Build-A-Monsters are fun, stuffed monsters made from an assortment of fabrics, such as felt, fleece, snuggle flannel and more. Pieces are assembled separately, Velcro is added, and then the pieces are mixed and matched to make unique, silly monsters. There like the Mr. Potato Head of stuffed monsters! Super easy and fun to make! For this example, I used St. Patrick's Day inspired fabrics.

Step 1: Supplies

1. Materials you will need: assorted fabrics, embroidery floss or thread, needles, hot glue to E6000 glue, scissors, Polyfil stuffing, velcro sets, wiggle eyes, and other assorted decorations.
2. Select your fabrics.

Step 2: Cut Your Pieces

1. You will need to cut out your assorted pieces. For this monster, I made a body, 2 sets of arms, 2 sets of legs, a pair of horns, a piece of hair, and three faces. I do not use patterns. I just cut out shapes I like and make adjustments as needed.
2. The body: For the body, I choose an oval shape with little nubs for ears. I layered a piece of polka dot green fabric on a piece of white fleece. I always put the two pieces together when I am cutting so I get two pieces exactly the same size and shape.
3. Arms and Legs: I cut out long rectangular shapes and rounded one end for the arms and the legs. You need to of the same shape for each arm or leg- so 4 pieces total for a pair of legs or arms. I cut out 2 sets of arms and 2 sets of legs so I could mix and match them on my monster.
4. Faces: I cut out fun organic shapes for the faces. I usually use two different types of fabric for the front and back of each face. I also cut out circles from white fleece for the eyes and round circles from pink snuggle flannel for cheeks. I also used some felt heart buttons I had from Valentine's Day.
5. For the horns, I cut out triangle shapes- you can make them big or small.
6. Hair: I seem to always cut out a simple shape with three spikes for hair.
7. Extra details: I also cut out a big white circle for a tummy and a green felt heart. You can make all kinds of extra decorations for your monster.

Step 3: Sew Your Pieces

1. I hand sew each piece individually. For most pieces I use a simple whip stitch, such as the arms, legs, horns, hair, and the edge of the face. For details on the body, I use a running stitch or some other simple stitch. for the body, I use the blanket stitch. I like to use different colors of embroidery floss as I like to see the stitching on the monster. I don't stuff the pieces for my Build-a-Monsters but you can!
2. Legs: For the legs, I cut out some small triangles for claws and as I was sewing the legs, I switched from a whip stitch to a running stitch to sew in the claws into the layers.
3. Body: I sew the entire body but leave a small section open for stuffing. This is the only piece I stuff!
4. Sometimes, I add a drop of glue where I make the knot at the end of each piece I am sewing to keep the loose ends tucked against the fabric.

Step 4: Stuff the Body

1. Stuff the body to your liking with Polyfil.
2. Sew the opening closed.

Step 5: Attach Velcro Pieces

1. I always add a dab of glue (E6000, hot glue, or super glue) to the back of the velcro pieces before attaching as the pieces are meant to be "torn" apart and reassembled.
2. I attach the hooks to the body and fasteners to the body parts so that I can mix and match with other monsters I make.

Step 6: Assemble Your Monster

Now is the fun part- assemble your monster! Mix and match the pieces! I have included three pictures of my monster assembled in different ways. It's even fun when the parts are put in the wrong places or two different patterns are used for legs or arms or arms are used for legs, etc.