HI KERORO HEADS! APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE FOR THE REALLY LONG POST.
I wanted to make a tutorial for this teeny Keroro plush I made a few weeks ago! I'm hoping it will be pretty straight-forward, but it will probably make more sense to people who have a little bit of sewing experience lol.
fabric in green, yellow, and white
thread in light green (highlight), white (satin outline of eyes and mouth), orange (satin outline of hat), black (eyes), yellow (tummy star), red and pink (mouth and head star) (if you are hand sewing this project, I would recommend embroidery floss rather than typical thread)
sewing machine OR sewing Needles (ideally you would use a machine with an embroidery feature, but it is by no means required. (You can definitely complete this project by hand it will just take a little longer lol) I have a Brother SE600 with a 4”x4” embroidery plate.
water-erasable fabric marking pen (These are awesome for transferring your pattern to the fabric, and having a rough sketch for hand embroidery. Not required but always nice)
In terms of which fabric to use, it’s really up to you and your personal preference. I used a nice thick polar fleece for this project, because I love the texture, (and how forgiving it is) but minky or felt would also work very nicely as well.
Running stitch (for the bulk of the securing, if you are working by hand I might use a back stitch instead)
Fill stitch (only applicable if you are working with an embroidery machine, if you are working by hand use a satin stitch for these parts. Alternatively, you could also cut out little pieces of felt for his mouth and pupils but that's up to you!)
Satin stitch (tightly packed zig-zag we'll use to give Keroro a more "finished" look, especially around his facial features)
Ladder stitch (invisible finishing stitch used at the very end)
First thing you’ll need to do is appliqué Keroro’s face. I’ve used the ink stitch add on of a vector program called Inkscape (it’s free!) to make my embroidery files, but you can use whatever program you have access to. (I won’t go in depth on ink stitch here, but there are a series of very helpful tutorials on the add-on’s official website)
Beginner Tutorial Series on our YouTube-Channel
Make sure you create a running stitch for the eyes and white mouth part, as well as a running stitch for the start of his hat. CAREFULLY cut the excess fabric away from the green, I like to leave a little bit of extra fabric on the top and bottom so I know for sure it will reach the top and bottom of his head when I cut out that pattern piece.
Next, fill in the pupils, mouth and shine with color. Feel free to give Keroro any expression you want! I went with funny angry closed eyes for mine lol. Once all of those areas are filled in, finish the face with a satin stitch over the areas that were previously secured with a running stitch.
follow the same process for his body.
Here are my embroidery files in ink stitch, as well as the params for the satin stitching (the fill settings I kept as the default). I worked on a 4”x4” square but I think any size square would result in the same sizing on the actual machine. If you’re doing your embroidery by hand, you can achieve a similarly clean look with a little patience and care. Don’t forget if you sew something and aren’t satisfied, you can always cut your stitches out and try again. I believe in you twin.
Time to cut out all of your pieces. I will admit, my process with machine embroidery is largely self taught and also a LOT of trial and error, which is why we are actually cutting all the pieces out this late into the process. I like to print out a few sizes of the Keroro pattern, cut one eye out of the head piece and measure it against the finished embroidery. When it fits I know that the rest of the pattern will be the correct size. If you are hand sewing the project however you can cut your pieces much earlier.
My Keroro is not accurate in the back. I’d say that it makes him less complicated to turn inside out at the end (and technically it does) but truthfully I got a little lazy and I didn’t want to worry about any more appliqué.
FINALLY! WE CAN SEW! Most of this is standard fair, running stitch around the hat flaps and legs while leaving a hole in the obvious spots to turn. Stuff them and stick the legs longways into the body so they stick out when flipped inside out. Also make sure the beautiful embroidery you did is on the INSIDE when you sew (as it will be turned inside out).
TIME TO SEW UP THE HEAD- with the body AND hat flaps inside. This part is pretty dicey ngl, just go slow and double check that you have aligned everything correctly (pretty embroidered face should be facing inward). Also don't forget to embroider the little star on his hat, this part you kind of have to do by hand no matter what because it is THAT SMALL. Good luck my goat.
Moment of truth, let's see that frog!! Cut a slit in the yellow head piece, but be REALLY careful to not cut anything inside! You worked hard on that stuff! Stuff the head and ladder stitch up the opening.
YAY!!!! YAY!!! HE'S BORN!!!! WAHOO!!!
Here's his pattern, go nuts! If you end up making a Keroro reblog cause I wanna see. :]
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