*As an Amazon Affiliate, Meyer Hatchery may earn from qualifying purchases made through links posted on this site.

Our Chick on the Shelf is coming back for the 3rd year! We have a ton of fun watching what our Chick Elf does each day, and we would love to see the fun they have on your homestead! If you would like to participate this holiday season, we have instructions on how to make your very own Chick Elf!

Materials Needed:

• 2 pieces of quilting fabric 5″x5″
• felt scraps
• thread
• 2 black beads or googly eyes
• a sewing machine (or hand sewing needle)
• scissors

Instructions:

To make your chick elf:

1. You’re going to need two squares of fabric that are five inches by five inches. You’re also going to need some scrap pieces of felt, a little bit of yellow for the legs and the feet, red for the comb and wattle, a little bit of orange for our beak, and some green for our scarf or any color you’d like to use.

For all our shapes here, use the link below for a template that you can print and use to trace on your felt for cutting out your pieces.

2. Once you’ve gathered all your pieces, and cut them out, it’s time to start stitching your chick. This will be done in two steps. The first step is going to be sewing on your comb, beak, and wattle.

The placement of these pieces is really important!

After your pieces are lined up, go ahead and place your other square piece of fabric on top, with the right sides facing each other. Pin everything into place. Now it’s time to sew! For sewing with your sewing machine use a 5/8th inch seam allowance and a straight stitch. Sew the top and right side edge of your fabric, as well as the bottom of the fabric, leaving a 1-inch gap in the middle of the bottom for stuffing your chick. Leave the left side of your fabric unsewn.

For the second sewing step, turn your chick so the open (left side) is now facing you. Pinch the fabric squares in the middle and pull apart to open up the body of the chick. You will begin to see the chick taking shape, almost like a triangle. Add your chick legs in the opening pointing inside the “body”, about an inch from each end. Stitch across the open edge to close the opening and secure the legs into place.

3. Now it’s time to turn your chick from inside out and stuff! You’ll want to add a little weight to the bottom of your chick to allow your chick to sit a little better. For this, you can use dry beans, poly pellets, or dried rice.

After you fill your chick about halfway with your beans, rice, or poly pellets, you’re going to take a little bit of fiberfill and finish filling your chick. You want to really fill your chick so it’s nice and full.

4. After you fill your chick, it’s time to decorate. You want to take a hot glue gun or some fabric glue and glue on the feet and scarf. For the eyes, you could sew some beads on or you can use some google eyes.

If you would like to participate in our Chick on the Shelf this holiday season, share your Chick Elf photos on social media using the hashtag #MHchickelf to be featured!

Download: Chick Template

Use these templates to help you cut your pieces to make your own chick elf.