How to Sew a Gator

Finished Gator
Supplies :
Fat quarter of Sew a Gator! fabric
Stuffing
Needle
Embroidery Floss
Thread
Strait pins
Scissors 


Here's the fat quarter all printed up and beautiful, and
the obvious first step is to cut out all the pieces leaving the white borders attached. 

Along the top of the gator there are printed guidelines for embroidering.
They are white in the photo above, but have since been changed to black.

Down the back I used a braided chain stitch, but you can use whatever embroidery stitch you are comfortable with.
The website I used for the braided chain stitch has a wonderful stitch library that you can look through.
Satin stitch the eyes and use a simple backstitch on the nostrils.

I used 4 strands of a light yellow embroidery floss for everything,
and 6 strands of black embroidery floss for the pupils.

Here's the finished embroidery.
Now put the mouth piece face down on top of the embroidered piece, and pin in place.
The tongue half should be free. Sew from the inside corners of the mouth (see red arrows)
all the way around along the black lines.

Flip the tongue back and lay the underside of the gator face down on top of that.
Flip the top jaw that you already sewed back out of the way.
Pin together and sew the lower jaw exactly like the top being sure to stop at the corners. 

Flip the jaws closed and run a few stitches over the jaw corners and off  into the body area.
Shown here in green thread.
Pair up the feet with their undersides and pin with right sides together.

Sew along the black lines.

Clip the corners and separate the toes.
Then turn inside out and stuff.

Pin the feet as shown. There should be a bit of  the feet hanging over the edge
of the white seam allowance along the gator's sides. 

Lay the underside over the top and pin in place.

Baste around the whole gator along the black lines, and be sure to leave a gap for turning.
Remove all the pins.

Sew with a machine over the basting stitches.
I always go over each seam twice with the machine for added strength.
 Turn the gator inside out. Stuff your gator, sew the opening closed, and you're done!






I edited the design to not have the outline around the teeth.

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