Hanging Bats

One of the best 'bat' soft sculptures that sells is also the very simplest one to make.  They can be sized from vampire (4") up to fruit bat (18") long, and all look good.  I use fake fur, the short napped type most commonly called 'craft fur', and felt or polar fleece  for the wings.

 

The body is a long teardrop shape, which I leave open at the 'foot' end. Sew, turn, stuff it.

 

Head is a triangle shape - sew all the way around, carefully slice the back and turn, then put on the safety lock eyes, and stuff it. I used to use brown 'bear' eyes for these, but they look more distinctive with yellow eyes with round pupils. 

 

Cut 2 pairs of triangles out of felt, sew 2 layers together in a V shape, leaving the bottom side open.  Sew to the head.  Then sew the head to the round part of the body. 

 

For the feet I sew a long, rounded tube of fabric, sort of a long U shape.  I cut a length of wire, loop the ends so nothing sharp is sticking out, fold the wire in half and insert it into the fabric tube.  Take 2 stitches at the top center to keep the wire in place, stick the open flat end of the tube down into the foot section of the body and sew that by hand.  Bend the wire to bring the top down towards the body a bit, this allows the feet to be set over a curtain rod or other item and hang on it's own.

 

Wings don't need to be large, just big enough to wrap loosely around half the body.  On the small bats I only make them 4" long. On the big fruit bats they're 12 inches long. They only get one finger vein, since two generally won't show.  The wings are attached at the back of the bat and I bring the tips around to the front and do a few stitches to hold the tips together right under where the foot starts. This makes them look like they're hanging with folded wings.

 

You can fancy them up by using polar fleece only on the inside of the wings and use a black on black silk style brocade for the outside of the wings (that stuff frays, so give yourself enough seam allowance and tuck the bottom under when you attach the wings by hand on the back).

 

If you tilt the head a bit to one side they get a quizzical look to them. And with the fruit bats, when you turn them over right side up they look positively demented!