How to Make Archibald! (Tutorial)

I decided to make my daughter an Archibald for the NY Yo Gabba Party in my City show. I put this tutorial together, since many people e-mailed me for directions!

Materials (I bought all of them at the JoAnn’s superstore):

-One square black felt
-One square white felt
-1 roll of dark purple grosgrain ribbon
-1/4 yard light purple fleece
-1/4 yard dark purple fleece
-1 spool dark purple thread (make a bobbin from this, if using a machine)
-1 piece of light brown “hair” sold by doll making supplies
-batting for inside (I actually used a pillow, because it was cheaper than a package of batting from the craft store)!
-tape measure (unless, like me, you just eyeball everything)
-Scissors
-needle

* These photos are done with paper, since I didn’t take pics as I made him. They are not measured accurately and are not the proper colors, just there to show you the spatial part of the directions!

1. Cut out Archibald’s body from the dark purple fleece. Fold in half and cut a wedge shape to the desired length and with, tapering it toward the end tail) Mine was 19”long and 7” wide at the neck.

2. Unfold the body. Place right side up on the table. Cut strips of ribbon to the appropriate length and space them apart as desired (I did 1” from ribbon stripe end to end-refer to the last page to see my spacing). Pin them in place. Cut out a strip of light purple fleece for the clitellum and pin in the desired location.

4. Sew strip on with a straight stitch by machine or hand. Sew both the left and right sides of each strip down so they lay flat.

5. Unfold the body. Out of the remaining light purple fleece, cut Archibald’s head. Fold fleece in half and cut an oblong/oval shape with one flat side. Make sure the base of the head is the same length as the wide side of the body.

6. Place the body right side down to the table and place the head appropriately. Sew together body and head. The seam will end up on the inside of Archibald. When done sewing this seam, flip head over to the right.

7. Flip right side out and sew entire length of body and head. Leave a 2” gap at the light purple fleece clitellum to stuff (leave space where pink arrow is-about 2 inches to the right…above where my index finger is on second photo below).

8. Carefully flip the body right side out and stuff with your choice of batting.

9. Sew Archibald’s body shut from the outside (just whipstitch it together, since fleece doesn’t fray). He’ll look like the picture below, without a face. Seam runs along his left side.

10. Take Archibald’s head and decide where you want his hair. From the square of hair, cut an oval to cover the top of his head. Hair will fray, so pin it to the top of his head and try to fold it under as you sew it on. You can also just tack it on quickly and finish the edge with “No Fray” liquid or liquid stitch, although that can leave a rough edge to cuddle!

11. Take a piece of black felt and fold it in half. Draw the shape and size of the glasses you want. Carefully cut them out and then unfold them. The fold is in the bridge of the glasses, on the left.

12. Cut two small rectangles for the inside of the glasses from the white felt. Sew these on the glasses by hand, using white thread.

13. Cut out 2 pupils for the eyes and sew them in place to the glasses by hand using black thread.

14. Take the glasses and pin them on his face where you want them. Then, sew the glasses onto the head using a whip stitch. I sewed only the arms of the glasses on, so that the hair would make them stand up a bit, like the real Archibald.

15. To make a mouth, I just used a light purple thread and pinched the seam of the face together and whip stitched around it. This gave the appearance of a mouth, without actually having one there. Refer to this pic for details….