DIY Wooden Crate Monster

by Amy Liberty

Howl-O, Ghoulfriends, Amy here from @mikelmichelleco! If you’re like me your spooky décor has adorned your halls since early September. If not, you may find yourselves with a special kind of monster. One who is bursting at the seams (or wooden joints) to crawl out of storage. A Halloween helper, if you will. I’m THRILLED to be the first to introduce you to my tentacled friend, Vincent, along with a step by step in how to create his soldered “wood” crate.

Materials:

Downloadable PDF Pattern:

Instructions:

  1. Print the pattern onto cardstock and cut out stencils.
  1. Trace and cut out desired pieces.
    Tip: For smaller tentacle suckers use dies/fabric punch/hole punch.
  1. Begin by prepping the “wooden” crate pieces. Using scissors or a rotary cutter and ruler, cut out five- 11 inch by 5/8 inch strips of your wood color.
  1. Place your cut strips on a safe-to-get tacky surface and spray thoroughly with fabric stiffener (just be sure they are not soaking wet). Then leave to dry for 24 hours.
  1. Move on to the Monster Base (Cube). Begin by quilt stitching 2 squares together along one edge. Once one side is complete, add an additional square and sew into place.
    Continue until the cube is almost finished. Before sewing the last side entirely closed make certain to insert your cut pieces of poly-fil foam cushion (cut to size using your Monster Base as a guide).
  1. Next, fold your desired number of pipe cleaners (1 per tentacle) in half and twist together. Using quilt stitch, sew your tenacles (top and bottom pieces) together, stopping just past the tip/hand and insert the rounded pipe cleaner end. Add a little bit of polyester fiberfill and continue to work your way around the remainder of the tentacle, filling as you go. Then sinch the opening closed, allowing a 1 inch section of the pipe cleaner to stay visible.
  1. Make sure you are working in a well-ventilated area while using a fan to keep the fumes from your soldering iron away from your face. Always begin by testing a piece of scrap felt to make sure that your soldering iron is hot enough to create texture, but not hot enough to singe your felt (for my soldering iron that was 240 degrees). With your Large and Small Sucker pieces stacked together use the rounded tip and gently push down while moving in a small, circular motion. Continue until each sucker is rounded/cup shaped. Place to the side once finished.
    Optional: For a quicker alternative, replace felt Suckers with punched out shapes in iron-on vinyl.
  1. Now, after either waiting for your soldering iron to cool completely or VERY CAREFULLY using pliers remove and replace the tip with the fine point. It's time to move onto our wood. Begin pressing firmly down (at an angle), slowly dragging the tip lengthwise along the cut strip, moving in slight wave patterns to create “knots” in the “wood”. Make sure to flip the strips over and very lightly smooth out the curve the grooves have created.
  1. Next, beginning with the smallest suckers (3), stitch them in place starting from the tip/hand working your way down to the exposed pipe cleaner end. As you feed your needle down along the tentacle make sure to loop through each sucker twice and place a knot beneath to secure.
    Tip: Using the rounded tip, gently resolder the suckers once sewn in place.
  1. Returning to the base, select where to attach tentacles and cut a small hole in the felt with your scissors. Next, insert one blade of your scissors and create a void in the Poly-fill foam cushion interior. Then push the exposed pipe cleaner into the void, and ladder stitch the tentacle in place. Continue with your remaining tentacles.
  1. Returning to the soldered “wooden” strips, begin by cutting one 11inch by 5/8inch strip lengthwise into 2 halves. This will act as the as the edges of the wooden crate.
  1. Finally, take the wider strips of soldered “wood” and begin cutting them to size and glue in place onto your Monsters Base around his tentacles. Once the wider strips are positioned, use the thinner edges to cover the Monster Base seams.
    Optional: Glue thinner “wood” strips perpendicularly along 3 wider “wood” strips in order to create a lid. Glue in place along 2 sides, leaving an opening for a couple of tentacles to reach through.

And done! Now you have a spooky-cute little friend who’s just bursting at the seams to join in your holiday fun! Thanks so much and I hope you had a dreadfully good time creating with me!

If you followed along and created your own Wooden Crate Monster, we’d love to see your finished projects. Tag us on Instagram @mikelmichelleco and @the_felt_store to show off your creations.

Happy Crafting!

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