Ballerina Sock Monkey

This ballerina sock monkey was made for my niece Macie, who is just 4. She is a tiny (her mom says she is not even on the growth chart) little red-hed with a chirruppy, perfectly-articulated little munchkin voice. She's adorable and sweet.

I made a ballerina sock monkey for her, because I wanted something with soft colors and all sweetness and huggability. (She does not like little, yappy dogs or scary-looking animals -- like the turtle her cousins caught and kept in a cardboard box under the deck).

Note the little toy bunny this sock monkey carries. Her tutu and slippers are off-the-shelf doll clothes. Her top and hat are made from an old pair of my socks. I just cut and rolled the fabric -- nothing easier! But I thought it was to nice effect. I was tempted to use the other sock to make leg warmers, but sock monkeys kind of have their own built-in leg warmers with the white part of their legs. So, I forced myself to keep it simple, and I'm glad.

Construction Notes:

With this monkey, I think I finally solved my eye problem. I bought some felt that was JUST the shade of the creamy part of the sock, and used that for eyelids. You still get a little of the froggy effect with the lighter colors, but I think, with time, I can mitigate that with changing the shape of the eyes and getting embroidered eyeliner or lashes on the lid. I did the more child-proof eye construction -- sew on the base, glue the wiggly eye onto the felt, then glue the felt eyelid onto the wiggly eye (with intense gun-glue which is clingier than a psychotic girlfriend).

Also, with this monkey and the cheerleader monkey, I got into a new accessory -- neck ribbon. I saw this concept mentioned in several of the older, classic instructions. If you tie some yarn around the neck, the sock monkey looks a little less like a football player on steroids. At Michael's craft store, I found a little display called "bobbin ribbon". I think the bobbin part refers to its little small shape, because it surely would not fit in a sewing machine bobbin. Anyway, this ribbon had several colors, patterns and sayings on it. I bought several. The ballerina monkey's ribbon says "Imagine . . . " on it. The cheerleader (previous post) says "Best Friends".