Stuffed Thanksgiving Turkey

Sounds tasty, right?  Sorry, but this little guy isn’t edible.

I’ve always felt that Thanksgiving is kind of a forgotten holiday.  It’s sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, and is overlooked by a lot of stores.  I live out in the middle of nowhere, so it is very hard to find Thanksgiving decorations.  What is a girl to do?  Make her own, of course!

This turkey is a fun Thanksgiving decoration that is fast, cheap, and easy to make.  It is a craft that is easy enough for kids, but requires adult supervision.

For this turkey you will need:

~Three different fabrics.  One for the back feathers, one for the front feathers, and one for the body.

~2 inches of orange felt for the beak and 2 inches of red felt for the wattle.

~Polyester fiberfill or batting scraps to stuff your turkey

~Embroidery floss and a yarn needle.  Crochet string would work, too.

~Googley eyes and other embellishments such as ribbon, raffia, ric rac, etc…

~Hot glue gun, sewing machine, thread, scissors, etc…

Click on any of the images to enlarge.  Start off by cutting out two of each piece, except the wattle. 

With the wrong sides of the fabric together, sew around each piece.  Don’t worry about everything lining up or the raw edges.  It all just adds to the charm of this little cutie.

Leave the bottom of each piece open so you’ll be able to stuff it.  Leave the bottom of the beak open, too.

Stuff each piece with stuffing.  You can add potpourri if you want, too.  When each piece is stuffed, sew the opening at the bottom of each piece shut.

Take your yarn needle and string/floss and make a single stitch in the middle center of the back feathers and front feathers.  Tie it tight.  Make one more stitch in the bottom center of both feathers.  This holds the feathers together and also gives it more shape.  Cuteness.

Make sure you tie your stitches in double or triple knots on the front side of the front feathers.  It will be hidden when you hot glue that cute little body to the feathers.

Like so.  Fabulous.  We’re almost finished!  Now hot glue the eyes, beak, wattle, and all of your embellishments to the turkey body.  Have fun with this, and unleash your creativity.

Now you have a cute Stuffed Thanksgiving Turkey with zero calories and tons of fiber!  Now that you know how to make this cute little guy, gather up all of your kids and make an entire family of Thanksgiving turkeys! 

(click to enlarge)

Your kids will love it-at least mine did.  I love how different and unique each one of them turned out.  I can see each of their personalities in their turkeys.  Love!

Here are a few more fun Thanksgiving crafts you can do with your kids:

Thankful Tom Turkeys:

Super easy.  Have each kid cut out their turkey body and a bunch of feathers.  Have them write what they are thankful for on the feathers, glue them to a piece of cardstock and let them hang them up.

You can do the same thing with a Thankful Tree:

We just made one big tree and had every member of the family write what they were thankful for on the leaves.  The kids had fun taping the leaves to the wall.

Here’s another fast, cheap and easy Thanksgiving decoration:

A felt “Give Thanks” banner.  Find a font you love on your computer and print out “give thanks” (or whatever else you want) in the size you want the letters of your banner.  These are about eight inches tall.  Cut out your paper letters and trace them onto felt.  Cut the felt letters out and stitch or hot glue them to some jute, string, ribbon, garland or whatever else you want to use.  I actually sewed three layers of letters together to give it some puff. 

Well, hopefully this gives you a few ideas on fun things you can do with your kids.  Or just make it yourself and get into the Thanksgiving spirit!