Love {BUGS} and yes...it has a POCKET

Love Bug (TUTORIAL) from hiccupsinmyhair@blogspot.com

As cute as the Love Birds I made for Valentine's Day were, I knew there was no way my little boy was going to appreciate them.  With his interests in mind, I decided to go for a more buggy approach.  Similar to the Love Birds because of the pocket and shape, I tried my luck at making a Love Bug and even though they are reminiscent of Valentine's Day because of the heart, I think the creepy eyes and teeth make up for it.

And yes, they have a pocket as well.

I added some sparkly detail such as multiple little eyes, the jagged teeth, 

the heart on the pocket and the heart on the back.

Here is the PATTERN I used.

( To PRINT just click on the image above, right click and either save or print)

DIRECTIONS
No. 1) Cut out all your pieces.  I used cotton fabric for the front and back body parts, red ball trim for the legs, red and white rick-rack ribbon for the teeth and then pre-cut sparkly hearts bought from the dollar store for the eyes and the heart decor.  I also used red thread for all the sewing.  I thought the red thread exposed against the fabric for the eyes gave it a more pestilential effect. 

No.2) I sewed my eyes down - including the bottom and middle eye -middle eye not shown in the picture, sorry.  I also sewed the bottom and top hearts down.  (I also included a length of white ribbon folded over as kind of a tail on some of the bugs so that they could be hung.  This can be seen in the picture above.)

No.3) I also sewed down the red ball trim - the trim needs to face inward shown in picture 2 so that when you sew it to the back and flip it through, it will be on the outside of the body.   I had to change my sewing foot and use a zipper foot so the trim would fit underneath.  I am not a seamstress by any means, but this was actually really easy.   

No. 4) I then hemmed the top of the pocket and sewed the pocket heart to the pocket.  After those 2 steps, I sewed the pocket to the back.  I then sewed the front of the bug to the back of the bug leaving a gap-on one side of the legs- so I could pull it through, add some batting and then hand-sewed it shut.

No. 5) I then layered a red and white piece of rick-rack ribbon (I choose that 'cause I thought it looked like teeth) and hand-sewed down.

No. 6) I also hand-sewed the eyes down reinforcing them to ensure they would not come off.

And there he is ... a creepy little Love Bug!

Imagine seeing this little guy up in the cobwebs!

Happy Gifting!

- Sabrina