Handkerchief Mouse Tutorial

The whole family was horribly sick this whole week.  What a wasted week!  Nothing got done except the basics needed for survival.  The house is a mess; I really need to mop the kitchen floor.  But today I actually have energy and Kevin is home to help watch the girls while I put things back in order so there is hope for us. 

Here is a tutorial I've been meaning to put up.  When I was little, tante Hertha, my great aunt from Germany, would visit and make us mice out of my father's cloth handkerchiefs.  I was old enough to know that they weren't real but I could not for the life of me figure out how they would almost escape by jumping out of her hands.  I later learned the trick along with how to make the mice themselves.  Recently I have gotten requests to learn from family members that have forgotten how to make them.  So here we go.

You will need one handkerchief or cloth napkin.  The thinner material of the handkerchief is easier to work with, but cloth napkins are usually readily available when you are out to dinner at a nice restaurant and want to impress your dinner companions. 

1.  To begin fold your handkerchief in half across the bias so it makes a triangle.

2. Take the two folded points and bring them in a third of the way along the fold so they overlap.

3. Fold the folded edge over three times ending right before or on where the two flaps cross.  

4. Flip the handkerchief over so that the folds are now facing down.

5. Bring each folded end in a third of the way along the fold so they overlap.

6.  Take the unfolded corners of the handkerchief, wrap it around the folded ends and insert (i.e. cram it all) into the hole created between the fold and the folded ends.

7. Slowly and gently unroll the three folds from step 3 around the unfolded corners inserted into the hole in the last step. You end up with an oblong ball.



8. There are three layers wrapped around the main body of the mouse now.  The bottom layer stays where it is and holds the mouse together.  The top two layers are the handkerchief points that you will need to gently separate from the body of the mouse. To do so find the folded edges of the handkerchief points.

9.  Gently insert your finger under the top layer and follow it around until your finger pokes out the other end on the other side of the mouse's body. 

10. You will need to ascertain which end of the mouse the point is tucked into by deciding where the narrow part is coming from.  Sometimes it is hard to tell, so gently tugging to see which end gives more can help but can also ruin the work you've done to this point. 

11. Gently tug the point out of the rolled up end of the ball.  You want to keep the rest of it tightly rolled so be gentle.

 

 

12.  Repeat for the second layer (the pointed end will come from the opposite side of the first one).

 

 

13. One end is the tail; leave it be. The other makes the head. To do so, fold the point in half toward the body. 

 

14. Two new points are created on the fold. Take those two and tie them in a knot. Now you have the head and the two points have turned into ears.

 

And you have a handkerchief mouse!

 

 

Please let me know if the steps don't make sense, so I can try to clarify.