Making Sock Monkeys

Making sock monkeys is actually quite easy. It does take a bit of time because of the stuffing and hand sewing involved but easy enough to sit down and watch a movie once you've got the basic parts zipped up.

Ingredients:
2 socks
scizzors
sewing machine (could hand sew the whole thing, the machine just helps - and strengthens the limbs)
thread
needle
buttons or something for eyes
stuffing

One pair of socks

Cut  1 sock in half up to heal

Cutting the Second Sock (left)

Cutting:
The first sock is used to make the body with legs and a little toque (first picture/sock on right)
Use the second sock to make all the other pieces (sock on left):
1. Arms- cut the sock down the middle to the top of the heal (ankle) and snip off from the sock.
2. Mouth- cut around the edge of the heal, leaving a small part of the grey if you are using a traditional style wool sock.
3. Tail- Make a long cut along the edge of the foot of the sock up to the ankle (see bottom right of the sock in the left of the picture.
4. Ears- Cut two round shapes with one flat side from what is left (bottom left of the left sock).

For the top of the head I gather around the top of grey part and tighten then flip over the top to make a hat.

Sewing:
I sew the legs, arms, tail and sometimes the ears inside out with the machine then flip them right side out to stuff (using a knitting needle) and to hand sew parts to the body. The mouth is perhaps the only tricky part- I sew around the edges of the heal, gather by pulling the string just so it puckers and the edges come in and stuff it before sewing it onto the mouth.

I added a smile to this guy before remembering he still needed a mouth!

Getting Creative:
Remember this is not an exact science, there are lots of ways you can dress up and do your monkeys- you can leave off the mouth and cut the ears as triangles to make kittens too.