Yo Yo Elephant toy

Project #19

So last week we flew to Oahu which was a 13 hour flight (boo hoo, I know) so I thought I better take a hand sewing project to kill time. Making 70 yo yos seemed like the perfect small hand sewing thing for an airplane.

I wanted to make this elephant toy from the scraps of the elephant quilt that I made this Feb for the same baby. This pattern is from Indygo Junction and they have many great yo yo toy patterns. You may remember last summer’s post where I made two yo yo monkeys for baby gifts.

This time I thought I’d be smart and pre cut all the circles with my handy Olfa circle cutter, which I LOVE!  It is so fast and easy and the circles were cut in no time!

The problem was that the pattern gives instructions on making yo yos with the Clover yo you maker and how to make them without it. I love the Clover tool because it is fast, easy and the yo yos come out perfect every time!

But instead of looking at the tool, I cut out the size circles that the pattern said for hand sewing without the tool. I packed them all in a zip loc bag and flew away.

Well I discovered that all the circles were too small to use the Clover tool because the fabric has to be about 1/4” bigger all around the circle tool and these were exact or smaller!!  UGH! What to do?

I only had so much scrap fabric left over and I cut most of it for this toy. Plus now I was thousands of miles away from home.  My plan was to make the yo yos in Hawaii or flying and then go home for 4 days and assemble the elephant before seeing the baby. Why didn’t I cut one and then check it with the Clover tool?

So, I ended up hand sewing yo yos in the evenings and just eyeballing the spacing. They came out ok but with a little variance in size of the finished yo yos.  But it got done with the fabric I had!

I highly recommend this Clover tool. I have every size and it is so much fun. I think this will be my go-to hand sewing project for air travel.