A thing I love to do is telling prepper dudes that one of my disaster readiness skills is making stuffed animals. They never get it. Like, my dude, when things get very bad and we're all sharing overcrowded shelters, you're gonna want the power to comfort children. Trust me.
You know what, I got a whole bunch of fabric / old clothes at home and no idea what to do with it. I might just learn how to do this too
Then you might be interested in a database with hundreds of free plushie sewing patterns of just about any animal, as well as dinosaurs, pokemon, etc: https://craftresource.fandom.com/wiki/Plushie_Sewing_Patterns
& If that's a little overwhelming, here's some easy beginners plushies: - Manta Ray https://cholyknight.com/2021/05/14/manta-ray-plush/ - Whale https://craftresource.fandom.com/wiki/Whale_Plushie_Sewing_Pattern_(Lacey) - Simple dino: https://welivedhappilyeverafter.com/diy-long-neck-dino/
and a little more chalenging but my personal favorite: - totally not that one shark from a Swedish furniture chain store that everyone loves: https://freesewing.org/docs/designs/hi
Man, when I was still running archaeology field schools, every year, without fail, two things would happen:
1) the velociraptor attack joke
2) the boys would all succumb to zombie apocalypse/disaster planning, and arguing about which people on the dig would be critical to survival.
I was usually on the list of Key People, but never for the right reasons (I always asked why and usually got some answer along the lines of “you can hunt/meat prep,” which is hilarious for several reasons, but primarily because I have literally never shot an animal with my bow and have limited knowledge on how to prepare a whole animal without contaminating the meat). The second most common reason was because I knew a lot about civil planning and could define a defensible city. OCCASIONALLY I got “you know how to farm and grow crops!” Which at least showed they were thinking somewhat about long term survival, but was also an eye rolling answer because growing the majority of crops is not rocket science.
Not ONCE did those boys ever choose the correct reason, which was: my extreme knowledge of how to make fabric out of plants and hair, and how to turn that fabric into clothes and blankets.
The lack of respect fiber arts get for being a necessary foundational cornerstone of Not Fucking Dying will never cease to amaze me.
Anyway, learn how to sew so you don’t die of exposure. Or have permanently traumatized and LOUD small children.
