Here’s a quick sewing tutorial for you to make for any snake-loving kids in your life.
Hint: they make great stocking stuffers!
These little guys are pocket-sized and stuffed with pipe cleaners to make them bendy. Twist them. Coil them. Bend them in a knot.
They will be packed in my boys’ stockings next week (I can’t believe one week from today I will be packing stockings!!!) along with other various chocolates, plums, and other small treasures.
I am sure they are going to be a big hit, not only because my boys love any and all animals, but they will be little matching baby snakes to go with these big travel snakes who still get lots of play time. I can just see the immense cuteness of preschool imagination now…
Keep reading for a quick and easy tutorial to use up some of your fabric scraps and see how to make these fun guys.
(Look here for help if you’re new to sewing).
Bendy Snake Tutorial
Materials Needed
- Fabric scraps
- pipe cleaners
- rice
- embroidery thread
- red felt
Method
1. Cut a piece of fabric 15″ x 4″.
2. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, right sides together, and press. Draw a snake outline on one wrong side of the fabric. The body of the snake should by 3/4″ wide, with a diamond head and pointed tail. Cut a tongue from red felt, one inch long and with a forked end.
3. Tuck the tongue in between the fabric, with one end at the tip of the head and the forked end pointed down towards the snake’s body. Pin in place.
4. Pin down the body of the snake to keep the pieces in place. Sew around the perimeter of the snake, starting in the middle around one side and leaving a two-inch opening for turning.
5. Trim the seam allowance to 3/8″ around the entire perimeter of the snake.
6. Turn the snake right side out, using a turning tool or tweezers or both.
7. Put about a tablespoon of rice in the opening and use your fingers to push it down to the head. You want it to be full but not too tight.
8. Take 5 pipe cleaners and stagger them so that they stretch the length of the snake. Twist them together slightly and insert them into the snake through the opening. Push them part of the way into the head and then down to the tail.
9. Sew the opening closed using a blind stitch.
10. Sew across the bottom of the snake’s head carefully to seal in the rice.
11. Use embroidery thread to stitch on eyes. 
You’re done!
Check out these other handmade Christmas ideas and projects to make for kids!
I thi k they are realky nice! How did you make the eyes?
Should I use cotton or flannel fabric?
Either works great.
This is a fun toy for kids. I have 14 children, and half of them are boys. They all fight over them, but at least they like ’em!
This is a great toy, my three sons love it and have quite literally worn them to pieces. I’ll have to make new ones!
Should I whipstitch or running stitch? Won’t it fray if I don’t whipstitch it?
I have made one of these for a nephew – it is falling apart after a few days. He has been very gentle with it, I believe the issue is that the fabric frayed. Use a whip stitch or that may happen to yours!
Hi , please may I ask why fill with rice and not stuffing as in pincushions etc? Many thanks
You can fill with either. The rice just gives them a little more weight and a different feeling.
Hi, I made a bendy snake but have a question. I see where there is a stitch across the bottom of the head that holds the rice in. The instructions left that part out, but I did not put the pipe cleaner in the head area because I was afraid my sewing needle would break when I sewed under the head. Now the head is floppy. Am I worried about the needle breaking for nothing?
Andrea, sewing the head is step 10. The pipe cleaner should extend into the head to help the snake keep its shape. I did sew over the pipe cleaner to secure the rice in the top of the head. If you are concerned about your needle breaking, you could sew right up to the pipe cleaner, move the needle to the other side of the pipe cleaner, and then finish sewing the head closed.
Please let me know if you have anything else I can help with!
Thank you for this!! I am looking for stocking stuffers and I think the boys on my list are going to LOVE these!!
I hope you love them! My boys still play with them months later!