Wool elephant made from a striped sweater

Here is the finished elephant that I made out of a 100% wool sweater I bought from Goodwill. He is 6 inches tall and 5 inches long. He is hand-stitched with grey cotton embroidery floss, using the blanket stitch. He is stuffed with wool sweater scraps.

At the bottom of this post, I have some in progress pictures.





Here is the sweater I bought at Goodwill. It cost $3.38. The cotton floss I used costs $1.50 at JoAnn's. I use the cotton perle kind because it doesn't need to be seperated like the regular kind of 6 strand floss.

Here it is after I felted it. I washed it on hot with a little Dawn soap. I actually did it a couple times because it was feeling too stretchy. I have noticed that if the sweaters don't felt up right, then legs of the elephant get really wobbly.

Here it is cut out. This particular sweater only had enough fabric for one elephant. I shaved the sweater a ton with a sweater shaver.

Here it is partially sewn. The inside of the legs are shown at the bottom. You can also see the wool scraps. I cut them up into tiny little pieces so it is easier to stuff the elephant (then there aren't lumps).

I don't have a pattern, I just kind of make it up as I go. He turned out so cute!! He is for a swap on MDC, so I am super happy with the way he turned out. Now I am on the hunt for more striped sweaters at Goodwill!!