make your own: boo-boo buddy

If you know someone that is prone to bumps and boo-boos, or if you suffer from frequent headaches like I do, this post is for you. If you just happen to love bean bag toys or sewing in general, this is also for you.

Inspired by the eye burrito featured in Sarah Sockit's t-shirt reconstruction book, Tease, and also by the animal scarves in Aranzi Aronzo's Cute Stuff, I designed this "boo-boo beanbag buddy" to be kept in the freezer, and taken out to apply to boo-boos when needed. (I sealed mine in a plastic bag first, to keep out freezer smells and excess moisture.) Best of all, the pieces are all cut from a single washcloth--yet another opportunity for creative reuse.

Here is the basic pattern I used. I started with a standard 12 inch x 12 inch square face towel. (If you want, you can easily switch the pointy ears for rounder ones, and make a bear or a puppy or a bunny instead of a cat.)

After cutting out all the pieces, sew together the two ears and the four legs, wrong sides out. Leave the bottom edges open, so that you can flip them right side out again. You should have something like this (the two on the left have been turned right side out).

Turn them all right side out. Add a face to the front of your "buddy." Applique works better than satin stitching on terry cloth; I would also advise against buttons, since almost no one enjoys pressing cold buttons to her skin when she is trying to soothe a boo-boo.

Now place the front piece of your buddy on the table, face side up, and arrange the ear and leg pieces the way you want them.

Carefully reverse the ears and legs so that they lie on top of the front piece, but keeping the seam lines in place. In more precise terms, think of the seam line as an axis, and each piece is merely rotating around this axis (sorry, that came out sort of math-y).

Then carefully lay the back piece, right-side down, on top of everything.

Pin pieces in place (you may find it easier to pin the ears and legs to just one side rather than trying to pin through all four layers of terry cloth).

Sew almost all the way around the outer edge, leaving a gap (about 3 inches or so) between the buddy's armpit and hip area. If this is to be a beanbag toy, you'll want to make reinforce this seam to make it extra strong.

Then turn the buddy rightside out again, pulling the head and tail ends carefully through the gap you left.

Now grab some of your favorite filler--I used beans instead of rice because I eat rice a lot (I'm a bland-taster just like the Queen) but I don't usually plan meals far enough ahead to have time to prepare beans properly--and stuff your buddy halfway to 3/4 full, or until you've reached the desired level of squishy bean-bagginess. You may want to use a funnel here, if you are a messy/impatient pourer like I am.

Almost there--get out your needle and thread, and close that gap in the seam with an invisible ladder stitch. That's it; you're done!