One of the sad facts of life is that if you wear a piece of clothing long enough, it will fall apart on you. In my case, I still have these clothes because I am a pack-rat. To be fair, I am a pack-rat because I tend to find uses for things I keep around. When faced with all this unused cloth, I realized I had the building blocks of stuffed animal life.
I decided to start with a snake. Tubes are relatively easy, and if you make it wavy, it looks like a snake. I cut into the leg of the pants, getting two roughly similar pieces and some odd gray fabric I hadn’t realized was along for the ride.
From there, I got a needle and thread, and started hand-sewing the two pieces together along the sides. A possible technique to use here is to poke the needle through the fabric from the same side every time, looping back to the front. In general, look at the hems of your clothing, and see if you can’t figure out what the path of the thread and therefore the needle is. At any rate, I sewed the pieces together, leaving the mouth of the snake open. Ostensibly, this is where I should have worn a thimble, but it was never the same finger that the needle pricked – the spiteful thing.
Here’s where you can learn from my mistake. See, that gray cloth which will be the inside of the snake’s mouth, should be on the inside of the mouth right now. I thought I was being clever, but no. When you turn the snake inside out, you can also turn the weird little pocket the gray fabric makes inside out. That way the entire snake is round and photogenic. Also, make sure to sew one gray mouth bit on both mouth flaps on the original snake. They are the hard and soft palate, I guess.
Looking at that snake, I feel as though it belongs in Nightmare Before Christmas. If that’s an aesthetic you are going for, that’s cool too. Now, that is one hungry snake. To keep it from devouring the souls of your sleeping roommates, try stuffing it with the very fabric from which it was cut. You can use cotton batting, like what you might find in stuffed animals and pillows, but I knew my stitching wasn’t particularly tight, so the stuffing would show through.
You’re a crafter, Harry. At any rate, wrap some cloth around a chopstick or pen and stuff it down the snake’s throat. You may find that it won’t reach all the way back, so you should bunch the snake up around the chopstick and push the material off into the dark bowels of your misshapen creation. You may need to pack it in with the chopstick, and then stuff more cloth after that. Once the body is firm, put some of the scraps into the little mouth pockets from before. This will give the snake a sense of maturity instead of appearing as a sock-puppet.
Crikey, what a ripper! Sadly, I only thought of that quote once while making this thing, and did not say it aloud. At any rate, once you have everything stuffed, it’s time to sew the mouth shut. Specifically, at the back of the throat, where the pocket edges meet.
Like so. You can even attach a wire hanger to the bottom of the snake’s jaw, and you will have yourself a Muppet. Now you can entertain younger relatives, quote Indiana Jones, and throw snakes at people. Use this power wisely, and you will gain great influence throughout the land.
Have I inspired you? Do you also have a terrible habit of wasting food? I would be very interested to see if others have followed in my rambling footsteps, so if you have made something inspired by one of my articles, take a picture and send it to [email protected]. Label it: Crafts for Brandon. If you do, that picture will be at the end of my next article, with your name attached. If you made something beyond the fantastic scope of my chronicle, you might consider writing a guest article and sending it to that same email address to be considered as a guest post. It is always inspiring to see what art you may see in the mundane.
About Brandon Quist
Brandon is originally from Olmsted Falls, Ohio. He has studied both at Baldwin Wallace college and Brigham Young University, and is currently pursuing Chemical Engineering, among other things. He considers himself a jack of all trades, and a master of none. In his spare time, Brandon enjoys knitting, guitar, reading, origami, writing, and photography.
