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Making a craft weight
needs To make your own craft weight you are going to need the following items:
1. stuffed toy (preferably a toy that is laying down).
2. sharp scissors for opening up the toy.
3. thread and needle to sew the toy back together when finished.
4. some sort of weight to will the toy with (BBs or something similar that don't rust if toy gets damp).
5. funnel for assisting with inserting weight into toy.
6. tray to hold your toy and catch any of the weights that may (will!) escape.
For a lot of crafters there are times when that third hand would come in very handy.  This is true for cross-stitchers and those that do canvaswork.  Being able to hold your canvas and use both hands to do a stitch is difficult.  

I was originally shown how to make my own craft weight from an instructor when I was talking a canvaswork class. Thanks Ietje. After the class I immediately made one because it then make it so much easier to work on the project.

Most people will clamp their project onto a table but this means that each time you have to end a thread you have to unclamp your work.  With a craft weight that you can just move out of the way, makes it a little easier to do.

I will now show you how to change a simple inexpensive stuffed animal into a craft weight so that you can use both hands while stitching.
start with
I started with a toy that would lay down easily and something that was fun to look at.

The blue bear is my original project and the chocolate dog is the one that is going to now become my next weight.
part1
This is the toy that I will be using and the easiest spot I have found to open the toy is where the label is located.  You don't need the lable anyway so this makes a convenient spot.
part 2
You are going to need to use some scarp scissors to get the stitches out. Once you start removing the label it gets a lot easier to do.  You may want to make the opening a little wider than the original tab so that it is easy to remove the original stuffing and insert the new weights.
part 3
You are going to remove most of the stuffing from your toy.  I left the stuffing in the head area of mine so that it can look around.  This is up to you but remember the more stuffing you remove the more weight you are going to have to add.
flat
The toy is going to look very odd for a little bit in this deflated state, but it won't be long before you have something that is coming back to life.
stuffing
This is the stuffing that I removed from my little dog and I will be reusing the stuffing in another project later on.
start
Here is the tray ready for the next step which is actually starting to fill your toy with the weights.  You may want some help with this as the toy does want to pull away from the funnel as it starts to get refilled.
bb insert
Holding the funnel in the hole that you made by removing the label gives you an easy way to insert the weights.  I used the funnel as the BBs are small and want to escape easily.
bbs
Remember:  Don't fill the funnel too full at any given time because you will need to shake it around a bit to get all the BBs into the toy.
sewing up
Once you have most of the BBs in, that you want to add to your toy,  you can start sewing him back up.  Remember it is a good idea to start sewing where you didn't open so that you are reinforcing the area at both ends.
testing
Before you finish sewing up the opening ensure that you test to make sure the toy is as firm as you would like it to be.  Also you don't want it too firm as you need it moveable and also if you take it with you to stitching events, something you can carry.
escaped
As you are testing the firmness and also sewing the toy back up this may happen.  Yes, a few BBs decided they wanted to escape so having the toy on a tray meant I wasn't having to chase the BBs all over the room.
waiting
After you finish sewing up the opening your toy is now ready to be used as a weight.
working
It doesn't take long for the new craft weight to find a use and a project that it can be used on.
stretched out
The weight is great when you want to work on your canvaswork because you now have both hands for stitching instead of trying to juggle the frame and stitch.
finished
Here is the finished craft weight sitting and waiting for a project.  The other fun part of having a toy as a weight as it is fun to bug your crafting friends with.
friends
I now have two craft weights ready to use and there may be a time when I need both of these to hold a frame down.  The weight needed will really depend on the size of the frame that I am using.
Fun Facts:
Some extreme weight gain was achieved in this project.

Original weight of brown dog: 31 grams (1.1 ounces)
New weight: 1,563 grams (3 lbs 7.1 ounces)

Blue bear weight: 1,075 grams (2 lbs 5.9 ounces)

Last updated 2016-02-07 Copyright © 2022 DLK Life