My nephew dreamed of owning a stuffed red prehistoric ammonite, but that is not an easy to find toy. Through the magic of the sewing and the generosity of strangers on the internet, we made it happen.
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How to Sew a Prehistoric Ammonite
What You'll Find on This Page
This summer, my nephew mentioned a dream of owning a red stuffed version of an ammonite. I had to google what an ammonite was. It turns out that it’s an invertebrate sea creature that kind of combines a snail with a squid.
Now you can find stuffed ammonites on the internet, but no red ones.
This is not a kid who asks for much (he wasn’t really asking here even; he just mentioned he thought it would be neat to own one). I decided that it would be fun to sew a stuffed ammonite, so that he could achieve his dream of owning one.
I quickly realized that sewing that spiral shell is a little bit complicated, so I turned to the internet for help.
Finding Stuffed Ammonite Pattern Online – for Free!
Thanks to the magic of the internet and especially the generosity of strangers who share their talent, I found a pattern. “Mathematician, engineer, programmer, inventor, tutor and just a good guy” derzhiarbuz shared his Ammonite stuffie pattern. He even included the formula he used to draft the logarithmic spiral of the ammonite’s shell. He also included a timelapse style video of the entire construction process, noting to “First of all, watch the video and decide if you really want to do this.” It is a lot of work, but I definitely recommend giving it a go!
His pattern was in .dxf format, and it took some searching to convert that to a pdf file, but I managed it eventually! I don’t know what scale his printed at, but I think mine is quite a bit smaller than his. The important thing is that it worked!
Two Small Pattern Edits
My one real edit to the pattern was spreading out these tentacles a bit (see above). Note that I only cut out the top layer, something I recommend doing whenever stitching details like this. You can technically cut out both layers after stitching, but I find that it’s a little more accurate if you do cut out the top layer first.
I also replaced the fabric eyes with craft animal eyes for a little more pop.
It was extremely rewarding to see how the spiral came together!
It was extremely hard to stuff the end of the spiral. It’s a long and narrow spiral. The fleece I used (two fleece IKEA throw blankets) was not stretchy; it would have been easier with a stretchier fabric (the original tutorial uses two old t-shirts). It would also be easier with a larger stuffie; remember, mine is smaller than in the tutorial. I tried, my niece tried, and at least two of my kids tried. In the end we left the very end unstuffed, which you can see if you look closely at the photo below. I think it still works fine.
This was a fun sewing project. I felt a little bit like a fairy godmother, being able to make something that could not be found (in the correct style and color that my nephew dreamed of) online. It was also a fantastic distraction in the days leading up to my surgery! Eventually I will recover enough to get back to sewing; writing up this post is a great start in that direction!
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.