Easter Avenue Company: Lowly Worm Tutorial

My nephew, Sebastian, had a Richard Scarry party for his 2nd birthday. So when my sister-in-law asked me to make a Lowly Worm, I was totally on board!

I love when there's a theme and everything ties together.

And who's cuter than Lowly Worm??

Since this guy came out so cute (and was easy to make)...

I thought I'd show you how it's done.

SUPPLIES

1 quarter yard of cotton fabric for each color:

beige
blue
green
black

1 sheet of felt for each color:

dark green
light green
yellow
white
red

white paint pen

black Sharpie

pencil

chalk

large paper 12" x 20" (to create your pattern)

polyester fiber fill

scissors

needle and thread

sewing machine

Here's a pic of the fabrics and felt. I wasn't sure what I'd be using so I bought it all.

This is where you need some (minimal) drawing skills. I looked at pics of Lowly online and sketched my own. But if you want, you could probably enlarge this pic, print it out, and use it as a template. The paper is 12" x 20".

I sketched in pencil first, and when I was happy with the shape, I traced it with a Sharpie.

I created a dotted line a 1/2" outside the perimeter of my drawing

and cut on the dotted line.

Draw your separating lines. Head, shirt, pant(s), shoe...

I drew the neckline a little high and adjusted for it later on the fabric.

You'll see what I mean.

I cut strips of fabric a little larger than my template (for seam allowance) and sewed them together (beige, blue, green, & black). I double stitched every seam on this guy to make sure he could withstand a two year old.

Fold in half, right sides together, matching up your seams.

This part is a little funky. My seams and my template lines didn't match up perfectly so I traced Lowly's head, slid the template down, traced a little more,

and so on until the template was fully traced. I just judged where his clothes shirt/pants/shoe would start and stop.

It worked out that my fabric Lowly was larger than my template and I was fine with that.

When I removed the template, I realized that his neck wasn't long enough, so I just raised it a bit.

I made mistakes so you don't have to!

Sew around your chalk line starting just below the heel and finishing just below the tip of his shoe.

Leave an opening at the bottom.

Cut around the perimeter.

Snip around curves.

Turn it out and iron it nice and flat.

There's the opening.

Now for the eyes.

First, LIGHTLY sketch (with a pencil) where his eye should be. Just do one eye for now.

Slide a square of card stock or cardboard inside the head so that your color doesn't bleed through to the other side.

Fill in the circle with a white paint pen.

Let that dry and slide the card stock out. To get exact placement of the other eye, I put Lowly up to a window and let the first eye be my guide. I traced the other eye lightly with a pencil. Make sure to put your card stock back in before you paint eye #2.

I used this trick with his mouth, too.

Use a Sharpie to fill in the center of the eyes.

The mouth is a little nerve wracking. All it takes is a light and steady hand

and a little bit of confidence. You can do this!

(you might want to practice on scrap fabric)

When the paint is dry it's time to start stuffing.

I used almost a half a bag of Poly-Fil.

Now you can whip stitch the bottom closed.

Cut a strip of white felt about 3 inches tall and long enough to fit around Lowly's neck.

Start at the front and stitch in place.

Cut off any excess felt and finish it off.

The bowtie is fun and easy to make.

I don't have exact dimensions for you but it should be about 4 1/2" wide and 2" tall.

I trimmed a little here and there to get it just right.

Cut a little rectangle for the middle piece.

Pinch the middle in half.

Then fold the top and bottom back.

Stitch it closed.

Wrap the rectangle around

and stitch it closed.

Stitch the tie to the front of Lowly's collar.

The hat is easy, too! I used Lowly's head as a guide to make it. Cut out this shape, a little bigger than Lowly's head.

Stitch around the curved edge and clip around the curve.

Turn out and fold the bottom up a little (about a 1/2 inch). I don't have a picture of this step but you can get an idea from the finished pictures how it should look. I whip stitched a thin yellow strip, with the bottom of the strip just slightly tucked under the hat fold, and added a little green leaf (with the light green felt).