Stegosaurus Socks DIY

Know a kid (or adult) who loves dinosaurs? Why not make them a pair of stegosaurus socks? They are quick to make and would be a great stocking stuffer for Christmas (which is just around the corner).

I was inspired to make these because my daughter is kind of liking dinosaurs right now. They aren't her super favorite, but she really likes them. She even keeps saying she wants a dinosaur birthday party for her fifth birthday. We'll see how long that idea lasts since her birthday is quite a ways away. I wanted to see how these looked on a boy too, so my friend let her son help me out.

I took the pics on Sunday at church and they got so many compliments on their socks! I love how each of them ended up having a stuffed animal with them. It was one of those, let's hurry and grab some quick shots while I can picture taking times.

I was so focused on trying to capture the socks I didn't get a good one of the shirts! I used the smooth heat transfer material and my Silhouette Cameo to create the stegosaurus silhouette on their shirts. Then on my daughter's I embroidered a heart to match the hearts on her socks.

To make some stegosaurus socks you will need:
-One pair of knee high socks
-At least one piece of felt, more if using different colors

First start by making some stegosaurus spikes. I made mine to look more realistic. I tried triangles, but I liked this shape better. I just free handed one and used it as a pattern to do them all. You can search pictures of the dinosaur to get a good idea of how they look. You could even print out a pic off the internet and use one of the spikes as your pattern piece.

I ended up using 5 on each sock for my daughters and 6 on each sock for the boys.

Take the socks, turn them inside out, and cut right below the top down to right below the heel. I used manicure scissors because it stuck right through the sock and made cutting easy. There was a line from them being folded already there, so I just cut on that.

Then place the spikes to see how you would like them. Remember not to go too close to the heel because you want to leave room for the heel of the shoe.

Then place the spikes on the inside of where you cut, making the "spiky" end pointing in.

Pin each one in place.

Then sew down the opening and trim off any extra fabric or felt. Make sure to use a needle for knit fabrics and a long stitch to work well with the stretch of the sock.

Go back over the edge with a zig zag stitch for stability and to help keep the sock from unraveling. Repeat these steps for each sock. Then turn right side out.

Maybe even have a little sock puppet show with them? :)

A little more about the shirt....

I started by finding a stegosaurus silhouette (I chose the second one here). Then I opened it in the Silhouette program and used the trace and cut option to create the red line around it (that's where the machine will cut). Then I erased the image I originally opened and was left with outline for cutting. I then sent it to the machine and it cut it out of the smooth heat transfer material from here. If you don't have a silhouette, you could still cut it out by hand if you wanted. You could also just create a fabric silhouette and use some kind of fusible interfacing on the back to iron it on or even cut out a freezer paper stencil and paint it on with fabric paint. 

Then for my daughter's shirt, I embroidered a heart behind it. I had also thought about adding a bow to make it even more girly as well :)