For April 2024, the Island Batik Ambassador challenge was to create a stuffed animal using a pattern from Funky Friends Factory.

If you’re not familiar with their many, many cute and whimsical stuffed toy patterns that they create, you must check out their offerings.

While we could choose any pattern we wanted (so many choices!), I decided to make the Mickey Moose pattern. It doesn’t get much more Canadian than a moose so I thought that Mickey Moose was the perfect choice!

I’m pleased to introduce you to my new studio companion, Mackenzie the Moose!

Thanks to Island Batik and Funky Friends Factory for providing me with the necessary fabric and pattern to make my version of Mickey Moose.

I used three different fabrics to make Mackenzie: Island Batik Foundations in Sprinkle for his body and two fabrics from the Woodstock fabric collection by Kathy Engle for Canton Village Quilt Works for the antlers, inside the ears, and the hooves and foot pads. I used Aurifil thread to stitch Mackenzie together.

You might notice that Mackenzie looks just a bit different from your typical moose and this is because he’s a very special albino moose. Yes, they do exist but you may never see them because they are very rare.

While Mackenzie is an albino moose, he’s also a Canadian moose and is proud to show his Canadian pride with his maple leaf tattoo. (I think he got this idea from the members of the RCMP Musical Ride 😉).

I chose the Mickey Moose pattern as it reminded of a series of books that my children loved to read when they were young. The Elliot the Moose books were created by Canadian author, Andrea Beck, and both myself and my children enjoyed following Elliot’s adventures with his friends.

Mackenzie calls to mind one particular Elliot the Moose book, Elliot’s Emergency where Elliot needs the help of his friends to stitch him up after an unfortunate snag and tear incident. Like Elliot, Mackenzie needed some hand stitching to make him complete.

While I don’t usually make stuffed animals, I was really pleased at how Mackenzie turned out. Yes, there are quite a few templates to make him but they are well labelled and indicate the number you need to cut of each and if you need to cut any reversed ones.

I printed out the templates on regular paper and glued them to the paper side of freezer paper. I then ironed them to the right side of the chosen fabrics and cut out the fabric pieces. By using freezer paper templates, I was able to reuse the templates when necessary and I’ll have them should I wish to create another Mickey Moose.

I really appreciated the step-by-step photo tutorial on the Funky Friends Factory website that gave additional information on how to successfully create my version of Mickey Moose. I found this and the other general information about working with her patterns that Pauline at Funky Friends Factory has on her website to be very helpful.

A few things that I would recommend when making any of the Funky Friends Factory stuffies:

Use a lot of thin, sharp pins! Close pinning will ensure successful stitching.
Mark everything from the templates onto your fabrics. This will help when you need to match up A to B or sew from G to H to M to H to G, for example.
Read all the instructions through at least twice to ensure that you understand the process and watch the videos recommended for your pattern.
Trust the pattern and take your time when stitching pieces together. I slowed my sewing machine down to a crawl and it made it very easy to ensure that everything was lining up properly and that I wasn’t creating any unintentional (and undesired!) fabric tucks.

Mackenzie has already made himself at home in my quilt studio as a studio assistant along with Salem and Victor – at least Mackenzie doesn’t shed fur on my Island Batik projects!

Be sure to check out the blogposts of my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors to see their cute creations using Funky Friends Factory patterns. You can find them at:

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting

Megan Best ~ BestQuilter

Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts

Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts Studio

Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

Victoria Johnson ~ Forever Quilting for You

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River