Fleece Fish Tutorial

My daughter loves fish – she particularly loves “Dorothy” (that’s Elmo’s fish……for those of you that don’t know). I haven’t seen too many plush fish on the market, so I decided that I would make her a giant stuffed fish for Christmas.

This fish is made entirely from fleece. A lot of this project involves free-hand drawing. It is very easy (beginning sewing) – it just takes some patience due to all the fish scales that you will be sewing on the body (but that’s what makes it cool!). Remember, the raw-edges of fleece doesn’t fray, so that’s why this is the perfect material for this fish!

I made this a girly fish, but you could change the colors around to make it more primary for a boy or more realistic by using blues, greens, and browns. Let your imagination guide the way!!

Supplies:

4 different colors of fleece (1 for the body and 3 different colors for the scales)

Scissors

Sewing Machine

Straight Pins

Fiberfill (or whatever stuffing material you choose)

Thread

Hand Sewing Needle

Directions:

Cut out scales. I drew these free-hand and used about 1/4 yard of each color fleece (so that would be 3/4 yard total) for my large-sized fish.

Draw (free-hand) your fish onto fleece. You can make it big or small – mine was about 36″ long. Cut out 2 fish from fleece (one for front and one for the back).

Pin the top of the right sides of the fish together and sew the top. Turn right-side out (the sides and the bottom of the fish will still be open).

Open up your fish.

On the right side of the fish, pin your scales all in a row, alternating colors.

Stitch scales in place (1/2″ seam allowance).

Layer next row of scales on top, covering about half of the previous row and stitch in place (1/2″ seam allowance).

Continue to do this until your fish is completely covered up towards the face. I chose to leave the top and bottom fin as well as the tail without scales – you can cover them or not – it’s up to you!

Then cut a strip of fleece to finish your final row of scales (about 3/4″ wide).

Stitch the long piece of fleece on top of the un-finished edge of the final row of scales.

Cut out two half circles for the mouth (draw freehand). Pin and sew.

Cut out eyes (draw freehand). Pin and sew.

Now turn fish inside out so that the wrong sides are together and stitch around the entire fish – 1/2″ seam allowance (leaving about a 6 inch opening – I left part of the tail open).

Turn fish right side out.

Stuff fish.

Close opening by hand sewing.