always like to leave the seam allowance right here. That's where we'll be hand-sewing it, so I don't trim off any from there.

Um, I'm gonna trim off just a little bit of that extra arm seam allowance, And I usually end up trimming off just a little around the bottoms of the feet to help that Turn a little better. And give this, and I think. I normally don’t clip this around the bottoms of them. You know, this is underneath the body here because once we get this wet, It's going to be very stretchy. So, I'm not going to worry about that.

I don't normally clip that. Um, you could clip next to the neck on each side, but I don't normally do that either. If you're worried it won't stretch enough, but I, Uh, we’ll see how it looks when I actually I'm not gonna, I'm just going to trim it down a little bit. I'm not actually going to clip it, though. And I think this all seems pretty good.

All right, so to turn it, you got to get it wet because it’s really hard to turn Otherwise, and that will allow it to stretch out. So, you can go ahead and rinse it underwater. And what I do is I usually rinse it a bit, but I like it, I don't want to wash it completely, because I really like to keep a little bit of the starch Still in the ears. The ears just look extra cute. You can really mold them, um, with your fingers.

Once you want to get this all turned right side out and you get it stuffed and everything. See how easy it is to turn once you get this wet. It just makes a really big difference. OK, so here’s our little face, little ears. A little nose.

And all those little seam allowances, even though some of them were a bit bulky, It really doesn't matter once it's wet. It's very malleable, and it doesn't It seems to stretch; it really doesn't seem to need a lot of clipping or trimming, and Things like this. I, um, you know, when you turn these feet, Let's see if this happens on this one, if it looks like it's not very smooth. You know, it looks kind of unpleasing, just spend a little time and just mush. It back and forth and try to kind of get the seam allowance to lay nice and flat inside There, first, before you start to stuff it, OK?

So I get them all turned out. I check for any areas that may have, you know. Like something that didn’t get stitched right, you can always hand-sew little parts. Later, too, because you can't put it under your machine when it's all wet like this, Um, so I usually just, you know, if there was anything that didn't quite connect or something, You know, there was still maybe a little hole under the arm or something like that. You can just go ahead and hand-sew that later.

Min, all looks good. So, I'm just going to kind of squeeze this out. A little bit. I just get most of the moisture out. And then I can start stuffing it.

So as far as adding the eyes, you could, you know, if you’re using safety eyes, Oh, I didn't talk about the safety eyes earlier. Um, I'm using safety eyes for the eyes of my little mice. Um, so these are 6 millimeter safety eyes. I believe these were 10 millimeters. This, this, you know, this guy is bigger, so he's not in your pattern.

I mean, it is the same pattern, but like I didn't list the, The eye size separately for the larger one because that's something I just thought of. Um, to show you, I think these are 10, but the ornament that we’re making here, These are 6-millimeter safety eyes, and if you don't have them. Safety eyes—or, if you prefer, just use small tiny buttons; you could do that. You could also embroider your eyes, do some large French knots, or just some little stitches. Um, you can also use beads; beads work great, if you are using safety eyes though, like I am.

You're gonna want to place your safety eyes before you finish stuffing him. So I found that the first time I put my eyes in, there, I really liked to have a little bit of Stuffing in the head so I could decide where I wanted the eyes to be. If you want yours to look like mine, You know, same proportions, and that sort of thing. I put my eyes just below that seam line, you know, the, The sides of the body and the head or the top of the head. Just below the seam line on each side, and the eye sits about halfway between where the ear is.

Seamed at the very front of the nose. Okay, so that’s like halfway distance. Um, so that's where I'm going to place this one, but just know, You know, you can move around the eyes to a different spot. It'll give them a different personality. You know, if you were making a bunch of these little mice, It might be kind of fun to put them in different spots and just see what you like.

