Sock Monkey Tote and Wallet

Sock monkey tote

Materials:

two, 10-1/2" x 13-1/2" pieces of plastic mesh
fabric for outside of tote, wallet and monkey's ears
fabric for lining - same or different from rest of tote
red and white felt for monkey face
black beads for eyes
construction paper for cutting pattern
tapestry needle
fine cording for sewing plastic pieces
red embroidery thread for wallet
sewing machine

Steps:

1. Fold a piece of construction paper in half. Cut it to 10-1/2 inches in length. Across the top, measure 3-3/4 inches from the fold and make a mark. Across the bottom, measure 4-3/4 inches from the fold and make a mark. Draw a line between the two marks and cut along this line. This will be your pattern for the front and back of the tote.

2. Fold a second piece of construction paper in half and cut it to 10-1/2 inches in length. Across the top, draw a mark one-inch mark from the fold and across the bottom, draw a line two inches from the fold. Draw a line between the two marks and cut along the line. This is the pattern for the side panels.

4. Using the patterns as guides, cut the corresponding plastic mesh pieces (figure A). Cut a front and back panel, two side panels, one bottom panel and one top flap.

5. Assemble the five plastic pieces to form the tote . . . the sides, front and back and bottom pieces (figure B). You may prefer to connect all the side pieces and then add the bottom or add one side piece at a time to the bottom and then sew up the sides. In all cases, use the standard overcast stitch (figure C). Sewing the sides will seem a bit tricky because of the angle, but do not be too concerned about appearance, as everything will be hidden inside the fabric.

6. For the outside of the tote, cut fabric pieces around the patterns, but this time cut a half inch beyond the patterns (figure D). Cut one fabric piece for each piece of the mesh (figure E), with the exception of the top flap. Use two pieces of fabric for this. In addition, cut one piece of fabric 3" x 7". This will be the handle. For the lining, cut one fabric piece for each mesh piece except for the top flap.

7. Sew all of the lining pieces together (figure F). Again, the sequence in which you do this is arbitrary. You may prefer to sew the front, back and side pieces to the bottom piece and then sew up the sides, or do this in reverse. In all cases, take a 1/4-inch seam. If the fabric has a right and wrong side, be certain to sew the right sides together.

8. Repeat the above process with the outside fabric pieces with one exception; because the tote is larger at the bottom than it is at the top, if all of the sides are stitched together, it would not slip up over the tote. Therefore, on one of the seams, attaching the front to a side panel, sew up only about one inch from the bottom and leave the rest unstitched to later sew by hand (figure G).

9. Stack the two fabric pieces for the flap together with right sides facing. Sew around three sides, taking a 1/4-inch seam and leaving one long side unstitched. Turn right side out and insert the plastic flap piece. About a half inch of fabric should extend beyond the top of the plastic piece.

10. Make the handle by folding the piece of handle fabric in half lengthwise, stitch the length of the piece, turn right side out and press.

11. Lay the tote cover on a tabletop. Pull back the top panel as much as possible, exposing the right side of the underneath piece. This will be the back panel of the tote covering. Bring the two ends of the handle together and place them on the back panel of the fabric so the ends are facing up and the handle loop is down. On top of this, place the flap so that the top edge of the back tote panel, the ends of the handle and the open end of the flap are all lined up on top of each other. Stitch along this edge, taking a half-inch seam.

13. Bring the covering up as smoothly and snugly as possible (figure H) before hand-sewing the open edge closed. I think it helps to bring up the extending fabric over the top edge of the tote and taping it to hold while sewing.

14. Insert the lining into the tote. Fold the top edge over toward the mesh and hand sew the lining and the top of the outside fabric along the top edge (figure I). It should all be very neat.

Adding the monkey

1. Draw a very basic sock monkey face (figure J). Draw an oval for the head, then round it out just a bit. Draw an oval for the white portion of the mouth, then an elliptical shape inside of that for the red lips. Draw a line horizontally through the middle of the lips.

2. Add ears, eyes and a hat. After creating a picture resembling a sock monkey's face, cut it into sections and draw around these pieces onto felt (figure K). You should have three white pieces (mouth, hat band, hat) and two red pieces (mouth and top of hat).

3. Cut out the felt pieces and place on top of the purse (figure L). Hand sew the pieces to the purse, adding a small amount of polyester stuffing as you go.

4. Make the ears using the same fabric as the tote. To make the ears, draw a pattern that looks rather like a capital D. Draw around the pattern and cut out 1/4 inch beyond the drawn line. Cut out two pieces for each ear. Stack and stitch around three sides. Turn right side out, stuff lightly with polyester filberfill and sew up the open seam, slightly gathering as you go. Stitch to the side of the monkey's head.

5. Add a tassel. Looks rather like a Shriner!

1. From the remaining mesh, cut four 3-1/8" x 3-1/2" pieces. Cut four fabric pieces 4-5/8" x 9".

2. Stack two pieces with wrong sides together. Stitch down the two short sides and across one long side (figure M), taking a 1/4-inch hem. Repeat on the second set of fabric pieces. Clip the corners and turn right side out.

3. Fold in the raw edges of the open sides, then stitch each piece up the middle.

4. Insert the plastic pieces (figure N) in the open spaces and hand-stitch the top edges closed. For a touch of sock monkey accent color, overcast stitch around all of the edges with red embroidery thread (figure O).

5. Make a matching sock monkey of felt for the front panel (figures P and Q ). In this case, I glued the pieces on and did not stuff them.