This kind, cheerful inhabitant of the ocean depths can become a souvenir, decoration, and toy. You can make a whole family of octopuses - the product is made very simply from available materials without any special equipment. Even children can easily make it.
To work you need:
- yarn (knitting threads, for example, wool mixture),
- strong nylon thread (20-30 cm),
- thin multi-colored silk ribbons or ribbons for gift wrapping: 8 -10 pieces, 15-20 cm long, 0.5-0.7 cm wide),
- white paper and colored pencils for drawing (eyes, mouth),
- a sheet of thick cardboard in A4 format for making the initial workpiece,
- glue, scissors.
Manufacturing:
1. Wind threads evenly onto a sheet of cardboard. To make the octopus well-fed, you need 100-130 turns of thread (depending on the thickness of the thread). When winding, lay the thread without tension, otherwise the cardboard will bend and you will not get the desired length of the turn.
2. Carefully remove the skein from the cardboard sheet and use nylon thread to securely tie the threads 6 - 7.5 cm from the edge. This will be the head of an octopus.It should turn out almost round, so keep in mind that this lump will be its “wrong side” or middle, evenly covered with threads again during the next steps. If you make it shorter, the octopus will look disproportionate even for a toy. If it turns out longer, the elongated head will not have stability, and the threads will sag, forming unsightly loops.
3. Cut the edge that is longer. It turns out something similar to a whitewash brush. These threads are the future tentacles of the octopus, so their length should be about 2/3 of the entire product.
4. Taking the uncut edge-clump in your hand, you need to turn it over and evenly distribute the threads in a circle so that they beautifully cover the base - just like combing a wig. It is convenient to perform this step by placing the workpiece on the table.
5. Now, having determined what kind of head we have, without turning it over, we tie it in the “neck” area with a thread of the same color as the entire craft. Do not tighten too tightly, otherwise the octopus will fall on its side. The diameter in this place can be 3.5-4 cm..
6. The most interesting thing: we divide the threads into 8 even strands and weave tentacle braids, tying small bows at the ends. If it is a male octopus and you find the bows inappropriate, you can simply cut the ribbons shorter and tie them in a modest knot. After the tentacles are completed, the final touch: you need to carefully trim the threads at the ends of the braids with scissors.
7. All that remains is to draw the eyes and smile, cut and glue. Why do we use pencils and not markers? It is known that upon contact with liquid glue, felt-tip pens immediately leak. High-quality pencils produce bright, long-lasting colors.Draw several options and choose the most suitable one.
You can tie a bow to the girl octopus. You can make a hat for the boy octopus.
