Once upon a time: the big bad wolf and the woodcutter

You all know this story, right? Little red riding hood, goes into the forest to visit her Grandma… the big bad wolf causes some trouble and a woodcutter turns up to save the day! It just so happens, that my daughter has been studying fairy tales at pre-school, and I thought it would be pretty cool, to make her a (waldof inspired) play set to go along with one of those fairy tales.

This is a 2 part tutorial, with downloadable pdf pattern templates. The first part will show you how to make the woodcutter and the big bad wolf and the second part, showing you how to make little red riding hood and her grandma, is over on hideous! dreadful! stinky! today.

• a large wooden doll body
• scrap of fairtrade, organic, brown corduroy
• scrap of organic cotton/organic linen blend fabric
• organic brown yarn
• small piece of light brown felt
• organic cotton sewing thread
• small piece of grey felt
• wooden skewer
• glue
• woodcutter pattern

Download your woodcutter pdf pattern template, cut out pieces of felt and fabric and gather remaining supplies (fig. 1)

Glue ‘trousers’ to base of doll (fig. 2 and 3). Glue front ‘braces’ to front of ‘shirt’ and sew ties (fig. 4). Glue ‘shirt’ to doll (fig. 5). Glue back ‘braces’ only at top and bottom of shirt (fig. 6). Assembled body is show in fig. 7.

Snip yarn into very small pieces (fig. 8). Glue hairline and beard line with glue and apply yarn (fig. 9).

Put glue on one side of one felt axe head and put wooden skewer (cut to size) in place (fig. 10). Place other felt axe head on top and set aside to dry (fig. 11). Sew hat rims to hat sides (fig. 12). sew to sides of hat together (fig. 13). Assembled hat (with grass feather) show in fig. 14. Figure 15 shows assembled woodcutter with axe tucked held in the back of the braces.

To make the big bad wolf, I used:

• a large wooden doll body
• small piece of light grey felt
• small piece of grey felt
• small piece of white felt
• organic cotton sewing thread
• small amount of recycled stuffing
• glue
• big bad wolf pattern

Download your big bad wolf pdf pattern template, cut out pieces of felt and fabric and gather remaining supplies (fig. 1)

Embroider detail on chest and tail pieces of wolf (fig. 2). Cover wooden doll body with grey felt piece, fold tail in half, stuff and sew to back of wolf (fig. 3). Sew ears to grey front of wolf head. Sew together white felt that forms the remainder of the front of the wolf’s head (fig. 4). Sew together the grey and white parts of the front of wolf’s head, you may want to add a little stuffing in the nose (fig. 5). Sew together back of wolf’s head to front of wolf’s head, apply glue to wooden doll head and attach wolf’s head (fig. 6). Fig. 7 shows completed wolf also wearing Grandma’s hat!

To find out what happens at the end of the story and to read the little red riding hood and grandma tutorials, head over to hideous! dreadful! stinky!