DIY Frog Bean Bag and Humpty Dumpty Shelf Doll

With one or two simple changes, this quick and easy sewing project can be adapted easily from a gift for an athletic child to one for a child who loves reading and/or dolls. Sand may be used as a filler, but you will want a plastic liner layer to help keep the sand from coming out and may want to use a small amount of glue on the inside of the seams.

Materials
½ yard print fabric (slightly stretchy is best)
Spool of thread in appropriate color
Scissors
Needle
Marker
Beans, rice, popcorn or similar filler
Optional: Pencil & paper, straight pins, sewing machine, plastic eyes, buttons, ric-rac, scrap white fabric

Start by folding your fabric in half, inside out. Using the picture above as a guide, draw a large egg shape with legs onto one side of the fabric with marker. You may want to practice on paper first. Cut out the design through both layers of fabric.

Humpty Variation 1 If you are making a frog, just skip to the next paragraph. If your fabric is white on the inside, simply cut the top half of one side of the egg with legs shape off and flip it over. Otherwise, use the cut away piece as a pattern to cut a new piece from the scrap white fabric. Sew it to the bottom half along the wrong-facing straight sides.

Frog or Humpty If desired, pin the two halves of fabric together. Hand sew using back stitch or sew together on machine, either way leaving about a two inch gap in between the legs for stuffing. Remove pins if necessary. Turn the piece right side out and begin filling with beans, taking care to work beans down into each foot and leg. Use the needle and thread to whip stitch the filling gap together. If needed, work the beans around inside the doll until the legs are full and the fill is even.

Humpty Variation 2 So that the doll will look more like an egg wearing pants, you may want to add eyes to the white area and place buttons down the center of the patterned area. Ric-rac can be added at the waist as a decorative belt.

The frog can now be tossed during games of catch or just treated like a stuffed animal. Humpty can be tossed around, too, but is better suited to sit on a book shelf, with his legs hanging off the edge.