Make Your Own Wrestling Buddy

My son is at that age where he likes to wrestle/bump/squeeze anyone or anything! To save my daughter and I from being his favorite targets I made him his own wrestling buddy. It has been a huge success!! All that we really needed was a shirt, a pair of pants and some stuffing. We had plenty of clothes in the garage that my son had outgrown to choose from and so it was quite simple to put together.  And although I did not get any pictures of it, my kids helped me sew it together, too. You can make the man with out feet, hands, and a head and really save yourself some time, but my son insisted that his “man” have everything. 😀 It turned out to be a super easy and super fun project!

What You Need:

• A long sleeved shirt
• A pair of pants
• Gloves/mittens/or fabric **
• Socks **
• An old junky t-shirt- to make the head**
• Needle
• Thread
• Stuffing

** Optional – it just depends on what “parts” you feel are necessary!

Directions:

Step 1: Gather and prep all your supplies. I used a pair of pajama pants my son had outgrown/really worn out and a long sleeved t-shirt he did not wear. My son wanted his “man” close to the same height as himself and he wanted him to have a head, hands and feet. I had an extra pair of pink gloves, but fortunately we found some non-girly ones we were not using (you can find these mittens for cheap at the store during the end of season/after season sales) or you can cut fabric out and make some in mitten style… it’s all about what you want!

For the head, I just traced a general circle (using a bowl, so I could visualize how big I was making the head) and a neck on an old stained t-shirt. You should end up with 2 cirlces because of the front and back of the shirt. Then I sewed the two pieces together and turned it inside out. If I did this again, I would take an inch or 2 off the neck in the picture below because it was WAY too long!

Step 2: Sew everything together and make sure to leave a hole where the shirt and pants meet so you can put the stuffing in easily. Make sure to use a strong stitch to keep all his parts togehter during a wrestling match. I sewed it all by hand because it was way easier for me that way then using the sewing machine, plus my kids were able to help me sew him together (I forgot to take pictures of that, though). I also attached the hands to the sleeves and the socks to the pants first before attching everything else.

Step 3: Stuff, stuff and stuff! This is definatley a step that is perfect for all little helpers. You decide how soft or stiff your creation is by how much stuffing you add. Make sure you stuff the fingers, hands, feet and head first before you do the rest of the body. Use an unsharpened pencil or stick to help, if needed. For the fingers, I found it easiest to seperate a small ball of stuffing and do each finger individually before doing the hand. The stuffing did not seem to want to go in to the fingers, otherwise.

Step 4: Stich up your final hole and enjoy! Wrestle away and have fun!

ENJOY!!

I am linking up to these parties!