Stuffed Toy Snake Tutorial

September 15, 2011
In: Sewing

When we were in London, many years ago, we bought a stuffed snake. Years later, both our children love it and fight often over who gets to play with it. When my daughter went to day care, and I made her a snake to take with her. So, of course, my son wanted one too.

When I made hers, I still had a small amount of Etsuko Furuya Glasses fabric in pink (from our local fabric shop budulina), so I decided to incorporate that in the design – her snake got glasses. When I made the manly version (also with fabrics from budulina) I didn’t have any left, so I drew on plain eyes.

All the sizes given in this tutorial are appropriate for fitting a pair of glasses on the snake’s head, but of course – you can make it any size you want!

Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy with Etsuko Furuya Glasses Fabric in Pink

Materials

  • Fabric scraps at least 22cm wide and 5cm long.
  • Etsuko Furuya Glasses fabric in color of your choice (if you want glasses)
  • A small amount of ribbon for the tongue.
  • A lot of fiberfill stuffing (this is a big toy).

Instructions

  1. Print out the pattern pieces for the head and mouth, here. Make sure you set the printer page scaling to “None” to get the correct sizes. You can verify by measuring the 1X1 square.

  2. Cut out 2 head pieces and two mouth pieces. Cut as many pieces as you like for the body, they should all be 22cm wide, but can be any length you want. Cut a piece of ribbon approximately 8 cm long. Cut out an inverted triangle from the end to get a forked tongue.

    Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy
  3. Place both mouth pieces together, fronts facing, with the tongue between them, pin and sew the straight edge (where the tongue is).

    Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy
  4. Open the mouth and lay it flat. Take one of the head pieces and line it up with one of the mouth pieces, fronts facing. Being careful not to stitch over the tongue while sewing. Sew around the curved edge. Repeat with the other piece.

    Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy

    Optional: Sew or embroider eyes on one of the head pieces. Personally, I think the version with the glasses doesn’t need it, and for the other version I was too lazy, so I used a fabric marker to draw on two eyes and a nose. I don’t think my son will care.

  5. Fold the mouth so it is closed (still inside out) and the head pieces are lined up. Sew the head pieces’ straight edges together on both sides.

  6. Sew all the body pieces together, along the 22 cm edge, arranging them as you choose. I decided to make a black border between each two pieces in the boy version, but it’s really not necessary. Press the seams open.

    Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy
  7. Fold the body in half, fronts facing. Decide which end will be the tail, and mark a diagonal line to taper in the end of the tail. Sew about half way, starting from the end opposite the tail. Backstitch to secure. Leave a gap (for stuffing and turning inside out) and continue sewing to the end (following the line you marked for the tail).

    Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy
  8. Place the head (still inside out) inside the body, right sides together. Line up the head so that the body seam is in the middle of the bottom head piece (we want the seam to show as little as possible…). Sew around the head. This part is a little tricky, and I could not get a good picture of it. Sorry. Turn the snake inside out through the gap, stuff and sew the gap closed using a slip stitch.

    Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy

Be careful, it might bite!

I ran out of fiberfill in the middle, so excuse the work-in-progress pictures…

Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy

I made this one a few months ago, I guess that’s why I didn’t have enough fiberfill left!

Fabric Stuffed Snake Toy

[This tutorial is free for commercial use. Please read the Terms & Conditions for further details.]

Comments:

  1. Susie Tippit

    Thank you for the pattern, I plan to make a weighted snake for my autistic grandson, I have looked at several and this seems to be the most fun