"Hug" Tutorial

One of my friends suggested a great idea for Christmas presents for my parents.  She gave her parents in law two "hugs" from her children.  They were two lengths of material with hands at the end, the same length as their arms, so that the Grandparents could have a hug from them whenever they wanted.  What a special and unique present.  So I decided that I would do this for my parents, and here is my tutorial:

Materials: You will need some felt for the hands, and some soft, stretchy material for the arms.  I found a couple of arms from some woollen jerseys that I hadn't been able to find a purpose for, but hadn't wanted to throw out.  We'll pretend that I was forward thinking rather than just hoarding.

First, measure the length of your child's arms and back from wrist to wrist across the shoulders.  This proved easier for P than for J.

Next, pin the sleeves at the appropriate length, and cut the sleeves.

Next, place one of the sleeves inside the other, with the wrong side out, and right sides together.  Pin the two sleeves together in a circle.
Note: You could omit the above steps and just cut the sleeves once they are inside one another, but I found it quite difficult to get the two sleeves even with one inside the other.

Sew the two sleeves together (you'll have to turn your head because I haven't managed to rotate it around).

You should now be able to turn the sleeves right side out and have one long tube of material.
Note: You could of course simply sew a tube of material rather than using the sleeves.

Next, trace around your child's hands on the felt.  Again this proved much easier with P than with J.  I had to guesstimate a little with J's hands.

Cut out the hands

Pin the hands to the end of the sleeves

Sew the hands onto the end of the sleeves.  You could hand sew this, or do some kind of fancy stitching if it took your fancy.  I just straight sewed the hands on with my sewing machine.

And there you have it, "hugs" from your children for their loving grandparents.  I know my parents are going to adore them.