Don’t let the title make you think this book is only for children, all 52 designs can be worked into bead and fiber creations. This book is planned out for projects parents can make and children enjoy, with all kinds of animal critters, a panda that can sit in a tea cup, frogs and fairies smaller than an average size pair of scissors. Star fish shapes and dragons are just waiting for play.

Each pattern includes illustrations and instructions for making the toy plus a pattern you can machine copy and cut out as a guide for cutting the fabric. Many of the toys are made up in various materials so you can see the diversity of each design.

There are also little people toys including angels and astronauts. On page 47 is a photo of a wreath made up of the toys, wouldn’t a child love their own toy wreath? There is a whole break down of fabrics for toys, sewing decorative fabrics, embellishing fabrics, embroidery, painting and printing. Tyrannosaurus , kitties and tigers await your creative fingers. There is a whole chapter on armatures to allow toys to stand such as a giraffe and a moose. The Honey Bee is a cute little toy that is pretty simple to put together. Bats and owls, parrots and penguins, you choose.

What’s Inside is a chapter covering stuffing, fiberfill, pellets and assembling the toys. Illustrations include color photos of the steps required and drawings.

If you want to bead these pieces and do not use a sewing machine, hand stitch the pieces together with beads and thread using ultrasuede or leather. You can stitch them together just like you would a small bag or pouch. I could easily see adapting many of the patterns to easy edge stitching I use in my Medicine Pouch Jewelry book. Little fish, frogs eels and starfish could be worked together on a belt or hat.

Patterns like the red snapper and angel fish could easily be worked to include beadwork. Even if you do not want to use ultrasuede or leather and want to create beaded pieces, the breakdown of the pattern is easy to follow as you work a freeform design. It will show you how a fish form can be created 3-D as well as many of the other patterns. No matter what techniques I am using, when I want to create 3-D pieces, I always refer back to toy and doll patterns in books and magazines as a blueprint to success.

Whether you want to make toys for your children or create tiny beadworks, Sewing Tiny Toys will help you on your way.