How to Make No-Sew Sock Puppets

I always wondered how to make no-sew sock puppets because I can't sew. I am seriously sewing challenged! Years ago in my classroom, we made sock 'poppets' for Colonial Day, using rubber bands and newspaper for stuffing. I wanted to make something similar to this with The Jersey Momma's Boy, so here's one we made with inspiration from Pinterest. Meet Fritz, our no-sew sock puppy!

Don't forget to Pin this post for future use!

Making a sock pet is not as hard as you think. I'm all about easy projects on this site, trust me. In a nutshell, what you need to do looks something like this:

What You'll Need:

-clean, stretchy socks (we used girls' cotton crew socks from Walmart. A pack of 10 pairs was $7.99). You can get them in any color you want your animal to be. You can also use old socks, just make sure they're clean!

-fabric markers (we used Crayola)

-puffy paint, googly eyes or Sharpie markers for eyes/nose/mouth

-old fabric scraps, buttons, or anything else you want to use for clothes.

-fiberfill stuffing or beans

-small rubber bands (the kind for hair braids or rainbow looms work best. You can use larger bands like we did but they don't look as pretty once the pet is complete!)

-hot glue gun (optional, for decorations)

Directions

1. Stretch out the sock you want to use. Flatten it out in front of you, heel side up. Roll a piece of fiber fill into a one inch ball, and push it down into the sock, towards the bottom left toe of it. This will form the puppy's foot.

2. Push the ball with your pointer finger to the corner of the sock, and pinch it off on the outside of the sock with a small rubber band.  Do the same thing on the other side for the other foot. Then do this two more times where you want the arms to be.

3.  Now that you have the arms and legs, add some stuffing to make the puppy the shape you want it to be. We stuffed it nice and full because we wanted a chubby body.

4. Decide where you want the neck to go, and add a rubber band.  Add more stuffing and another rubber band to secure the top of the head.

See what I mean about the rubber bands being kind of ugly? You can use smaller bands or colored bands to hide them better. Or you can cut the rubber bands off later and secure with heavy thread or string.

5. From here on in, the choices are all up to you! We trimmed the top of the sock off and used it for a hat. We cut the remaining top pieces to look like ear shapes, and tucked them under his hat.

6. Our puppy's head was a little wobbly, so I used a piece of orange felt to make a scarf. This helped to secure the head a little better (and hid the ugly rubber band I used).

7. Now, I used black puffy paint for the eyes and nose because I wanted something a little more three dimensional. You can also use buttons, sequins, or just plain markers. If you're going to use the puffy paint, I recommend waiting till the very end, since it takes so long to dry! I added it too soon, and wound up smearing it several times.

8. We used a hot glue gun to add buttons and to glue down any pieces that were popping up, like his scarf, ears, and some parts of his hat.

9. We used Crayola fabric markers to color the hat, ears, and make marks for his paws. I didn't want to make him have black spots, but I had smeared some puffy paint by accident so I decided to hide it with black dalmatian spots!

There ya have it! I named this guy Fritz. I'm not crazy about Fritz's rubber bands, so I might cut them off and replace them with the smaller bands or colored bands at some point. These also make great last-minute gifts. The Jersey Momma's Boy made one for The Jersey Grammy, but I can't show it to you here because he hasn't given it to her yet! This is also a fun project to make with leftover socks. Happy No-Sewing!

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