Craft Daft -- Sock Monster Edition

The picture below was once my Whatsapp profile picture for quite some time. It often invited lots of questions like:
"What's that you're holding?"
"Why are you holding socks to your face?"
"Are those socks?"
"What are you up to this time?"

So guess what I was doing with these socks a while back?




After my last arty farty session of acrylic painting at my bimbo sister Gera's place, I was itching for another arty farty weekend. It so happened that bimbo Zanne and Gera had planned to do some sock craft one Saturday and invited me along. I had wanted to paint but seeing how enthusiastic they were about sock craft, I started googling "sock craft" which got me excited too!

"I can't sew for nuts!" said I.
"I can't sew too," quipped Zanne, "but we have Gera!"

Gera is my most artistic and creative friend ever and since she was able to guide a total noob in acrylic painting, I felt very safe to be guided by her in sock craft. I am but a craft daft.


I saw so many cute sock animal that I wondered if I should make a puppy dog, an innocent bunny, a funky monkey or a chubby owl. I even thought of making a cat but felt that the ears could be too much work. I'm after all, a very lazy person and wanted something simple to make.


[Image Source: dog ; bunny ; monkey ; owl]


Perhaps if I were that skilled, I could make a Totoro! The ears seemed easy peasy to form from socks. However when I thought of the extra felt material I needed for the features, I decided to forgo that. I wanted something really simple from just socks and thread.


[Image Source: Totoro]


Well, if my craft really turned our ugly, I would tell everyone I was making a monster. They seemed hard to go wrong.


[Image source]


Monsters of all shapes and sizes and varying degree of monstrosity...


[Image source]


Animal-like monsters in hybrid and mutated animals...


[Image source]


We started our day with a trip to Daiso to get our craft materials.
[Aside: I should have worn my glasses too!]




The materials we used for our sock toy:
- a pair of socks (we would need both for 1 toy)
- special stuffing for soft toys (cotton wool would do too)
- buttons, felt cloth, yarn and any other material for the features
- needle and thread to sew
- a pair of scissors




Bimbos being bimbos, we had to pose with our soft furry little socks before we transformed them into something amazing!




To make the legs, we cut the bottom of the sock into 2.




Like this...




After that, we sewed the inner part of the legs to close the opening, one leg at a time.




The socks that we bought from Daiso were really soft and fluffy that no matter what colour thread we used, the stitches were not visible at all. Really good for craft daft like me.




Zanne was appalled at my slow speed.




After sewing, we got cute legs like this.




After stuffing the legs and body with enough stuffing, we sewed the opening at the top to close it up. While sewing the opening, we sewed the shape of the ears too.

Making the ears was a little tricky for all of us as we still did not know what creature we were making at that time. I had wanted to sew pointy cat ears but no matter how I stitched, I ended up with rounded edges.




After stitching the head close, we started to sew or glue the facial features. Being very random people, we were still clueless about the creature we were making. However as we worked around with the materials we bought, we slowly came up with our creatures. With the rounded ears, I decided that I would make a hybrid monster mouse. Gera and Zanne made long pointy ears and decided theirs would be monsters.




After sewing the facial features, we used the other pair of socks to make the arms. The arms were done in a similar fashion as the legs, only that we had to cut those cloth out, stuff them and sew them onto the body.




This other sock could also be used as spare materials for the ear parts or any other parts. It all depended on how we wanted our toy to look like.




Presenting Brunnie the monster (by Gera), Prinkie the monster (by Zanne) and Dinkie the Mousasaurus (by Jo). Gera helped to christened my monster "Mousasaurus" for she felt that it looked like a monster mouse-- a lab experiment gone wrong resulting in a mutated lab rat.




Our monster sock toys are branded with our initials on their butts and leg.




Presenting Dinkie with his hat on and off.




Presenting Prinkie also with hat on and off. The reason why Zanne and my monsters had hats was because we could not bear to see the extra bits of socks go to waste.




Zanne was really glad that she made Prinkie with such long arms. It was fun to swing him around with arms like that.




Darn... I should have made long arms for Dinkie too. There was nothing I could do except to hug him.




Gera with Brunnie. It is a he. It is a she. Well, we were all confused by that ribbon too.




You could tell how happy we were with our finished products!






Gera's mum was so cute to help us snap a picture of this. She preferred our paintings to these sock toys. Hahaha... Only quirky people like us would appreciate quirky ugly toys like the ones we made.




When the humans weren't around, our monsters enjoyed chilling on the sofa.




After a whole day of craft, we had Roti Prata for dinner.




Dinkie the Mousasaurus was squeaking and talking to Mickey Mouse during dinner.




Dinkie had been sitting on the side of my bed and sometimes hidden in my wardrobe. Soon, I realised that I was treating him too unkindly. Dinkie badly needed a new home. I thought of gifting one of my pal pal's daughter with Dinkie as she is the quirky kind who would appreciate such quirky toy. However, I was worried that upon presenting her with the toy, there would be awkward silence followed by the cawing of crows flying across. Hence, I decided to sound her out first. I was ecstatic when she graciously accepted my gift over Whatsapp. Dinkie would have a new home!










Disclaimer: All photos that day were taken using mine and Gera's handphone camera and hence the vertical grains, dimness and sometimes overly edited blurry effect which looked better on our phones than when blown up onto the computer.





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