Making A Toad Bagšø

This year my blog will be focusing more on sewing. This particular whimsical project has been on my list for a very long time but the pattern I wanted to use, an old Vogue one for a frog backpack, wasnāt available anywhere so I finally found the time to draft my own pattern. The only thing I had to help me was a rubber, prop toad that I use on my stand at markets, so thatās where my project started.
The pics below show the Vogue pattern frog bag and some vintage 1990s toad bags I love.
As itās January I didnāt want to spend a lot of money on this project so I dug into my crafting & scrap bin for this one.
What I used:
- Scrap corduroy fabric for the bag shell (left over from some trousers), Ā£0
- A spare short zipper I had, Ā£0
- A piece of an old duvet for the lining, Ā£0
- Wadding l had left over other projects, Ā£0
- Embroidery threads from a charity shop that I already had, Ā£0
- Scrap felt, used for the eyes, Ā£0
- Bag handle, ordered online for the project, Ā£6.99
Total spend: Ā£6.99.
My Steps:
1. I made a rough pattern for the top of the toad using the rubber one as the base. I then hand sewed the pieces together and adjusted them as needed.
2. Once I was happy with the look of the toad shape I sewed it all on my sewing machine.
3. I then made the pattern pieces for the base of the toad, sewed this together, cut the opening for the zip & stuffed the shell to see if it looked toad shaped.
4. I then hand stitched zip in place, made a lining on my machine from some left over scrap fabric & finished by hand stitching this onto the edge of the zip. This created a decent amount of space inside the toad to make the bag part.
5. Then I moved onto the trickiest bit, making the feet. This was fiddly as my fabric was corduroy and tends to fray a little bit. I didnāt want to make the fingers too big but I also had to to have a decent seam allowance in these pieces so this took a few goes.
6. Once the arms and little hands had been machine sewn & stuffed, I went over & hand stitched some of it just to give a cleaner finish.
7. The back legs were quite fiddly too. I was planning to make them as one piece but I ended up simplifying the pattern and making the thigh and foot separate pieces which was a lot easier to sew and actually looked better too.
8. I then stitched two pieces for the eyes out of the corduroy. I just added a little stuffing in them and I was going to buy plastic eyes but I tried creating the eyeball out of felt scraps and I loved it!
9. Finally, I got some embroidery thread and started making little knots to create a bit of knobbliness for the toad. This gave the base a little bit more interest and stopped it being just one block colour.
Finally I made little fabric tabs for the handle and then hand stitched it all in place and it was done! The time spent on this project was 3 evenings, approx 9 hours which I donāt think is bad for a super fun project that really challenged me.
If you like my more whimsical creations make sure you checkout my pieces for sale on the Sarah Sprout Collection page & my dedicated Instagram account is here.
The Final Results: Meet Crocus šø
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