The Making of a Sock Monkey

There seems to be a sort of obsession with sock monkeys in David's family. Maybe "obsession" isn't the right word, I suppose tradition is probably more suitable. David has his own sock monkey named Marcus which sits (creepily) in the corner of his bedroom. The sock monkey is kind of like the Mona Lisa ... its eyes follow you wherever you go in the room! No, I'm kidding - but it is weird to see the little sock monkey propped up in the corner. I actually think he might have been lost in transit to David's new place, but in his last two apartments Marcus manned his corner post each day and night.

Last Christmas when we were looking for a gift for his niece Skylar we came across a large stuffed sock monkey at Target. It immediately went into the basket. Little did we know his mother had bought her one as well. David wanted to be the one to give Skylar her first sock monkey so the one his mom bought was put into the pool for the gift exchange we'd have at his cousin's house in MD on Christmas Part 3. Skylar's twin sisters also received sock-monkey-like themed dolls... sock frogs!

Sock Frogs for the Twins

When I was at the craft store about a month ago looking for supplies for my Girls On The Run group I came across a sock monkey kit! How perfect! I could make David a sock monkey for Christmas! I immediately bought the kit and then went to go buy stuffing. For some crazy reason the store was out of polyfill stuffing! (And all stuffed animal making in San Diego screeched to a halt... jk) I found stuffing at another craft store and we were ready to get monkeying!

I brought the supplies over to my friend Devika's house with the intention to make the sock monkey while we watched a DVD marathon of True Blood.

Sock Monkey Kit

Sock #1 Becomes the Body
(With baby foot for size perspective.. haha)

Let There Be Legs!

Sock Monkey Body

Sock #2 Tail & Arms

Sock Monkey w/Tail

Sock Monkey Arms

Starting to Look Like a Monkey!

Rear View.. Love the Red Butt!

Sock Monkey Face
(Kona jumped into a picture)

Sock Monkey Face Completed!
(Mika jumped into this picture)

We watched about 6 hours of True Blood .. and I wasn't finished with the monkey! Six hours of sewing was miserable! I had no idea the project would take so long. Due to the loose fibers in the sock material the stitches needed to hold the parts together were this back cross-over double stitchy thing that took a lot of time and a lot of thread since you were basically going over every stitch twice. I got most of the sock monkey done at her house including his hat, but still needed to make his slippers and teddy bear before he was complete.

Sock Monkey w/Hat

I put the project aside for a few weeks until I realized that I didn't want to wait until Christmas to give David the sock monkey, so I quickly finished the project early this week so that I could send it to him for his birthday instead. I made the slippers and bear .. and we were done! Yay!

Sock Monkey's Teddy Bear

Sock Monkey w/Teddy Bear

Welcome to the world Thaddeus Primus!

Sock Monkey Complete!