Better, um, you know, or just have a variety, so that it'll make them all look really different. OK, so I’m aiming just below the seam and halfway between the ear and the nose. So that's right here. And, because I'm using this, you know, kind of a, uh, lightweight, A thinner, thinner yarn knit sweater, you do have to sort of work the, um End of the safety eye in; now I have it pressed against my finger. My middle finger is inside him, and I can kind of turn it and see.

Now there are some strands in the way, and you just can kind of loosen those up and try not to Break them. And just kind of, you know. Place the tip of that safety eye through. So now I didn’t break any strands. If you did end up breaking strands, you can wait until he dries.

Add a little tiny dab of, uh, glue on the back, a little bit of super glue. Just to make sure it doesn't run or cause a lurch. Hole, and then I'm going to put the safety eye backing on, and the safety eye backing. You're going to put this in sort of a bell shaped back, and it's sitting with the largest Circumference touching my finger right now. That largest circumference will be next to the fabric.

So, you just push it on. Until it's all the way on. And there’s our little eye; then I’m going to do another eye on the opposite side, Trying to get it into the same place. OK, so it looks about the same as this one. That'll probably be pretty good.

All right, so I have the tip of the eye pressing against my finger. And then we just sort of have to sort out these little threads. So, they go on one side or the other of that backing or the post. Sorry, the position of the safety eye. And just kind of help them along.

And having this, doing this when it’s wet, it allows your yarn to stretch out a bit A bit more. It seems like it's easier to put on. OK, so I'm gonna place the backing on here. All right. Okay, so now we Have a little eye on each side, and we're going to go ahead and stuff him.

So I always start with the areas that are furthest away. So I'm going to place this all the way up into the head. And when you do this, you know, you don't want to put so much in there that you really stretch Everything out. Keep in mind this is actually wet, and so. It's not going to, you know, it's going to stretch more than if it were dry, And so, you don't want to stretch it too much, but you don't, You know, you just want to make sure you're putting enough in there to get it to be the Right shape.

Now, when I do this, you can see this eye is Doing this weird thing where it’s making a bump Above here. That's because I'm pushing the pupil upward and you can just sort of pull the eye Out and push it down into that. Just kind of make a little spot for it in the stuffing, like that. When you see that happening Don't be worried if he looks a little weird at first because they always do. But you just have to; this is the part where you kinda have to feel like a sculptor a little bit You just kinda put some stuff in there, and you roll it, roll it around, and mush it in.

Place that you want it to be in. So, you remember how I told you at the beginning I was so glad we have these live Events for teaching because it's easy; it's much easier to, um. Explain things when I can just show you. 'Cause I really couldn't have written that, like, Oh, you just mushed the head like this. See?

All right, so we want to make sure we're Getting enough stuffing in the tip of the nose. And in the head, we're just kind of shaping it with our hands to give it the shape we want It is kind of like this now. Sticking out funny here, so we're gonna add a little bit of stuffing in there. In the back of the head. And that looks a little better.

But you really have to take your time with this stuff. Make sure that you're You know, really kind of pushing it into the shape that you want it to be in. Usually, I kind of do this to the nose a little. I kind of like it when the nose turns up just a little bit. And then, the next thing after I get the head is I like to go down into the feet.

Make sure that I get them in there, kind of, roll them back and forth when they get a little Too stretched out. And then we're going to stuff it. Middle here. The belly; make sure to get some in. Neck so it doesn't have a super floppy neck, even though we're gonna be hanging him From the top of his head as an ornament, you know, especially if you wanted to just make a Little stuffed animal you’d want to make sure of.

You're giving him enough stuffing on the top of his neck so that he can hold his head up Head up. And if it gets too stretched out, you kinda Have to squish them a little bit there. And then I like to push my thumbs into ears while making sort of a cup shape. To give his ears that shape, you can do that later on when he starts to dry a little bit. Just to kind of block them because when he starts to dry, he's gonna have a little residual Starch is in him, and it will help keep all the shapes that you're making.

