Sometimes it’s really good just to play around with a crazy idea or set of rules and see what I come up with. Several years ago I was playing with some basic geometric shapes and I tried to see how many animals I could come up with, and how much I could simplify its features before it stopped looking like the animal I was trying to convey.
The shape I had the most fun with was a triangle-based pyramid – so when Mollie at Wild Olive announced that she was playing with triangles all March long, I knew I had to share this idea with her.
Over on Wild Olive today you’ll find the pattern and instructions to make this dinosaur/dragon.
Using the same pattern and much fancier/hard-to-work-with fabrics I also made a dragon.
That dragon even talks fancy. 🙂
In my book Creature Camp, kids made penguins and chicks using the same basic pattern.
Didn’t the kid sewists do a great job with these?
Today I’m going to show you how to make the mama and baby kangaroo like in the top photo.
First – hop over to Wild Olive to download and print the pattern and see the basic instructions.
Step 1
Modify the pattern.
Measure up 2 1/4″ from the base of the triangle. Draw a line parallel to the base.
Done!
Step 2
Cut out your pieces.
Cut out the triangle pattern piece. Use it to cut 3 triangles in the body fabric, and 1 triangle in the belly fabric.
Cut the pattern piece into two pieces on the line you drew in Step 1.
From the trapezoid bottom piece, cut 2 pouch pieces in the body fabric.
From the top triangle piece, cut 2 baby pieces in the baby fabric.
Step 3
Sew the pouch.
Put the two pouch pieces right sides together and sew along the top (shorter) edge using 1/4″ seam allowance.
Flip them right side out and press that finished top edge flat.
Step 4
Make the baby.
If you want your baby to stay attached the the mama (that keeps the baby from being a choking hazard) then sew a ribbon to keep them together. If not, you can skip the ribbon part.
Lay one baby piece face up on a flat surface. Pin one end of the ribbon to the center of one side of the triangle.
Lay the second baby piece face down of the first, with the ribbon sandwiched between the layers.
Sew all the way around the edge of the triangle, leaving a turning hole where the long end of the ribbon is coming out.
Clip the excess fabric off the corners.
Turn the baby right side out, stuff it, and sew up the opening.
Step 5
Put the kangaroo together.
For the most part the instructions will be just like what you see on Wild Olive. You just need to construct the belly piece.
Lay the belly piece right side up on a flat surface.
Lay the other end of the ribbon down the center of the belly. You can see where the edge is sticking out the bottom and pinned in place.
Layer the pouch piece over the belly with the ribbon sandwiched between them.
Lay one of the body pieces over the belly and pouch layers you just constructed and sew all the layers together along the bottom of the triangle.
Keep attaching triangles, just like in the Wild Olive instructions, until your four triangles look like this.
The stuffing hole is in the seam between the two left-most triangles.
Finish sewing up the kangaroo following the instructions at Wild Olive.
What other animals can you make from this same basic shape? My sketchbook has ideas for a horse, a mouse and a shark. 🙂
Have fun!
Absolutely brilliant!! 🙂
Thanks so much! It’s really fun to work with weird restrictions like that sometimes. 🙂
The tri-angle creatures are great. Miss H has just cut out triangles for a chicken, penguin, dinosaur themed creatures and her brain is in over drive thinking of a frog and a pig. She is looking after some children for a couple of hours during the week for the next two months and thinks these will be great for them to play with. Thanks so much for sharing the patterns – very cool!
Your tri-angle creatures are great. Miss H has just cut out material for the chicken, penguin and dinosaur. And her brain is running away with ideas for a pig, frog and fish……. She is looking after some children next month for a few hours a week to help a friend out and these will be such fun to play with. Thanks so much for sharing. They are really cool. She’s choosing the Kangaroo material now. Once they are all cut out its off to the sewing machine!
I’d love to see what you make! I’ll be sure to share them with Mollie, too!
Hey Wendi I can make a cockatoo, lorrikeet, mouse, chook, dog and cat just from triangles its great fun
never thought of a horse before more to add
great fun thanks for the tut. they are brilliant
regards
Oooh! I’d love to see what you make!
I’m thinking this is a great idea for a book holder. I am an avid reader of old fashioned paper books (as opposed to digital versions) and find that my hands get sore holding open a book. I’m going to have to give this one a go!
I love your triangle critters. And I just had an awesome idea. I have curtain weights which I was going to use for pattern weights. But now – I’m going to make all these triangle critters with the weights inside (plus stuffing). Will be so much fun on my cutting table! Thanks!
There’s a post here with instructions for making exactly what you describe. 🙂 https://www.shinyhappyworld.com/2012/12/free-tutorial-easy-pattern-weights.html