Tying Up a Snake

This came about when we were invited to a little boy birthday party at the last minute... at the end of a paycheck!  (We are very strict on our budget!  lol)  I was wracking my brain trying to think of a little boy safe gift I could MAKE that would be little boy safe!  Here is what I came up with!

Who doesn't have a million ties around?  My hubby recently decided to go through his giant pile and pick some to "throw away".  Boy am I glad I saved them!

Find yourself a snake-like print tie!

My seam ripper is dull, so I used my tiny scissors.  Just slice open you tie.

Look!  This one had a penny inside!  So glad we didn't throw IT away!  lol

You are going to start working from the tip.

Fold it in half as best you can.  Just make sure the tip is even.  Some ties are not even after you slice them open, but you can ignore that if you tip is straight!  If you look hard notice I marked where an eye was going to go.  It's in between my fingers.  I did this first so I could be sure they were even.

Sew down them eyeballs!

See... Even!

Fold over one side of the pointed end about and inch and a half.  You are going to sew just the folded part where my scissors are pointing.

See!

Now... fold over the other direction so that other side of the point is over about and inch and a half!  Try to ignore the fact that it is sewn on the other side.  You are just trying to mimic what you did with the first side.

Again... just sew the folded portion.

This is what it should look like when you open it up!  The tip there will be the mouth! I thought I had a picture where I inserted the tounge.    Just place it in inside, in the middle... the next step you will sew it down.

See... the tip of my snake tongue is under there, being sewn down.  I used red grosgrain ribbon.

Now make sure your tongue inside is out of the way.  Fold the tie so that the edges line up all the way down.  Remember those points near my thumb that didn't quite match up?  Just round them out as you are sewing and make sure you are sewing through both layers!

Use a stick to right side out you new friend!

I lost my funnel so I made one from paper, but I would masking tape it to the end so you don't have to hold it!  I used dried beans to fill mine.  You could use rice too!  Rice would have been easier cause the beans would sometimes clog in the skinny part of the tail on the way to the face!  Be sure not to fill him to full and just straight stitch the tail closed when you are done!

Isn't he awesome!