Simple colorful Five Little Ducks (with Their Mama) Tutorial

E has been into the Five Little Ducks nursery rhymes lately, asking me all day long that I play the Youtube video. Having limited screen time to a maximum of 15mn a day, I had to find ways to entertain him off-screen. We started making ducks out of construction papers based on this idea from Preschool activities, which he loved but soon he asked to take his ducks "swimming" with him. We only had two rubber ducks at home and I did not feel like buying more. I looked around for some other ideas I could adapt and that would not take more than a day, and found this wonderful tutorial to make baby shower ducks with crepe paper or fabrics.
She used glue gun to attach everything but I wanted it to be waterproof so I had to sew mine. So this is what we came up with.

Fig. 1: Finished product, five little ducks with their mother.

It is actually quite simple to make and only requires basic sewing skill. Let's get started.

This tutorial will be based on the size below:
- 6cm x 6cm for the mother duck (the base is roughly a circle of 6cm of diameter and 6cm high from bottom to the top of the head)
- 5cm x 5cm for the little ducks.
However, since the tutorial does not require the use of a pattern, you can easily adjust the size to fit your needs.

What you need

- 28 x 28 (cm x cm) square of fabric for the mother duck.
- 20 x 20 cm square of fabric for each little duck.
- Orange felt (A felt sheet of 10 x15 cm would be largely enough. I only used up less than half of mine but I am very careful when cutting felt to avoid wasting even the tiniest bit of it :). I also used stiff felt but I think you can use any felt fabric, or you can stiffen your felt sheet yourself (I have never tried to do that myself so I am not sure if it will give a good result or not, especially if you want to make it washable).
- Ribbons (I used 25cm of ribbon for each duck).
- Stuffing: I used polyester stuffing I already had but it can be quite expansive especially if this is the only project you will need it for. You can replace it with cotton balls, wading or scraps of fabrics.

What you do
For the mother duck I used the same dimension as that of the small duck in the video tutorial.
1. Start by cutting a 16x16 cm square with the mother duck fabric, this will be used for the body. Cut another square of 12x12cm of the same fabric to be used as the head. (Cf. Fig.2)
2. Cut a rough circle of 16cm of diameter (8cm of radius) out of big square. To do so, fold the square along the diagonal repeating 3 times as shown on the Fig.3 and Fig.4. Mark 8cm from the center on the longer edge, then cut from the shorter edge to the marking in a curve. you will get a rough circle, it does not have to be a perfect one.

Fig.2

Fig.3

Fig.4

Fig.5

3. Using running stitches, sew around the circle leaving half a cm of seam allowance, pulling the thread as you go to create a pocket, see Fig.6.
4. Stuff the pocket and pull tighter on the thread until it is fully closed. Sew around the closing with back stitches to make it stronger, see Fig.7 and Fig.8.
5. Repeat step 2 to 4 with the 12x12cm square, measuring 6cm from the center at step 3.
6. Attach the head to the body at the closing using back stitches.

Fig.6

Fig.7

Fig.8

Fig.9

7. Cut the beak (2 pieces): you can either draw directly on the felt sheet or on a paper first. Draw a 2x2cm square and fold along the center line. Draw a line joining the top right corner to the bottom left corner (the folding line being on your right). Along the drawn line, mark 2cm from the top right corner. Draw one and a half an arc from the marking to the bottom left, refer to Fig.10. cut along the red dashed curves.

Fig.10: Drawing of the beaks for Mama duck

 8. Cut the feet (2 pieces): Draw a 2.5 x 2.5cm square. Follow the same direction as for the beaks but using 2.5cm instead of 2cm throughout the drawing of the feet.

Fig.11: Beaks for mama duck

9. Attach the beaks: Using blanket stitches, attach each piece of the beak separately from the inside as shown on Fig.12. Once this is done, close the beak and use blanket stitch around to seal.

Fig.12: Attaching the beak pieces from the inside.

Fig.13: Sealing the beak.

10. Using blanket stitching, attach the feet, referring to the position of the beak to  make sure they are at least approximately symmetric.

Fig.14: Attaching the feet.

And we are done with Mama duck.

For the little ducks use the same instructions, altering the measurement according to the table below.

Table 1: Measurement

Once you're done, tie your ribbons around the necks of the ducks and let the little one have fun!

P.S: Two weeks have passed since I finished these ducks for E and still every morning he will be asking me to play with his little ducks and sing! The ducks "follow" him almost everywhere, even when he is napping!

Fig.15: The finished yellow little duck in E's hand.