How to insert a Music Pull String Box into a Toy

Here are a few pictures from the project I worked on - inserting a musical pull string box into a soft toy.

Inserting the box sounded much more difficult in theory than it ended up being in practise, but I did have to do some 'unpicking' and 'resewing' as my initial thoughts of the involved steps had to be reviewed.... :)

If I get a chance I'll put up more pictures and a more thorough description.. In the meantime if you need help putting one of these boxes into your softie project, please feel free to contact me through the 'contact us' link in our online store (www.tomnidesign.com.au)..

These are the supplies I started off with: front and back pieces of my owl (plus the wings), musical pull string box (available from our online store), yellow teether flower for the handle (from our online store), brown fabric (for the cord) and grosgrain ribbon (for the tie)..

You could apply the same technique to any other softie toy, as long as there's enough room inside it to accommodate for the music box.

After sewing the cord and turning it inside out I sewed it between the front and back pieces, into the bottom edge of the toy, leaving a tiny gap in the middle of the cord for threading the pull string. I also sewed in the tie on top while sewing the toy front and back pieces together.

And here is the end result! A softie owl with a tie on top and a music box inside. The music box is activated when the yellow flower handle is pulled. My son totally loved the owl and so we kept on hearing Brahm's lullaby over and over and over.. and over again!

Help us choose new products..

We are looking at extending our product range - but would like some feedback as to which products you think we should bring in...

Here's the suggestions:

 

Let us know which products you would like to see in our shop.. :)

Teether Corner Pieces - how to tutorial..

The corner pieces have finally arrived and have been added to the online store here

Here's an example of how they can be used - as a corner on a blanket...

Here's a short tutorial on how to add these to your blanket...

1. Make your blanket - cut out two squares / rectangles and placing the right sides together, sew around it, leaving a small gap (approx 10cm) so you can turn it out.

2. Turn your blanket right sides out. Decide which corner you will be attaching the corner piece to. Turn this corner inside the blanket - make sure your edge that you turn in is the same length as the inside of the plastic corner. If using a corner without a hole, you do not need to do this step, as the corner will go over the fabric corner.

3. Sew across the corner. Sew around the rest of the blanket (if you would like to have extra stitching along the edge of the blanket).

4. Line up the plastic corner on top of the blanket corner.

 5. Pre-stitch the holes in the plastic corner. You can do this using your sewing machine (by turning the wheel manually, as otherwise you may break the needle), or you can make the holes using a strong, sharp needle. You may find it useful to use a zipper foot on your machine so you can punch the holes further away from the corner edge.

 6. Sew on the corner using a sharp, strong needle using thicker cotton. It can be a bit tricky sewing through all the layers at once, so try breaking it up. To start, make a knot and sew it to the fabric. Push needle through the first hole in the corner piece, back down through the next hole and through the fabric, and push the needle out the side of the plastic corner piece (picture shows the needle going from bottom up)...

 then keep pushing the needle up through the second plastic lip. Continue until you have stitched all along the corner piece. Finish off by sewing the thread end under the plastic corner lip..

Please be careful when sewing these corners in by hand as sewing though the layers can require some extra force at times..

Feel free to send in your pictures of how you've used these corners in your projects so we can share them with other crafters :)