Mouse In An Anchovie Tin With Tutorial

I made this mouse for a friend who travels around the world, and brings a similar mouse I made for him for company.  He shoots photos of Ivan the mouse bungee jumping in Australia, touring the Pyramids at Giza climbing Kilimanjaro, and the list goes on.  I think I counted 30 or more places in the world Ivan has been so far with my friend Jyriki.  I thought Ivan could use a friend other than a human, so I sent him Fu.  I'm placing a tutorial after the cut.

I cut out a piece of gray fabric that turned out looking like the cut out spot here.  The idea is to have a cone shaped face.

Trim off the excess to have a flat open end and glue gun the seam shut.

I attached beads for eyes with heavy duty black thread. I prefer French knots using embroidery cotton but I was feeling hurryish today.

Using the same thread doubled, insert a needle through the end.

To keep the whiskers from falling out, shove a glue gun down the face and add a blob.

Poke a stabby thing into the nose to really make sure the whiskers are bonded.

Trim your whiskers.

Place the head onto paper and draw a circle around the head.

Then add ears.  This is your pattern for the back of the head plus ears.

Cut out two Mickey Mouse shapes.  Hi Mickey!

Glue one of them and stick them together.

Stuff the face.

Glue the face to the back of the head.

I used an anchovy tin for the bed, you can use any tin with a peel away lid that has a pull tab.  Glue a piece of fabric inside, this will be the blanket.

Stuff some stuffing in there.  Just stuff it!

I decided to go rough and rustic because this is a traveling mouse.  Make a pillow for him that's going to be within scale of the head.  Stuff it with stuffing or stuff.

Glue the pillow to the tin, then glue the head to the pillow, then glue the upper edge of the bedding into place.  You now have a mouse that's ready for wondrous adventures.  You can do this craft with your precious little ones, under supervision we don't want our little ones to have burny owchie fingers.

Crazy adorable and fits in a pocket.  Take him with you everywhere you go, and don't forget to take pictures.