If you wash out all of the starch, you still need to shape it with your hands. Um, and then you're just basically relying on the shape that he's in to, you know, stay in That shape and it, it’ll be just fine. You don’t have to worry, like, Oh, did I wash out too much starch? You know, don't worry about that. But having a little extra starch in your ears is Helpful, I think, you know, to keep those ears able to be shaped.

OK, so I am going to be stitching up this little side seam here. So, I've got a double-stranded, regular all-purpose thread here running through a Sewing needle, and I'm just going to tie a nice knot, not in the bottom. And then I'm going to start. I'll start down here at the foot. So, I'm going to come out a little ways.

From where I want that seam to be, and the reason I do this is to ensure. As I gently pull on that, I have a little bit of space before the sewing actually needs To be functional so I could do a few little backstitches here, and that's going to Keep our thread from slipping out. And then it can be nice and anchored by the time we actually start. You know, sewing this together. So I'm just going to do a slip stitch between the two edges.

And I just want to make sure that foot stays stuffed as I go. So, luckily, when you know, if you're using fabric that has knit on one side and Pearl on the other, and if that makes no sense to you, That's OK. But if it looks smooth with all those little V's on one side and bumpy on the other, then it’s going to want to curl in like this, And that's actually beneficial because that folded edge is where you're going to slip your needle through. So you're going to grab just a little bit of This side with your needle. Take a very small stitch.

And then I grab a little bit of this side. Grab a little bit of this side. And grab a little bit from this side. You can do this all at once by grabbing a Little here, grabbing a little here, grabbing Little here, Weaving it back and forth just to do a little slip stitch seam here. And it might seem weird that I'm sewing through a damp fabric.

Um, but I actually prefer to do it this way, get it all seamed up, then allow it to dry. Because, uh, once it dries, that starch kind of stiffens it just a little bit, and it's going to Make, um, you know, if you do the stitching first like this, Then you can really shape it. It's nice and smooth. Now I'm going back down the same path. I like to do this twice.

Just to make sure it stays. It also straightens out the sort of zigzagging if you go, um. Kind of take the opposite path with your needle, if that makes sense. And that helps straighten out the zigzagging that happens. There are actually some other seams you can do here that are a bit more advanced, Um.

To do a very undetectable slip-stitch seam. Maybe we can do that in another video. This one is just a little bit simpler, so I chose it for this project. All right. And then, I'm going to use my needle to just Make sure that the stuffing stays down on foot.

I'm just kind of gripping. Like I'm using my needle to pull the stuffing down, just to make sure it stays exactly there. OK, so I'm going to do a little French knot right here because I don't trust mine To just stay in place. So I'm actually knotting it to my fabric. Right here.

And then I'm going to weave it in and out. A little bit more so I can leave a longer tail. I don't like cutting my knot or cutting my Thread tails right next to the knot, if I help it. All right, so he’s all stitched up. And super cute, um, you can do any sort of final shaping, then just allow him to dry.

And then you can finish up with the embroidery and the scarf. So, let's do that. So this guy over here, I made him yesterday, he's already nice and dry, And I can show you how to do the embroidery. We've got some more hellos and thank you guys for your compliments. Hi from Arlene and Isaiah!

Isaiah, I’m not sure if I’m saying your name right. Right. I'm sorry. And yeah, hi to everybody who's, uh, popping in here. We've got a hel-uh here from San Diego.

Oh, let's see. Oh, it looks like we've got the same question from Deborah. I don't know if, um, you missed that, but you can absolutely just use a regular purchase Spray starch instead of making your own. OK, so I've got a double strand of this, whatever color you're going to use for nose, And I'm going to come in from underneath the chin here. So that I have a nice, long tail inside of his head.

And I'm going to pop out just to one side of this little, This, basically, we're focusing on this little tiny triangle at the tip of the nose here. So I'm going to pop out right there, right along the seam. And I'm going to pull this in until there's just a little bit left. We're just going to leave that hanging out there for a minute. And then I'm going to take a couple of small stitches back and forth.

