Felt Turkey for Toddlers ...w/ template

In an effort to get my 2 year old to understand different holidays, I figured I would try and introduce the Turkey in a fun way for him.

I cut out turkey pieces in felt - with the idea that he can move the feathers around.  We remodeled our bathroom earlier this year, but I kept the old drawer fronts with a the hopes of using it in a future craft.  So I glued white flannel to the drawer front and lined the edges with ribbon.  I would have used white felt, but my board was too wide for the felt piece (9.5"x11").  I also glued down the body, feet, head and face pieces. (you need a felt or flannel background for the feathers to be able to stick to - unless you want to use velcro).

At first, I kept the feathers plain, but they seemed too plain after looking at it for a couple hours, so I took embroidery floss and hand stitched some feather lines.  I love the way it turned out - though the feathers don't stick as well to the flannel with the stitching now, but they still hold okay.

And here's my son playing with it when he woke up from his nap (evident by his bed head).  And I quickly learned that I was going to need 2 turkeys.  My 11 month old wanted to join in, and my son wasn't having any of that.  So even though she probably won't really use it till next year, I made one for my daughter too.  But to keep the feathers separate and avoid future fights, I made pink and purple feathers for hers.  And luckily, I had two of the same drawer fronts to use.

It took me a while to get the proportions right for the head and feet, so if you want to make one but don't want to draw the pieces yourself . . . DOWNLOAD the template I made HERE!

The fun part is I didn't spend a thing on this project.  I recycled the drawer fronts, and used felt/ribbon scraps I already had.  I LOVE free projects - though my husband likes to point out, it technically isn't free since we bought the items at some point.  But if I already had it in my craft stash, I count that as free!