Plush Noah's Ark Toy Set from a Fabric Panel

Between homeschooling my 3 big kids, chasing after an almost 2yr old, a baby about to arrive + running my fabric shop, the past couple months were really short on crafting time.  I still wanted to do some handmade gifts at Christmas, so I used this Noah's Ark Soft Toy Set fabric panel, which I carry in my shop, to make a fun play set for my small guy.  

I loved how it came with a Noah figure & a nice assortment of animals & the directions are printed right on the panel so you just cut, sew and stuff.  Sew easy!



  It's also nice that the finished ark has pockets on both sides for a place to store all the figures and make play more fun.  



It seemed like the perfect handmade Christmas gift for my not quite two year old - especially as I didn't have the energy to do anything time consuming or complicated. 



 Despite sewing for 10+yrs, this was the first time I'd ever sewn a plush toy from a panel.  I wanted to see just how easy it would be to put together.

Cutting out all the pieces is straightforward.  I didn't prewash it since I didn't want things to shrink.  It can be hand or delicate machine washed when done.  The seam allowance is included in the pieces.  The next step is hemming the ark pocket pieces by folding, pressing and then stitching the top edges to the wrong side:

These get basted to the ark side pieces along the sides & bottom.  There are markings to make matching them up easy:

Then the top edges of the ark sides are pinned & stitched together, starting & stopping where the pocket edges are:

The bottom gusset piece gets added there to give the dimension for the ark:

There are markings at the bottom to show where to leave a gap for turning:

All the seam allowances should get trimmed down and clipped near the curves.  I find using pinking shears makes this easy to do in one step:

After turning right side out, it's time to stuff with polyfill.  It's key to stuff with small amounts at a time and really pushing into the curves and corners to give it a good shape.  

The figures are easy to do - stitching right along their printed designs gives a nice smooth finish when turned right side out & are stuffed just like the ark:

The gaps get pinned & slip stitched closed by hand:

It was pretty quick to make and it turned out just as expected.  It's easy enough for a beginner, which is a real plus.  I used some of my Multi Sky Cloud fabric & some blue velour to make a fun playscape back drop too:

Sew cute & easy to make too!