Arlene Okun, proprietor of the new Sock Monkey Museum in Long Grove, has collected more than 2,000 of the homemade stuffed primates. (Sock Monkey Museum )

Arlene Okun bought a cute stuffed monkey made out of a pair of socks at a gift store 16 years ago. That led to her seeking the plush primates on eBay and via flea markets, and eventually opening up a sock monkey museum in Long Grove.

The gift shop and some displays have been open since over the winter, and the museum will be fully open by April 15, she said. There, visitors can see some of the more than 2,000 sock monkeys in her collection and also learn of the stories behind some of them. They can also watch a ‘sockumentary’ narrated by ‘Sockrates.’ A portion of the entrance fee is donated to Chimp Sanctuary Northwest.

The idea to create homemade exotic critters out of household items may have gone as far back as the Victorian Age. Sock monkeys have been part of American pop culture for nearly a century. The stuffed toy is made by cutting and stitching a pair of socks to look like a monkey. Their characteristic red lips are the red heels of a pair of brown socks.

The soft critter became popular in the 1930s when the Rockford-based Nelson Knitting Company trademarked a pair of socks with red heels, which became the main component in a sock monkey.

“It was during the Great Depression that they started to show up in America,” Okun said. “Parents didn’t have money to buy toys for kids. They made sock monkeys out of work socks. It was a local toy. Sock monkeys were born in Rockford,” she said.

Moms and grandmothers decorated the sock monkeys to serve as surrogate stuffed animals for children.

“They all looked different,” Okun said. “They would stuff them with whatever they had in the house, nylons, saw dust, rice, newspaper. Sock monkeys have a whole interesting history,”

It’s a story she wants to share with others, because it’s fun. “It makes people laugh. It makes them nostalgic,” she said.

These sock monkeys are in the collection at a museum in Long Grove. (Sock Monkey Museum)

Okun said the first sock monkey she bought became a mascot as she and her husband, Michael, traveled. She’d post photos of the sock monkey in front of the Washington Monument, for example, on social media.

Soon Okun learned “a whole ancestry of vintage sock monkeys came before him.” The one she purchased was mass-produced, but vintage sock monkeys are those that were made by hand from Nelson red heel socks from 1932-1992, she said.

“They were all considered good luck. They were given to Armed Forces and volunteer groups made them for children in the hospital,” Okun said.

“I try to find the ones that aren’t mass produced as far as the collection goes,” she said. Many are 50 years old and others are more than 80 years old, she said.

“I like the sock monkeys that have stories attached to them,” Okun said. “I have one that was made for someone’s husband going off to World War II. It came back with him. The sock monkey has a knitted Navy jacket on it and a military cap. It’s really sweet.

“Others are super fancy. I have one that’s got neon pink boa feathers all over it,” Okun said. Others were created by an artist from southern Illinois, who includes sock monkeys in her paintings.

“I bought two of her monkeys, the inspiration for her paintings,” Okun said. “One has a red hat, and the eyes are so beautifully made. They are stitched star eyes that you can see in her paintings.

“It’s just so fun what people come up with,” said Okun, who posts photos of her sock monkeys with their stories on the museum’s Facebook page.

“Another really interesting thing is because the monkeys are made by hand, every one is different,” Okun said. “I have found what I call soul mates, sock monkeys I can tell were made by the same person.

“I’ve got one that’s got safety pins all over it,” she added. “I’ve got one that is being sent to me now, held together with duct tape. The owner says, ‘Wait till you see it.’ I’ve got a Willie Nelson. I’ve got a Dr. Who. I’ve got a Bob Marley.”

“The underground world of sock monkey has always been there,” Okun said. “But I think they’ve recently made a resurgence.

The sock monkey museum also hosts workshops for people to make their own.

Okun’s first homemade sock monkey is named Swanky Franky.

“He’s like a 1950s crooner,” she said. “He’s wearing a tie and a hat that’s tilted. He almost had blue eyes, but I found these vintage button eyes that I really had to go with.”

Okun said sock monkey owners get really attached to their stuffed primates. “There’s a kinship there — whether they made them or didn’t,” she said.

One collector sent her sock monkey to Okun with a blanket to keep him warm on the long trip. One woman, who was moving to Portugal, had a collection of 60 sock monkeys she placed in rooms at an inn in Oregon she and her husband ran.

“She took vintage monkeys and she dressed them herself, as karate monkeys, monkeys at a tea party. They’re beautiful. They’re so well dressed,” Okun said. “She knew she couldn’t take them with her to Portugal, so she was glad she found a new home for them.”

Many of the sock monkeys Okun has collected are in good shape, even if they are 50 or more years old. “Others need a little stitching,” Okun said. “But I try to leave them as they are. I’m a purist.”

When: Opening April 15, Noon-4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; noon-5 p.m. Saturdays

Where: 210 Robert Park Coffin Road, Long Grove

Tickets: $6 for adults; $4 for ages 5-11; free for ages 4 and below

Information: 847-748-1155; facebook.com/SockMonkeyMuseum/

Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun