Fillable Soft Egg Tutorial

Eggs eggs eggs! I’ve been experimenting with soft hollow eggs to stuff for Easter, I don’t like plastic eggs. If you don’t like plastic eggs either, then whip up a bunch of these to hide around your house, or just make a couple to put in a basket.

I can’t say I’ve gotten the pattern quite right yet, but it’s almost Easter, so *ding* time’s up. Maybe I’ll work on these some more next year. The two main caveats are they are pretty crushable, and the opening is small.  They will hold their shape fine if you stuff them with paper grass and candy, but if you just want a couple jellybeans rattling around  you can squash them flat if you don’t treat them gently. I’d also like the opening to be larger when I redesign them, but the larger the opening the less stable they are.  My friends tell me the small opening is an advantage for entertaining little children anyway.

So there you go.  There are lots of variations you can make with these, how many different prints do you have in your stash?  You can practically fit this pattern on a charm square, actually, you probably can.  The initial instructions call for embellished felt, but at the end is a variation for (heavy) interfaced fabric, and the button is also optional if you’re in a rush and you want to make a lot.

So download the Egg_Pattern and get started.

Cut out your pieces, marking which end is the bottom because they are easy to get upside down.  Cut three leaf shaped egg-quarters, and one each of the half pieces for the fourth side that opens.

You can paint or bead or embroider or otherwise embellish your pieces now, or you can do it when the egg is mostly sewn together if you want a pattern that matches up nicely at the seams.  Remember that you’re going to need to cut a buttonhole in the top piece of the split side and sew a button on to the bottom of the split side (although you can skip this).  You don’t want to have to cut through any of your decorative stitching to cut your buttonhole.

I’m going to whip stitch the egg together from the inside/with the pieces wrong side together, then when I turn the egg right side out the seams will be smoother than if I whip stitched them from the outside or used a blanket stitch on the outside.

Take one egg-quarter and the bottom of the split side and match them up at the bottom points.  Take two stitches through the bottom corners, then whip stitch up one side.  When you get to the upper edge of the split bottom piece take two whip stitches through the same spot to reinforce the edge of what will be the opening.

Then match the top piece for the split side up with the egg-quarter and continue whip stitching up the seam, again taking a double stitch at the bottom and top to hold it in place neatly.

Take another egg-quarter piece (making sure not to mix up the bottom and top) and whip stitch it down the other edge of the split side.  Now you should have three sewn egg panels with an opening flap in the middle panel.

Sew on the fourth egg-quarter piece.  Bet you weren’t expecting that.

Now, while your egg still has one open seam, is the time to finish the edges of the opening flap and the button hole, and to sew on the button, and also to add any other embroidery. Once you finish sewing the egg shut getting inside it becomes much tricker. You still can through the flap opening, but it isn’t very roomy.

Start by turning the egg right side out, then stitch around the opening.  This will help the felt hold its shape, but if you’re in a rush you can skip it, felt isn’t going to fray on you.  You can use any edging stitch you want, a plain button hole works great.  I went a little fancy-pants on this egg and used an Antwerp edging stitch.  

After your edge stitching is done around the opening stitch on the button.  You want to put it close to the edge so that the buttonhole on the top piece doesn’t have to go too close to the edge.

Once your button is in place smooth out the egg shape and feel where the button lies behind the top flap.  Mark the middle of the button, and cut a slit for the buttonhole slightly longer than your button diameter.  Push the button through to make sure the buttonhole is long enough.  Now you can edge stitch around the button hole, or you can leave it plain.

Like I said before, now is the last convenient chance to add any embellishing embroidery.  For this egg I continued the scalloped row of Antwerp edge stitching from the top flap around the other three sides of the egg.  I just learned this stitch for this egg, and I wanted more!  🙂

Finally, turn your egg back inside out, whip stitch the fourth seam closed, and then turn it right side out through the flap opening.  Push the seams smooth with your fingers.  Now you have a pretty egg, that isn’t cheap plastic, that you can fill with treats for Easter.  I’m going to hide mine around the house for my daughter, but I love them too much to hide them outside.  Maybe next year after they’ve been ‘loved’ until they’re shabby.

 
Fabric Variation

If you aren’t into felt right now, or you just want a little variation, you can make a quicker version of this egg using fabric and heavy interfacing. I’ve included a version of the pattern that has 1/8″ seam allowances added to it, and you can put it together with a zig-zag stitch (or straight if you feel like it) on your machine. The directions are primarily the same, with a few exceptions.

Cut out all the pieces except for the top of the split side. Cut this out roughly, or not at all, then use your machine to sew a buttonhole approximately in the right spot. Once you’ve sewn the buttonhole then you can position the top split side pattern piece with the button hole near the bottom edge and cut it out. I do it this way since when I sew machine buttonholes they never come out exactly where I want them.

Also, after you have the top and bottom split sides cut out but before you’ve done any construction sewing is the time to finish the edges of what will be the egg opening with a zig-zag stitch. You probably want to run a line of straight stitches very close to the edge before the zigzag to reinforce the edge and keep it from stretching and curling when you add the zigzag.

Once you’ve ‘finished’ the top and bottom pieces of the split side the construction instructions are the same, using a machine zigzag stitch covering 1/8″ of the edges rather than a hand whip stitch.

After the construction sewing is done and you turn the egg right side out and flatten the seams out with your fingers, mark where the buttonhole lies on the bottom of the opening, and sew your button on. There you go.

As always, please send me a link if you make some of these.