This Sea Otter works in both 4×4 and 5×7 hoops (the source SVG is included if you want to size it up even more), and is easy to finish.

Stitch Color 1 & 2 (Beige)

Hoop tearaway stabilizer and float a piece of 4×6 or 5.5 x 7.5 brown minky on it. For the 4×4 version, mark the upper left and lower right corners of the stitch area, fold the 4×6 minky in half, and center it diagonally on those marks. Float a piece of beige minky where the feet will go (stitch Color 1 on the brown if you’d like a placement mark, then rewind to stitch it again), and run Color 1 to tack it in place. Use applique scissors to carefully trim the beige minky to the stitch line, then run Color 2.

Make sure the 4×4 placement is a 45-degree angle, corner to corner in the stitchable area, not the whole hoop. The 5×7 version goes vertically.

Stitch Color 3, 4, 5 (Black, White, Pink)

Place some water soluble stabilizer over the face area and stitch out the face. Tear away the WSS (you can rinse out the last bits later).

Stitch Color 6 (Brown)

Place a second piece of brown minky face down and run this stitch color. This is a structural stitch, so you may want to adjust your machine’s tension and speed and use regular thread.

Optional: Stitch Color 7 & 8 (Seashell Blue or Gray)

Trim the brown minky out of the way and float a small piece of shell-colored minky on the stabilizer. Stitch Color 7 in a darker color if you’d like. Place a second piece face down and run Color 8.

Optional: Stitch Color 9 (Heart Pink or Red)

Trim the brown minky out of the way on the other side and float a small sandwich of heart-colored minky. There’s no decorative stitching on this one.

Cut, turn, and stuff

Cut everything out, clipping the inside corners and curves. Carefully turn the otter, shell, and heart, making sure to get the ears and cheek fluffs. Stuff the otter, leaving the arms unstuffed or only lightly stuffed.

Finish!

Ladder-stitch the openings closed with matching thread, and French tack the ends of the paws together. Tuck the seashell and/or heart inside the arms, and you’re done!

[In-the-hoop Sea Otter 4×4 (ZIP)] [In-the-hoop Sea Otter 5×7 (ZIP)]

This is copyrighted by Silver Seams in the year noted in its URL, and licensed under Creative Commons’ [CC-BY-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). This basically means you’re free to sell items you make from it, provided you give reasonable attribution, and that if you modify it you’re required to share your changes with the world under the same license (the actual legal bits are in the link).

As with other free embroidery patterns here, the SVG file is included in the ZIP package so you can modify it in Inkscape and produce your own variations/sizes/etc.

Toss a coin to your stitcher! (Ko-Fi)