Sew a Dinosaur: Twenty-One Playful Prehistoric Beasts to Follow You Home

We bought this book for Grandma, and she made my son the most fantastic purple felt triceratops I have ever seen! It's probably 20" long by nearly a foot tall, with interesting detail and adorable horns.

This book is filled to the gills with patterns and hints for making prehistoric friends. The first chapter contains almost a dozen different ways to embellish your beasts, from stitches to painting to quilting. Tips and techniques are given when needed, and each pattern is clearly marked in level of difficulty. You'll find Apatasaurs, Stegosaurs, Triceretops, Pteradons, Ankylosaurus, Tyranosaurus, Dimetrodon, Spinosaurus, and more! There are two plush dolls, four hand puppets, two kites, a costume, an apron and a sweatshirt with my personal favorite, the allosaur. Each project has some information on the beast. The patterns need to be enlarged, which can be tricky, since some copiers don't copy up to 157% (the ammount for Dimetrodon) on one page. Brought up to scale the T-Rex is almost a yard long! Many, like the Stego, do well with a slightly smaller size. The patterns are easy to alter, if you wish to make a Brachiasaur or even Godzilla. Just remember, there's no seam allowance on the pieces; unaware, my first Ankylosaur came out a little bulky and 'round' looking. After adding the alloted seam allowance I was able to make a sharper, more defined dinosaur. The only real flaw I can see is that the dinos drag their tails. I like my dinos warm blooded. This is easy to remedy, however, by tracing the apttern and rotating the paper until the tail is in the 'proper' position. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to sew these extinct beasts!

Lipson has created an intriguing set of dinosaurs in various fabric crafts - from stuffed toys to mobiles to sweatshirts. She also gives a lot of pointers on decoration and techniques. Followed properly, the results are as good as the photos in the book. The only issue is that the patterns need to be enlarged - and Kinko's can only get them to about 85% of the desired size on their banner enlargement copier. However, kids go wild over the finished products - worth the effort.