My little niece Sofia turns 2 next week, and I wanted to make her a special toy for her birthday.

I found this great tutorial for making a ruffled hedgehog on the lovely blog Matsutake. I’m pretty sure that Katie’s version is much more petite than Hazel, like handful size.  But that’s ok, Hazel is more the size of an actual hedgehog, and I like that.

I made Hazel out of a great printed vintage polyester shirt that Mum gave to me a while back.  It wasn’t the right style or shape for me, so i’m glad it’s been upcycled!

The purple and black ruffles are made from felt.  They took ages to sew on, I didn’t want to have any issues with a little person being able to pull them off and choke on them.

Hazel is in the post and on the way to Sofia now, I think they’re going to make very fine friends indeed!