Making A Snake, Pt 2

Last week, I blogged about making a furry purple snake using a Dollar Tree fake fur "boa". Shortly after that, I started playing around with the fun scarves I picked up at Dollar Tree, and found a few other ways to make them.

Fun Stuffed Snake

You'll Need:
Knit Scarf from Dollar Tree
Fleece or Felt
Felt Scraps
Batting or Stuffing- Heck, if you went really frugal, Dollar Store cotton balls would work!
Sewing Machine
Hand Sewing Needle & Thread
Jingle Bells (if you want a Rattle Snake)
Assorted Items to Decorate With- rhinestones, beads, tulle, felt shapes, ribbon, buttons, etc.

1. Cut your scarf in half. Measure it on a length of fleece or felt, and cut a second section out of your secondary fabric. You can use the scarf for both pieces, but the fabric is very stretchy, and in my tries, the snakes came out easier with fleece as the bottom side.
2. Using red or pink felt, cut a forked tongue. Pin your snake together, with the tongue along the inside, so that when it is turned right side out, it will stick out from the mouth.
3. Sew the material together in a tube. Of my tries, I found it easier to sew the mouth shut first, not the tail.
4. Turn the snake right side out, and smooth it out. Note in the photo below, I did not start with the mouth. In the photo below it, you'll see that this was a problem when it came to sewing it back up, and it did not turn out great.
5. Stuff the snake gently. The fabric will stretch, so you can very easily get your hand all the way down to the mouth. Do not over stuff, or the snake comes out very stiff.
6. Smooth the batting down, then tie the tail section off, so there is a few inches of "tail" tied off like a pony tail, nice and tight.
7. Trim down the excess top fabric to about half the length of the excess bottom fabric. Add 2-3 bells, if you are using them. Now, tug the bottom fabric around, and wind it around itself to cover the top fabric completely. This will form your tail section. You'll want it nice and pointy.
8. Using your regular needle & thread, start stitching the edges closed, until you have a nice pointy tail.
9. Optional! I then used my needle & thread to create ridges. First, pull the needle through the section, then wrap the thread around the tail in that section 2-3 times, pulling it nice and tight, before sewing through the fabric again. Knot it off, and repeat further up the tail, until it has enough ridges for you.
10. Hand sew buttons or fabric scraps into place for the eyes of the snake, tying off tightly.

These are just adorable little snuggly snakes (this coming from a woman who can not stand snakes!). I've made 4 of them now, each different than the last, and I love each of them.

For one of them, I used both black/purple & black/hot pink scarves, and made it "Punk" by adding a skull necklace, and a hot pink tutu. I thought it was cute! I'm giving this one to one of our nieces, along with matching arm warmers for Christmas.


There are so many ways to embellish these little guys! Two of my own kids have asked for them for Christmas now, so I have two set aside for them!