Meet Sofie

This darling dangler is Sofie, the world's most cuddly spider.  Once you make one, you just won't be able to resist making another!  We put them on hair clippies and give them to everyone we know.  I have even been tempted to make huge ones to hang from the trees outside. 

Here is what you need:  One homemade pompom, two googly eyes, a scrap of black felt to glue the eyes to, and one very darling bow...

What's that?  You have never made your own pompom before?  Well, welcome to the Halloween rendition of ...

For these particular arachnids, I went with a thicker eyelash yarn.  It is like "worsted weight meets eyelash" all rolled in one convenient package.  This puppy runs about $7.50 a skein without a coupon (Hobby Lobby).  I have to say I think it is worth it.  It made a much fuller body for my little lady and I got over 25 out of the skein.  I even have a pile of it left over :0)

To get started, grab your yarn and find the loose end.  You will use your three middle fingers as a spool. 

Here is what three times around looks like.  Keep Going!

I usually go between 21 and 25 times around my fingers for this particular size.  Using my three fingers I get a pompom that measures about 2 1/2".  When you have gone around enough times, snip off the extra yarn strand and slip the wad off of your fingers.  Be sure to keep a finger in the center so you don't loose it.  Grab some thread (I always use button/craft thread-it is TONS stronger).

Once you have the thread tied through the center and around one side of the yarn, go ahead and wrap it around the whole wad a couple times.  You don't necessarily have to tie through the center, but I like to do it to be sure the the yarn is really secure. 

It looks something like this...

Knot the button thread a couple times to make sure it is really staying there, then snip those thread tails!

The next step is to cut all the loops of yarn.  Jab your scissors in there and start snipping.  Black is a hard color to see exactly where to snip.  You are simply looking for loops and cutting them into individual strands.  Don't forget to do the other end :0)

Fluff your pompom a little and don't be afraid to give the little guy a hair cut.  You will have some strands that are way longer than others.  Don't let your perfectionism get out of control.  You don't need to snip him away to nothing, just smooth out the rough edges :0)

Here is my puffy pompom accompanied by his lovely debris.  You end up with more to cut off when an eyelash yarn is involved.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of last years spider and this years spider.  Last year we used regular eyelash yarn.  See how much fuller Sofie is with the thicker yarn.  She doesn't look so anorexic.  In fact, she may just want to stay way from the Trick-or-Treat bag this year :0)

Back to business...

For the legs you can use either straight ribbon or curl your ribbon.  HERE is a good tutorial for curling the ribbon.  I used very thin ribbon (1/8") and curled it on BBQ skewers to get that tight of a curl. 

Lay 4 as shown above and stitch together with a needle and thread, then sew to the pompom.  You can just hot glue, but you won't get the long wear out of your spider and the bottom ends up looking like a mess.

Next, take that scrap of black felt and hot glue the googly eyes to it.  I used to glue the eyes directly to the spider, but they always ended up facing two different directions when the pompom moved around.  I found by gluing the eyes to the felt I could keep them in place better.  Hot glue the eye piece and the bow in place. 

Keep that glue gun plugged in and glue our little lady to a lined alligator clip.

Here is a shot of the under-side...How embarrassing!  No one wants a picture of their underside, right?

My little Sophie measures about 2 1/2", not counting the legs.  She is puffy and soft, so cute perched up on top of my girl's heads-no webs necessary!  Isn't that great!?!

Now that is one spider I will allow in my house!

This project was linked up HERE: