Sew a felt whale softie, it is easy and fun! As with most of our felt sewing projects, this felt whale is perfect for beginner sewers. Sewn by hand you can pick a suitable stitch to suit the age and experience level of the sewer. Make double-sided or just add the extra details to one side to make this adorable felt whale even simpler!

We have added on a free W is for Whale coloring printable for our youngest crafters. This can be done before, after, or even during the sewing if your child needs a break from the sewing fun.

Sew A Felt Whale Softie

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This is possibly our easiest felt softie yet! With only three parts there isn’t lots of fiddly sewing here. You can either cut out two of each piece and decorate the front and back or two of the main whale shape and one piece of the other pieces and decorate just one side. Eyes can be made from felt, sewn on with thread, or drawn on with Sharpie. So simple and so cute!

You Will Need

• Felt.
• Scissors.
• The free pattern below.
• Thread.
• Needle.
• Glue- fabric glue, glue stick, tacky glue. This is to glue on the eye if you are wanting to make one from felt.
• Sharpie Pen or similar if drawing on the eye, this can also be used to draw around the pattern pieces.
• Pins can be helpful but this can be made without.
• Fiberfill/ stuffing or use felt offcuts.

The Printable

Click the link below the image to print or to save for later use.

Let’s Get Sewing

Cut out the pieces

First, print the whale felt softie sewing pattern and cut out each piece. From the pattern, you will need to cut out x2 of each piece from felt if you are wanting to have a double-sided whale. Your whale will still be extremely cute if you only add on the extra details to one side, in this case, you will need x2 of the large whale body piece and x1 whale body detail, and x1 of the flipper. In addition, you will need eyes for your whale. You can make your eyes from felt, sew them on with thread or draw them on with a Sharpie.

How you cut out your pattern pieces is up to you. I like to cut out the items that require two pieces at the same time by layering the felt to ensure that the pieces are matching. Having matching pieces is very important for the body as it is really hard to sew two pieces together that do not match! I will often pin the pattern piece I want to cut onto the felt and carefully cut around that. For children, I get them to draw around the piece with a pen and then get them to cut around that. Once you have cut out all of the pieces check that the body front and back match up and trim if needed.

The Stitches

To make this whale we use a blanket stitch, a running stitch, and a backstitch if sewing on the eye detail. A whipstitch is a great alternative to the blanket stitch as it is easier and faster so perfect for beginners.

In saying this our girls who were around 5 and 7 at the time, actually learned how to do a blanket stitch before a whip stitch as this was the stitch that was on the first box sewing project they tried! So although it is a little more difficult it still is a stitch that children can easily learn if they are up for a challenge. If your child is very young and new to sewing then it is also possible to make this whale using just a running stitch if that is what they feel more comfortable with. Many kids start by learning a running stitch. For whatever reason Miss six really struggles with the running stitch and does most of her sewing with the whip stitch. So basically just do whatever stitch suits you or your child best!!

A running stitch is a very basic stitch where you simply go up and down in one direction through the pieces of felt that you want to sew together.

To do a backstitch is similar to the running stitch but you sew back to the holes to fill in all of the gaps. This is fantastic for doing detailed work like on the eye.

A whipstitch is sewn by looping the thread over the edge of the felt and pulling through. Blanket stitch is a variation of whipstitch where you put the needle back through the loop before pulling through this gives a neater and more decorative look.

To find out more about these stitches Sew A Softie has great tutorials on the running stitch, backstitch, and whip stitch. Professor Pincushion has a great video tutorial showing how to do the whip stitch and blanket stitch.

Start with the details

Start with the details. Sew the body detail onto the main whale piece. This goes at the bottom of the whale. Place the body detail on top of the main whale piece and then sew around using a running stitch. If you are doing both sides, repeat on the other whale body piece. Make sure that you sew it on the correct side so when the whale is placed together the detail is on the outside of each piece!

Add on the flipper by doing a couple of running stitch stitches. Again add one of the other whale piece.

Make an eye. We made our eyes from felt. To do this cut out a small circle of felt and then glue onto your whale. You can also draw on the eye (great for children) or sew one using a backstitch (great to extend your sewing skills). If using glue wait until it is dry before moving on to the next step.

Join the Whale body pieces

Next, place the whale body pieces together and start to sew around the edge. Either blanket stitch or whip stitch is best for this stage. You can swap color when at the body detail piece if you like.

It is ideal to stuff half-way through as it can be tricky to get the stuffing into the tail. Before sewing, all the way up make sure that you are happy with how much stuffing you have inside of your whale.

How cute is your mini felt whale softie?!

Coloring Fun

Print out and color this fun whale coloring page. This can be done alongside sewing your whale or it could be perfect to keep younger children entertained while you are busy sewing.

You May Also Like These Other Felt Creations

• Felt Sloth Donut Softie
• DIY Monster Felt Play Mat
• Sew A Felt Narwhal
• Easy Felt Llama Softie

Thank you for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed making your felt whale softie today! Sew a felt whale softie.