For this assignment, I decided to make a stuffed animal. Looking through the box of fabric scraps, I found one with a cow farm print and felt inspired, so I made a squishmallow-style cow! I wanted to give him some character, so I found an off-white linen and a lavender plaid to go with the farm print. I had looked at a couple other fabrics, but I didn’t use them.

I tried creating a pattern, but decided to just wing it. I pinned my fabrics before drawing on them and cutting out my parts to sew together. 

Nearer to the end of my process, I decided I wanted my cow to be more rotund, so I added another piece of fabric to the bottom to allow for more expansion, leaving a small hole for the stuffing. Then, I stuffed him full and closed him up!! He is a very well-fed cow.

Featured under/behind my cow is my cleaned workspace.

Since I only used tools and materials from the OEDK, my cow didn’t cost me anything other than time. Theoretically, though, the materials would roughly add up as follows: less than a square foot of fabric (<$2), about 5 yards of thread (<10¢), two plastic buttons (<50¢), cotton batting for stuffing (<$1.10), a hand-sewing needle (<20¢), about 10 pins (<60¢), and fabric scissors (~$15). That’s around $19.50 in materials. The largest “cost” would be labor since I spent about 5 hours making the stuffed animal, and at the Texas minimum wage of $7.25/hr, that comes to $36.25. Altogether, the total cost would have been about $55.75 if I had started with nothing. Luckily, that was not the case, and I had a lot of fun making my premium free-range cotton-fed cow!!!