DIY Dinosaur stuffed animals

Want to learn to make an easy stuffed animal? You’re in the right place! I made this super easy DIY stuffed animal as a gift and so can you! No sewing machine necessary with minimal fabric requirements. It is perfect to use up those bigger pieces of fabric scraps you have laying around.

For this project I used a 100% cotton fabric. You want a fabric that is majority cotton so it holds the shape better. If you were to use fabric that is stretchy, it would not hold its shape well and become easily morphed.

There are several different options to fill your DIY stuffed animals. You can bulk buy poly-fil at your local craft store or on amazon, but that stuff is plastic and never recycles. So what I do instead is use my leftover fabric scraps to fill the inside of anything that I need to stuff. Normally the scraps I have are 100% cotton or wool so it is denser and helps the animal hold its shape better! Plus being from all natural materials is an added bonus.

If you do not have enough fabric scraps to stuff your animal with, you can cut up old rags, T-shirts, or clothing. But my preferred method is buying bags of fabric scraps at my local fabric store! You can as the cashiers if they have any available and I get a hole bag for $1.99. It lasts me several projects.

The beauty of this project is that you can really make any animal! Just draw a basic enough outline and you are set! I would guess that a bunny rabbit, squirrel, or dog outline would be easy. It is important to note that when stuffing the animal, smaller places are harder to stuff.

For example, when I was choosing what dinosaurs to use I picked ones with bigger areas and not very small legs. If you were to want a pterodactyl, the legs would be very small and hard to stuff. I would try not stuffing the legs in smaller animals and just having them hang loose. Or you can up the scale and make a bigger animal over-all so stuffing the smaller legs becomes easier.

You can simply keep them for yourself and your kids to play with. You can also give them as a gift or stocking stuffers for Christmas! A simple change in fabric colors or patterns to make it more “holiday friendly” would be great.

You can have your kids help with the animals to make it fun and inclusive for them! My daughter loves to hold the sewing pins for me and she individually hands them to me when asked. It keeps her entertained and I’m able to get projects completed. Kids love to be included in everything you do, whether is it stuffing the dinosaurs, handing the pins, or cutting the fabric.