I finished prototype #1 for the simple plush annnndddd...I’m definitely going back to the drawing board :p As you can see, the shape is pretty significantly off from what I modeled.
I’ve modeled and then directly sewn things before with success, so I know the technique usually works, but I think two major things went wrong here:
I didn’t account for horizontal stretch, and I’m not sure how I should do that in general. This of course made it stretch horizontally much more than intended, partially causing how awkwardly wide it is
Plush will alwaaays bulge outward unless forced by a seam or needle-sculpting to do otherwise. 3D modeling doesn’t inherently account for this; it’ll let you model inward/concave slopes. But when you actually sew it, those inward/concave curves will always bulge out instead. I think this is pretty much what happened with the armpits.