Pajama Eaters!

So once upon a time, I have no idea how long ago, I saw this cool pattern/tutorial for stuffed "monsters" with storage space inside them.  The pattern is Pajama Eaters, from Sew Fearless.  At the time I first saw it, the pattern was a free download, but it is now only offered for sale.  (I downloaded it back when it was free.)

Much time has passed, and I recently ran across the pattern while trying to organize my downloaded sewing patterns in one main folder.  And it reminded me that I'd always thought the pattern was really cool, and clearly I needed to make it now!  Well, Thing 2 was invited to a birthday party for a set of twins, so I thought this would be perfect.  The idea is that a child can put clean pajamas into the mouth of the creature in the morning, then take them out at night.  Well, I don't know about anyone else's child, but my children would see this as perfect storage for treasured toys!  However, they also love squishy, huggable creatures, so I decided to go ahead and make them as gifts.

Like I said, the pattern is now only offered for sale, but there's still a great tutorial to take you through it.  (And yes, you could probably easily draft the pieces yourself, though why reinvent the wheel?)  The little boy's favorite colors are red and black, and I don't know the girl's favorites, but I figured purple and a little pink should be safe, right?  The boy creature is all flannel, as I had a great mottled red flannel in stash.  The girl creature is cotton woven for the purple body and flannel for the mouth and foot/inside contrasts.  The best part?  Except for one of the zippers, everything is stash!  Hooray! A great gift, and it's practically free*!

And this is definitely a hit with kids.  While the birthday party hasn't happened yet, Thing 2 approved both the creatures, and he definitely wants one for himself!  I'm thinking he might need a frog or a ninja, inspired by Jaimee at Craft, Interrupted.  Then I'll have to figure out what modifications to make for Thing 1....maybe I can come up with a penguin....