On the inside here: This is just to anchor our Embroidery floss in place. And we're going to cover this up in a minute when we start stitching, um, on the top. So we're just kind of going back and forth, to make sure that nothing's going wrong. Sliding out. Okay.

So now we're going to make a few stitches. I'm going to come a little further out, so we Can cover this up. There we go. OK, so I'm going to make a few stitches. Across the top of his nose, see how there’s those little tiny stitches.

I just want to make sure I’m covering those up as well when I do this. So take your time when you do the embroidery because it really pays off in the end. You know, it really does help. If you take your time and go nice and slow, doing really neat little stitches, It does make a difference. All right, I'm going to do just one more stitch, and then I'll come out.

Of the chin. Let's make sure those are nice and straight. There we go. OK, so I’m going to just try to do a little Stitch here in the groove, so that way I can actually leave a nice Long tail. I'm going to come out here along this.

The reason I like to go in and out of seams is because it's thicker there and has more Layers. There's a higher chance you'll go, Um. You know, snag a couple of layers of fabric. There, and that's going to keep it from pulling out. There, we can kind of pull on that and make that disappear into that seam.

I'm going to cut off this beginning yarn tail. I'm gonna cut it pretty close to the chin, make it disappear in there. The same thing applies here. Cut it off pretty close to the body. And then I’m using that to pull it to the inside.

All right, and now we're going to use black. And I'm just going to use this single-stranded one here. So, again, I’m going to come in from underneath the chin. And I'm going to pop up. Somewhere I know I'm going to cover this up.

So I'm going to have a little stripe right underneath the bridge of his nose. So that's where I'm coming out, right at the tip there. OK. And I'm going to stop a couple inches before That, uh, disappears. And I'm going to take a couple of small stitches in here.

Just kind of underneath the edge of the nose, just to kind of anchor this in place. And I'm gonna come out over here. Along one side. Off his nose. This is, I'm just gonna be making, I'm getting my needle ready to make a little horizontal stitch right below that Peach Line, basically.

So, right here. I'm going back in right here. And I'm going to come out right in the middle, right along that seam. OK, so. There's the bottom outline of his nose, then we'll come straight down here.

To make that into just a little stitch, a vertical stitch, And then I’m going to come out over to the side, and this is going to create a little smile line. Here. So there's that middle line, and then we're Going to go back in directly. So, this point should be about the same, about the same point, Mirroring that. And then I'm going to come out.

At the very bottom of that line. And make sure when you're pulling this, that this strand is under your needle. So, when I'm pulling this, I'll slow down here so you can see what I mean. This strand is going to catch that loop. So, that is what makes it into that little V shape.

And then I'm going to go in just below to catch it. And I'm going to come up above to make a little eyebrow over here. Above the eye. And this is. Just to make a cute little line.

That really helps with the expression. I mean, You can leave it without the eyebrows, but I really like these little eyebrows. So, I'm straddling over it. Here’s the seam line. And I'm just kind of going an equal distance from above the seam line to below it.

And then I'm going to come over to the other side of, Like above his other eye. And the eyebrows have a lot to do with expression, so the angle you place them at. How far they are away from the eye, all of those things will create, You know, different expressions. You know, because if his eyebrows went down like this, He would look like an angry little guy. So that’s something to play with if you’re into making toys and want to try something different Expression, you know, tilting the eyebrows really.

You know, it changes their expression drastically. That looks pretty good. Oh, I just realized I didn't do the little stitching between his eyes. OK, I'm going to do that with this embroidery floss. So normally, before I embroider the face, I do a little bit of stitching right here to bring his Eyes, further in.

So I normally do that with a thread that matches, uh, The. That matches the mouse, but since I already Have this thread going. Let's see if I can get it to come out. Actually, you know what? I'm gonna do it with the correct color thread.

Because, um, I just feel like it’s going to be easier to show you how you would do it, because Would remember to do that before this point. But if you, If you don't, that's OK. It still works at this point. So I'm gonna just do a couple stitches. A few little stitches, kind of in the...

