Up & Down Penguin {pattern and tutorial}

Today I have a tutorial for you to make the lovable penguin based on the book Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers.

After falling in love with the story, I started to look at the illustrations a little closer and realized that it was totally something I could recreate. The penguin is simple enough, and cute enough, that it was worth the effort to try.

And I am so happy I did! The pattern, which can be found HERE, is for a KNIT version. in other words, I did not try it with a non-stretch fabric - but rather made it from a bunch of old T Shirts and scrap fabric I had lying around.



Want to make your own Up & Down Penguin? Here is what you need to do...

First, print out the pattern which I linked to above.  Once you have all the pieces cut out...


I added a little embroidery stitching, to give it a more handmade effect.  In the illustrations, there was a lot of gray - so I thought the embroidery would pick up on that.


Simple, but not perfect.


You can of course do buttons for the eyes, but I was giving this to my infant - and I worry about him biting one off and choking on it...hence, embroidery.




Make the cut slit the same size, or just a hair smaller, than the beak.




You may want to add a bit of stuffing to the beak now, as it is harder to do later.








Notice how the arm seams are at a 90 degree angle from the side seam.




Smoosh that sucker down!








You have to really fluff the penguin's stuffing to make it not lumpy (since we used T Shirt fabric).  The knit doesn't hide the lumps as well as regular woven cotton.




And there you have it!  The adorable Up & Down penguin!  Pretty simple, right?  Use the printable I put in yesterday post and attach it as a gift for the little man or lady in your life...

Later on this week I will show you how to make the helmet so that your Penguin can fly :).



Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time...

Happy Sewing!



Linking up to: Brassy Apple Make it MondaysMade by You Monday at Skip to My Lou