The Very Hungry Caterpillar Stuffed Matching Toy

My mom made a caterpillar toy when I was little, and I can't exactly recall what it looked like, other than there were different pastel fabrics on each side of each piece. I used her idea to create a 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' version. This will be a gift for Colton's 1st birthday. It goes along with the theme of his party!

Materials:
Variety of green fabric
Something round to use as a stencil
Velcro
Stuffing or Fabric Scraps (I used fabric scraps)
Red, yellow, purple fabric scraps
Fusible Webbing and wax paper (optional)

Directions:
First, cut out all of your circles. You will need two of each pattern, except for the pattern at the end, and for the red which will be the face. I had alot of different green patterns, in the future I will probably use less.

Next, cut your velcro into small pieces, unless you bought pre-cut ones. After this it will be time to plan what order your patterns will be in, and pin the corresponding velcro to the pattern. You can do this by lining them up, the ones at the each end will be the face and a single pattern (no match). In the middle, you can put two of each pattern, in whichever order you want. Then the velcro can be pinned on top. The velcro won't go on the first and the last pieces and will alternate between the hook side and the loop side for each piece. Put them in a pile, in a way that you won't forget the order.

Next, sew your velcro to the center of the circles. You can do all of them at one time, or two at a time. After at least two sides that will go together are finished, you will need to put the velcro together, and sew around most of the circle.

Your circle will need to be turned inside out and then stuffed. It then will need to be hand-stitched closed. This can be done for all of the pieces, except for the face, and the piece that will become the other side of it.

For the face, you will first need to make the antenna. Mine turned out a little crooked, mishapen and floppy but I love them all the same. I'm just saying that it's optional to include them. To make them, you will need to cut out antenna shapes, with the seam allowance.

Place your two antenna sides together and sew them, leaving the bottom open. Do this for both antenna. To turn them inside out is a bit tricky, I found it easier to use tweezers, and to also stuff them with tweezers also. Make sure they are a bit over stuffed.

For the next part of the face, you will want to either stitch the eyes and mouth on, or use the fusible webbing and put them on as an iron-on (I've been a little obsessed by iron-ons lately). This will be done by first cutting the pieces for the face, and then placing them on the fusible webbing with wax paper on top. Any extra webbing can be trimmed off, and then they are ready to be ironed onto the red circle.

Once your face is ironed on, you can pin your antenna in the center of your two circles. The open bottoms of the antenna will be sicking out, to the outside of the circle. You can sew your circle, like you did with the rest of them, leaving a portion of the bottom open so that you can turn it inside out and stuff it.

When everything is whip-stitched closed, you're finished. My son got a sneak-peak at his present when I was trying to take pictures of it and loved it! He was actually pretty mad when I put it away with the rest of the presents I have to wrap. The great thing about this toy is that right now, my son just likes it because it's a stuffed animal. Later he will learn how velcro works, and after that he can learn to match the patterns together. It's great fun, and great for learning.