#moleposting

[semiotomatics]

[moledoby]

HOW TO MAKE A MOLE (by someone who barely sews):

So the above is the template I used! It also comes with instructions of dubious helpfulness

You can either use a sewing machine for most of the sewing or simply hand sew it.

You can use any type of fabric! Fur can be a little hard to work with especially with a machine so don't be afraid to use a fun patterned cotton or something. Felt is also great especially for the paws but also the mole in general.

You need two OPPOSITE sides and one bottom. So when you cut out the fabric using the template here, cut the side with the template laid down on one side, then flip it and cut the other side. Or else you will have two left mole. If you're using fur make sure the fur goes from head to tail, mole fur naturally can be brushed in any direction but most faux fur can't!

Here's a better look at the paws and feet of my mole if you would like to copy the shapes! Mole thumbs face downwards because they frog-swim through life. Down in the nose instruction section at the bottom, I've included rough drawings of the shapes.

For the material, I felted two wooly bits of fabric together to make them thicker then cut each. You can just use a normal fabric, or you could even make clay feet as long as you poked a hole to put thread through to attach them to the mole!

When sewing make sure to put the right side of the fabric (the one you eventually want facing out when the mole is finished) against each other. This will make it so when you turn it inside out at the end, the right side faces out and doesn't have obvious seams!

The easiest way to do this would to be to sew along the spine of the mole for the two side pieces, then sew each to the bottom piece. Leave the butt open at the end so you can stuff the mole after turning it inside out :)

! If you want a nose like how I added a nose, see the end instructions.

When sewing, you can either sew the paws and feet in directly to the seams (if you do this, put them toward the INSIDE of the mole, because when you flip it inside out at the end then they're face out with the right side of the fabric) or you can, especially if you use fur, just sew them on after finishing and stuffing the mole body itself. You can do this if you don't use fur but it will be more obvious.

For the tail, you take a thin rectangle and either sew it wrong side out and leave a hole on one side to pull it inside out, or if you're using fur you can make a very very thin one and just sew it shut. I prefer the second because the tail doesn't end up too big, and it's all crinkly and silly. But honestly whatever works! You can either turn the tail inside out and then put it on the inside and sew it into the seam like you did the feet, or sew it into at the last step via a ladder stitch (see the section about closing the mole after stuffing it).

After you have it mostly sewn up either plus limbs or not, you can reach through and turn the mole inside out so that the right side of the fabric faces out; however, before you do this, you may want to carefully cut away thicker parts of your seam allowance at bends and curves. This will help them be less bulky. Just think about what would make it easier for the fabric to stretch or bunch as it will be doing so when turned inside out. Just make sure not to cut your stitches.

Once you've got your mole turned inside out use some stuffing (you can get at any craft store or if you want a heavyass mole that you need to keep very dry, you could use rice I guess) and Pack That Thing. When you've finished stuffing more than you thought could possibly fit, hand sew the last part of the mole together using a ladder stitch so the seam stays inward (just look up ladder stitch. To be honest I'm not very good at it so I should not give you advice lol).

If you didn't attach your limbs before, do so now. Just try to sew the bottom of them to the mole, hiding the thread as much as possible. I have no advice you just kinda gotta roll it. This works best when your mole fabric has a bit of fur to hide things but honestly if it doesn't then who cares you still made a mole!!

! How to make the nose:

Gonna be real I just did this offhand. However here is the rough guide to how I did it. Important is cutting a bit off the normal pattern for the sides and bottom, try and keep it relatively even! It's most ideal to attach the nose after you've mostly sewn the mole together.

Handsewing because it was small, and remember everything should be wrong side of the fabric out so when you turn the mole inside out the seams are on the inside.

The nose is the left piece of fabric, this is a VERY rough shape as I don't't remember exactly how I did it; it actually may be more of a rhombus? Anyway, sew little darts into the wrong side of the fabric; this is where you pinch a tiny bit and sew the pinch so it stays. These are the nostrils. Then sew the two sides of the bottom together from B down til A and A' meet. Finally, you can sew this to the circle of empty mole head you have.

Hopefully it'll look something like or better than this:

To avoid getting visible stitches like that you need to to sew ALONG the seam rather than looping around the seam allowance. I'm just lazy.

Anyway after everything you should have a mole! You may need to fight with it all a bit but it's definitely achievable with very little skill as long as you think things through and are willing to try again. Have fun!!! Feel free to ask questions but I may not be able to help much lol

[palaeoplushies]

I'm loving the moleposting, ty for putting those little snifflers on my dash

I'm glad you're enjoying it! I felt in a moleposting kinda mood...

[fagtron5000]

whenever you're mean to me this is who you're being mean to btw

[the-boring-distopia]

It's time I talk about my favorite animal because they are cool and people need to know.

What animal am I talking about?

Moles

They are so weird and they are crazy, here are my favorite facts about these underground goobers.

Star nosed moles can smell underwater. They use a bubble of air to collect particles from the water, they exhale it out and suck the air back in fast enough to not let it escape. They are the only mammal that can do this. They have crazy noses they use to feel around in the dirt. They can not only smell in stereo but they can sense vibrations to help find their prey.

Moles also are fascinating gender wise. In some species female moles have ovotestes, literally both testicles and ovaries, so females produce just as much male hormones as males do - in some cases even more! This makes female moles in these species intersex and their hormonal fluxiation also makes parts of their reproductive system disappear during their reproductive cycle and then reappear again. If anybody argues that transgender animals don't exist tell them moles literally get rid of their female sex organs and then regrow them.

In some species female moles are much larger and more agressive than males. Similarly to hyenas, these females posess certain male characteristics I am not sure I can talk about without Tumblr flagging this post.

They have many adaptations for lack of oxigen: they are tolerant towards carbon dioxide, they can rebreath their own used air, they can store oxigenated blood in their veins, liver and pancreas. This is something deep sea mammals also do, I found this interesting.

Their digging power comes from enlarged front limbs, look at their skeletons!

This is a european mole and it even has enlarged bone surface for the muscles to bind to! Fascinating stuff!

They can withstand immense pressures, some species can even survive being stepped on by humans. For a small animal, that is impressive as fuck.

We also have a lot of animals we can classify/think of as moles, because a lot of things evolved into moles. We have marsupial moles, rodents that evolved into moles, shrews that evolved into moles, and more! Being natures excavator is apparently a very desired evolutionary path.

[xxalexislost19xx]

Me @ the entirety of Tumblr right now:

[bugdotjpeg]

ᵒʰ ʷʰᵃᵗ ᶦᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ᵃˡᶦᵛᵉᵎᵎ ʷʰᵃᵗ ᵐᵃʲᵉˢᵗʸ ᵗᵒ ˢᵉᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵘⁿˢᵉᵗ, ᵒʳ ᵗᵒ ᵈᶦᵍ ᶦⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵒᶠᵗ ᵈᶦʳᵗᵎᵎᵎ ᵒʰ ʷʰᵃᵗ ᶦᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ᵃ ᵐᵒˡᵉᵎᵎ

[letmeliedown]

just found out mole saliva contains a special toxin that paralyzes earthworms & they construct “larders” to store thousands of fucked up undead earthworms for later consumption 

every fact i learn about the undirtiable creature of the underground is better than the last