I found this cute little guy on a torn out page of “Country Woman” magazine–from 10 years back. He’s basically made from scraps of yarn, felt, cardboard and a couple of clothespins. Pretty darn easy too.
Materials Needed:
Heavy cardboard
Ball of white, tan, or black yarn
2 Wooden, spring type clothespins
Scrap of black felt
Scrap of batting
Small bow, or strip of ribbon
1/4 inch bell
Tacky glue
Directions:
Click here or on the pattern itself to print out pattern pieces.
Trace the sheep’s body pattern onto heavy cardboard and cut out. As you can see, I used cardboard from an empty legal pad. It made enough for six sheep…a nice little flock.
Use a permanent marker to color both sides of the cardboard head black–like the pattern shows. Also color the straight ends of the clothespins black up to the hinges. At first, I worried because the marker didn’t color into the lines on the bottom of the clothespins. But every time I saw them, they looked like little stripey socks and it made me smile…so I just left them.
Clip the clothespins onto body where the pattern shows. Push them all the way up until they are securely in place. I put a dab of glue between the cardboard and the clothespins to keep them stable…for eternity.
Next, wind a small amount of batting around your little sheepy. It will help your yarn go much further.
Start wrapping yarn around the body–starting at the middle. Continue wrapping down the neck until about 1/4 inch of the tip of the nose sticks out.
Wrap figure-eight style around the clothespin legs so the hinges on each is covered. Continue wrapping until your sheep looks nice and fat or your yarn is all gone–whichever. Tuck in end of yarn.
Cut one tail and two ears from black felt. Tacky glue wasn’t doing it for me, so I used my evil glue gun to the stick ears to each side of the sheep’s face and to put the tail where it belongs. String a bell onto same colored yarn and tie around sheepy’s neck and tuck the knot into “fleece” at the top of the head. Glue a bow on–wherever you’d like. There you have it–incredibly low maintenance sheep. Unheard of.
I’m sure glad the pattern turned out legible! And those sheep turned out cute too.
This little sheepy just makes me happy! 🙂 I think we should have a whole flock or herd or whatever and just let them roam all over the house! 🙂
I love this lamby boy. I think I’ll go make a family for him. :]
Oh you’ve gone and done it again! SO CUTE and really easy! “Ewe” really are amazing. Thank “ewe” for sharing, and saving all those fun ideas that might come in handy some day. I’ve done my share of that over the years but couldn’t find the fun idea if my life depended on it. Maybe a “how to” would be appropriate to get me organized for the new year – hint hint hint!
OHhhh… I just remembered something!!! I have some little clothes pins… that are different colors!!! What if we make some CRAZY sheep of all different colors! 😉 Heh. That would be awesome!
Love this ! I am going to be a real shepheard-er 🙂
Do it Colleen. Do it!
oh my goodness how cute! thanks for sharing! 🙂
those are truly adorable!!!!1
So glad you love them! :}