You Can Make Your Own Sock Monkeys!
Children love to talk to them, pose them, photograph them, have tea with them and take them to bed. They will never divulge your secrets and always be there as your best mate. Sock monkeys have never been mass produced. They are all handmade. Each one is unique. That makes them very special.
Short legs, long legs. Big ears and small ears. Button eyes, embroidered or felt eyes. Hats and pompoms. Ribbon bows around their necks. Handmade clothes, often made from scraps of fabric. Originally they were stuffed with cut up old nylon stockings. Today we have progressed to polyester fibre filling.
The timeless Sock Monkey children’s toy has been around for decades. Over the past few years, not only has it been crafted, but it has been discovered as a collector’s item. Many bear collections include a Sock Monkey friend or two.
Most vintage sock monkeys found today are no older than the late 1950’s and many date from the 1970’s. There are sock monkey artists making wonderfully designed Sock Monkeys.
The monkeys are made from Original Rockford Work Socks (see below). The first monkeys were fashioned in the 1930’s when an innovative mother made them for her children. The Rockford sock was ideal because of the bright red heels, which became the monkey’s mouth and bottom. The red heel was added to the work socks as a way of identifying the brand.
Although these work socks had been made since 1890, it was many years later when the sock company discovered that crafters were using the socks to fashion monkeys. The sock company took this on board and in the mid fifties they were awarded a design patent for the Sock Monkey and began including the pattern in each pack of monkey socks.
You can make your own sock monkey with one pair of Original Rockford Red Heel work socks. Easy to make. A pack of two pairs of original red heel socks includes FREE patterns for monkey and elephant.