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How to Make Toys out of Natural Materials

Making your own toys out of natural materials is the best way to ensure that the toys your children play with are safe and environmentally friendly. Making toys out of natural materials is also a hot business idea for any advanced toy makers with creative and innovative ideas. Start out simple, with simple materials and simple ideas, slowly working your way up the toy-making ladder. Make stuffed fabric toys, wood toys, blocks, board games and puzzles all from natural materials. The sky is the limit.

Things You'll Need

Fabric made from 100% pure, natural materials like cotton or wool, organic if possible
Essential oils
Pencil
Scissors
Organic cotton thread
Needle
100% cotton stuffing
Wood pieces, locally sourced and organic if possible
Scroll saw or coping saw
Sandpaper
Nontoxic wood sealer such as beeswax, tung oil or almond oil

Instructions

Soft Toys
- 1
  Purchase a fabric made 100% from a natural material like cotton or wool. Fabrics such as polyester are synthetics made from petroleum products and are therefore not considered natural. Buy organic fabric, if possible.
- 2
  Since you can't wash cotton-stuffed toys in a washing machine without the stuffing clumping up, prewash your fabric in the machine using natural essential oils. Simple add 5 drops of lavender, for example, into the machine, alone or with your regular detergent.
- 3
  Design your soft toy. Draw a simple form, such as a bunny silhouette or a simple shape like a square (which could easily become a monster) on your fabric with a pencil. You will be cutting out two of these forms to sew together and stuff, so fold your fabric in half.
- 4
  Draw little shapes to decorate your stuffed toy with such as polka dots, eyes, rectangles or hearts.
- 5
  Cut out your shapes, making sure to cut through the two layers of fabric when cutting out your stuffed toy's body shape.
- 6
  On the front of the body piece, sew on fabric pieces that you have designed to decorate it.
- 7
  Sew the two pieces together, first placing them front to front, the decorated sides facing each other, with what will be the inside of the stuffed toy facing out. Leave a small opening which will allow you to flip the toy right side out and to stuff it.
- 8
  Flip the toy right side out and stuff using 100% cotton stuffing. Sew up the opening.
Wood Toys
- 9
  Buy or gather a small piece of wood, preferably a soft wood like pine.
- 10
  Trace a simple design on the wood with a pencil, like a fish silhouette.
- 11
  Cut out the shape using a scroll saw or a coping saw.
- 12
  Sand the edges of the shape until it is very smooth.
- 13
  Finish the toy by coating it with a nontoxic wood sealer or leave it plain.

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