If you're a parent with young children, you'll know exactly how expensive children's toys are today. In order to keep expenditure under control, you might like to experiment with designing and making your own kid's plush toys. This is much easier than it sounds, and, unlike conventional shop-bought items, won't cost you the price of an iPad2.
To start with, you'll need to assemble the materials you'll be using. Dig through your rag bag until you've found a large-ish piece of soft material, and a collection of smaller rags, or better still, some foam for stuffing. Spend some time thinking up a shape and then trace this onto thin white paper and cut it out.
Using the rudimentary paper stencil or transfer to guide you, trace the shape onto the material. Remember that you'll need two of every body-part; one for the front, the other for the back. Cut the shapes out and sew up the seams leaving the arms, legs and head separate.
At this point, your plush toy should resemble a bag with small holes where you'll attach the appendages. Fill every piece of the toy with stuffing, before attaching the stuffed arms, legs and head and sewing the seams shut where these connect to the main trunk of the toy.
From here you'll be able to decorate your home-made plush toy as you like: attach ears, glue on eyes, and feel free to embellish where you're keen to add a little glitz.