I wanted to make a family of mice for a dolls house / box house that I am going to make for my babies to play with, When I was small my auntie had a mouse house that we loved to play with and I wanted to recreate my own version for my kids and me to enjoy, This is an instructable for the mouse I have made, its really simple but very cute,
I have had guidance from my three year old boy while I was making it telling me when the mouse needed arms and legs and finally demanding what he calls a SOOP, (this is what he calls a super costume cape and mask) essentially this is how to make the mouse its self that can be dressed how ever you want with all number of accessories, I will however add the accessories to make this one a super mouse as this is what my little man really wanted :)

Pictures show the mouse after and before the accessories also show the first mouse all one colour except feet just to show you options.

Step 1: What You Need

For this project you will need:-

♦ Paper :-ideally grease proof to make the pattern for the mouse
♦ Card :-(should you want to create a more robust pattern that can be used multiple times and is easier to draw round this is what I have done as I am not stopping at one)
♦ Felt :- I used a wool mix felt but there are other fabrics that will work, anything that is not stretchy
♦ Dimensional Fabric Paint :- I used this for the eyes as I had no suitable beads and it worked well.
♦ Embroidery Silk :- This is for stitching the noes, But I plated the Embroidery silk for the tail as well, you could use cord or wool for the tail tho
♦ Some Stuffing :- I used some out of an unused pillow as the mouse seemed a more fun use of it, :)
♦ Needle and Cotton :- Matching the felt if you can I was a bit low on colours so made best of what I had.

you will also need pen / pencil, scissors, pins and maybe glue if you haven't got the patience to fiddle stitching the arms and feet on, I didn't have a glue that was safe for my kids so I have stitched everything and its not too bad just takes more time.

Step 2: Making the Pattern

This is the pattern that I used to give you an idea.
I started by folding a piece of grease proof paper and drawing a mouse like shape, (top right of picture after its been folded out ) This is the head and the sides of the mouse (dark grey felt on my mouse)
I did the same with the belly (light grey felt on my mouse) folding the paper and drawing a curve line to create the elongated tear shape (the pattern for this vanished after I drew round it on the card. I can only presume my little helper has it some where, else I would have photographed that too :) ) hopefully you can get the idea from the card version
The ears to the left are a basic egg shape and the feet are to the right of the card.
You will notice there is not a template for the arms as I at this point was trying to make them different to the original I made but I have in fact stuck with what I did for the first mouse as it keeps it simple and looks just fine,
These are just sausage shapes made to the desired size for your mouse,
You can alter the tear shape making it wider if you want a more plump mouse.

Step 3: Body Parts

Next once you have picked the colour of the mouse simply draw around the templates onto the Felt or Fabric and cut them out, Making sure you double up on the ears and feet,
I cut out the arms too but again they are not shown here as I was still deliberating.
At this point I also plated my Embroidery silk for the tail

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Step 4: Starting Contruction

Fold the body in half and pin the head. Using back stitch ideally or fine running stitch, Stitch around the top of the head round the nose and part way down the neck,

Step 5: The Belly

Pin the side of the Tear Drop shaped piece to the side of the body so that the point is tucked into the neck,
Stitch around the belly on one side and then pin the other side and do the same.
You may need to add a few extra stitches through the point and the neck to be sure it is held together well.
I stopped so that the whole of the bottom of the mouse was left open.This made it easier for me to get the head turned inside out as the neck is quite thin.
You can see on the third photo the head is the right way out but still tucked snugly in the body.
From there I continued to stitch the belly piece to the sides so there is a hole in the bottom just big enough to turn it completely inside out and stuff the mouse.

Step 6: Stuffing Mouse and Adding Tail

Turn the mouse the right way round, and stuff it, I had to use a pencil to push the stuffing into the head and nose of the mouse as the neck was too tight to use my finger.
Once the mouse is stuffed tuck any excess material from the tear drop piece in side,
Then push the Tail into the hole so its hanging out at the desired length.
Then I over stitched it together when I got the the tail i swapped to a back stitch to hold it in place and continued with the over stitch until the hole was stitched up,

Step 7: Mouse Face

This is where Glue might come in handy, The ears need pinching to give them shape,
I pinched and stitched both ears on at the same time, passing the cotton back and forth through the mouses head,
I started threading the needle with the knotted cotton through the head and then thread the ear pinched onto it, then fed the needle back through the same ear into the head as the needle passed through and stuck out the other side of the head I thread on the second ear pinched and then continued to push the needle back on forth through ear head ear and back again,
Alternatively you could stitch the ears into the pitched shape and glue them to the mouse.
The eyes I used the fabric paint but you could use beads or fabric pen for the eyes.
The noes is embroidered on looping over and over the end of the mouses snout, once I had done I tied it off and pulled the tail of the thread through the body cutting it off where it exited so that the tail of the tread is inside the mouse.

Step 8: Arms and Feet

Now you can see the shape of the arms, :) Ignore the cape and mask for the time being.
Again this may be easier to just glue these on the side of the body of the mouse, but if like me you have no glue then I stitched these on the same as the ears doing both at the same time, Stitching through the arm body arm and back again, just a basic running stitch,
The feet I over sewed them on,( you can see on the second picture the mouse behind ) I really wished I had had some glue as that was one of the fiddly bits,

Thats it then your basic mouse is done,

Now to make him Super. :)

Step 9: Making Your Mouse SUPER.......

Now the cape,
I used my body template I drew round from the neck down so it would fit well around the body of the mouse.
I carried the lines down either side to get the length right and then joined the lines with the straight line along the top and bottom,
The eye Mask I folded a Piece of felt and cut an oval shape not cutting round where the fabric was folded, when I unfolded it it resembles a peanut sort of shape, To get the eye holes in the right place I laid it over the face and because the eyes are raised I could mark with crayon where the eyes are, then I carefully cut out the holes.
If you have a hole punch that might work better.
Again the mask is stitched the same as the ears, passing it through mask head mask,
The cape was the same the collar you can see on the final mouse was an after thought as I was just going to stitch it on as is, but the collar was just a small rectangle,

There you have it one super mouse, :)
I hope you find this easy to follow, I do think that I will look to get a glue gun or some suitable glue for future mice as the final piece will I think look neater and be a lot less time consuming,
If you need any help at all just message me
Hope you enjoyed this Instructable and any feed back at all would be appreciated,