DIY Sock Monkey

For my brother's birthday last year I made him a Gene Simmons sock monkey. He loved it so  much that I decided to make the remaining KISS band members for him for Christmas. 


Now, I'm not the greatest at tutorials because it's super hard to do the project, take pictures of each step, AND take good pictures of each step. So, I'm going to link the the site where I first learned how to make sock monkeys (made one for Russ' an my anniversary back when we were dating and he thought I bought it somewhere!). 


Go here for better directions because I missed a step or two, I'm sure. 


Annnnd sorry for the terrible pictures... my camera just isn't what it used to be.


1.) Take your sock of choice, turn it inside out and lie ti flat with the heel of the foot part facing up. You can use knee socks if there's a pattern you especially like but you'll just have to cut off some extra fabric at the top unless you want your sock monkey to be disproportionate and awkward-looking. 

I then mark off where I want the legs to be sewn with a chalk pencil or, in this case, a marker if the fabric is dark like mine. Take care to make sure it won't bleed through if you use a marker. 

2.) Sew from the toe in a "U" shape to create the legs.

3.) Cut the slit between the legs and turn it right side out.

4.) Take the second sock and sew the arms... which is a step I didn't show (duh, Ashley!) and refer to the link.

5.) Take the upper part of the sock for his/her tail and ears.

I chose to make an ear pattern out of cardstock to insure that I had the same size ears after sewing... I have ended up with weirdo looking ears before. 

6.) Turn everything right side out and stuff. Take care to use small pieces of batting for a more uniform look. Large pieces will make it look lumpy and no one wants a lumpy monkey.

7.) Once properly stuffed, close the head of the monkey first. I then like to make it look like my monkey has a neck so I just sew a basic line by hand around his neck and then pull it like you're strangling him and tie a knot in the back (this sounds weird to type out). 

Sewing the ears and arms are probably the most pain-in-the-butt steps of this thing. You have to make sure each side is positioned at the same height so you don't look like you have a FrankenMonkey. 

8.) The heel of the second sock ends up being the sock monkey's mouth. I used a basic back stitch (I think that's what it's called... dunno, I suck at sewing) to make a slight smirky-smile with some heavy thread. You can also use yarn, I just didn't have any and thought the thread looked cleaner. 

9.) Pin it to his/her face and sew around the perimeter. Make sure to leave an opening so you can stuff some batting in there to give him/her a 3D face. I think it looks better like this:

Next, sew on his/her glorious button eyes and you have yourself a sweet little sock monkey that hopefully doesn't look like anything Mary Shelley imagined. 

Though, I took my monkeys a step further and added some badassery and awesomeness. 

And on Christmas morning, the band was reunited. (Does anyone else see 'reunited' and your brain automatically goes "and it feels so gooooood"? Mine does.)