Ditch here. Just trying to catch some threads and make Make sure that this is not going to pull out, and that the eyebrows won't come out. All right, we'll go back to this. White thread here. Oops, we can go ahead and cut off that little bit.

So, this is optional. I mean, obviously, he's still cute without it. Um, but I do—I really do like to add these sort of little shaping in the Face between the eyes. So I want to show you how to do that. I'm going to come in from under here.

You can come in from really any seam. You're just going to want to anchor it. Here, I'm coming out in the face seam, right there. I'm hoping that knot will pop to the inside. All right.

Okay, so we're going to come out. I'm going to go back in and pop out right in front of this eye. So, there is actually a picture in your download because I was worried this might Be a little hard to see. Um, so I'm taking a stitch right in front of the eye here. And then I'm going to go through his head.

And come out right in front of the other eye. Kind of trying to grab some of that bulk from the seam allowance. OK, so now we have a thread connected, right? Through the head, And when I pull on that, it’s going to pull the eyes inward just a tiny bit and make Like a little dimple there on his face. See how that makes the eyes look like they’re looking forward now, as opposed to before.

Um, kind of looking out toward the side now This is something that, you know, most might not Have, but it makes it look very cute and adorable to kind of tilt those eyes inward. That. You're basically making a dimple here and here. By connecting the thread tightly between them, if that makes sense, just like that. OK, so I'm going to come out here.

And it looks like we’re pretty much out of, out of. Uh, time here, but I want to talk a bit about the hanging loop and the scarf just Really quickly, and then I'll let you guys go. Looks like we may have another question here. Oh. I can—uh, uh, wow, you are very skillful.

I—I can't do it. I can imagine how my poor mouse looks because I’ve never trained in sewing. You know what? You definitely can. You can definitely give it a try.

You’d be surprised how cute things look. And you can always, with sewing, clip your thread, pull it out, and try. Again. And with this project, you know, at least the Investment in IT is not that great, you know, the, The sewing—or I'm sorry, the sweater—is very inexpensive, so the materials don’t really cost All that much? All right, so here we have this little guy.

Um, like I said before, you’re gonna have a little strip of polar fleece, and you’re gonna Cut fringe into the ends. There's a little weird marking on my piece, but that's okay. We're going to cut it anyway. So, we're just cutting some little fringy bits to be the ends of them. Of the, uh, scarf.

Like that. And they don't have to be perfect. Really. Just snip a few times—maybe 4 or 5 times. Each end.

Like that, so you get a little fringe. Going, and then you can just tie it on. There's a little neck. So cute. Um, and then, as far as the loop goes, Top, you can use whatever you have, um, whether it’s a, A ribbon, a thin ribbon, a cord, and if you have a needle with a larger eye, You can use that to poke through your sweater fabric.

Um, another thing, though, too, and I guess I should have mentioned this before when I was Putting the pieces together, if you have a wider ribbon, You can actually catch it in the seam line when you're putting the back of the body together With the front of the body. You can catch it right on that seam. Be done, or you can catch it while doing the two backs and sewing them together. You can catch it right here. Let me make sure that balance is okay.

Yeah, that'll balance just fine. Um, if you put the ribbon just behind where that seam is, now the reason I chose not to do That in this project is because I was a little worried that that ribbon is gonna get Caught in the seam, and there were already things to look out for, like the ears, The arms and things like that, and I just figured that would be just another layer of Things you don't need to worry about, and doing this with a small needle is easy. To just kind of use a needle to poke it through his head. And then just tie a little knot, and then you can call it good. All right, so here’s our little twin mouse.

Got some little brothers here. Alright, let me just make sure I didn't miss anything. All right, looks like I answered all your questions, I hope. All right, well thank you all so much for being here. I hope that you enjoy this project and make some super-cute little mice for the holiday Season.

Thanks for joining me, everyone. Bye, everybody.