All I want for Christmas is... a rat?

I'm trying to teach my kids to enjoy the holiday gift-GIVING as much as the gift-receiving. So when my daughter, Margaret, announced that she wanted to make a stuffed animal for her oldest brother, Connor, I felt I couldn't say no, even though we were running out of time to make things before Christmas arrived.

Connor was born in the Year of the Rat, and has embraced all things rat. So naturally, Margaret wanted to sew him a rat, and she made a sketch of what she thought it should look like. Her rendition looks a bit overfed, but I sketched a variation just below that I thought would work if we made it from felt, and she approved the design, "as long as there could be stripes on the tail".

I started by searching the Internet for an already-available pattern, but we found nothing that Margaret considered suitable. So, at last, I was forced to make a paper mock-up, and then deconstruct it to create a pattern that would be as similar to Margaret's concept drawing as possible.


She chose the fabrics and buttons, did most of the cutting out, and some of the hand-sewing, though pushing the needle through the felt proved to be harder on her fingers than she'd anticipated. I helped her out, trying to keep my stitches similar to hers, to preserve that made-by-a-seven-year-old look.

Although Connor is too old to play with stuffed animals, he was pleased and surprised to receive his Christmas rat, and it has a place of honour on the window sill beside his bed.

As you can see, he does, indeed, sport a great many hand-drawn stripes on his long pink tail.