#plush making tips

[tumbleosity]

This little guy is a good example to check the direction of your stretch and/or pile. I rushed him since he’s a first draft but I’m debating deconstructing him to make him a bit less awkward since I like to keep my prototypes.

[wolfbeestudio]

Genuine question- why do the undermeow plushies have no noses?

That's an awesome question! In my designs, I try to keep consistency and ESPECIALLY for plush designs, avoiding too much detail. I know exactly how the pattern and the embroidery line up, and a nose would be RIGHT on the chin seam.

I also tend to avoid noses for my personal designs for some reason?

I take so much inspiration from Japanese plushies and designs, that unless the nose is a major feature, I'll tend not to have it.

As a pro plush designer, here's a little design know-how. More embroidery/printing/colors mean more money. And it can be even more expensive depending on the size of the plush and the fabric used. You also have to consider the seams and if features are going over seams, and how to line them up cleanly.

But anyway, this was an awesome question and I love that you're curious about my processes :3c

[makeshiftwings30]

Sewing Tips #10 - Paper Towel Patterning

"Paper towel patterning, where have you been all my life?" I've been asking myself while working on my current plush. I've seen people do it but never have tried it myself. But now I have and boy, am I glad I did! So here I am to try and encourage you all to join the club.

Using paper towels to pattern is great for draping clothes, hair, or any other flowy things on a plush you have in your hands. It would not be good for patterning bodies from scratch. You can easily cut it, draw on it, add extra pieces to it, etc. Paper towels will act more like fabric than normal paper would! I use Viva paper towels. They are a bit more cloth-like than most paper towels, but any should work; they just might not lay quite as nicely.

I’ll go through an example of patterning clothes to show you how it works and to provide some tips!

Pull up a reference photo of what you're making. I'm going to make this dress/ jacket ("dracket"). You will want to make any pieces under the article you're patterning first. So I've already made her shirt and pants.

What we pattern will be WITHOUT seam allowance, so pattern exactly how you want the piece to fall. I'm going to start with the front left side of her jacket. Tear off a section of towel and pin it in place.

Her jacket ends at just about the middle of the right collar, so I folded the towel and pinned it in place.

I cut a little bit of towel right above her shoulder to start a sleeve (or, lack of one in this case). Instead of cutting all the way I folded the towel to make the shape I wanted just in case I cut too far; it's easier to remove towel rather than add! After that I could just tuck the rest of it around her side to get it form fitting.

Her dracket has a V-neck, so I drew it with fabric pen. Then I cut it out.

I added the right section underneath the left one. I like that the paper towel is sheer enough that I can see how much overlap I have between the two layers, which you want since they'll be buttoned together. I followed the same process of cutting a line above her shoulder and then wrapping the towel around the back of her body.

She has a leg opening on the right side of the dracket, which I drew and then cut out. Again, err on the side of cutting less than you think you need.

The dracket also needed to be longer, so I cut a strip of towel and pinned it to the bottom to add length (not shown here, but you can see in the first image).

Next I needed to add towel to her shoulders since the first piece of towel wasn't long enough to reach. I cut pieces and added them to the towel with pins where needed.

I repeated the same process with the back. Since it's symmetrical, I didn't need to do the entire back; in fact, you likely DON'T want to do that since you can end up with an uneven pattern. I lined up the edge of the paper towel along her back exactly where the seam/ middle would be. You can just pin the other side of the towel to the front side where it overlaps. The edges of the towel don't matter for the most part (unless you've strategically placed them like I did with the back). You just want all the towel to lie flat.

Continue to pattern all your pieces and make patches of paper towel as necessary, pinning everything in place.

Once you have the whole thing draped and patterned, you need to draw the seams. For standard clothes you want a seam along the shoulders and the sides. For the back, you can lay the middle back seam along a fold of fabric to get it perfectly symmetrical instead of having a seam. I drew where the seams should be with my fabric pen directly on the paper towel. You can see that I’ve drawn over many layers of towel, ones that started on the back, front, patches of towel, etc. Again these layers don’t really matter, but you want to make sure that your layers will stick together when you cut along the seam line, so you likely will need to add some extra pins along the line you drew. You don’t want your pattern to fall apart after you cut it!

You can also add darts to your clothes if needed by folding the towel, pinning it in place, and then drawing along where the seam would be, but I didn’t need to since it’s a flowy piece.

Once you’ve drawn all your seams and pinned the towels together securely, carefully cut your pattern along the seams. Use a crappy pair of scissors that won’t cut through the fabric or plush underneath it (you should be using a crappy pair anyway, since nice scissors should be reserved only for fabric). I’m serious, be super super careful and if you feel any more resistance than you think you should, stop and make sure you’re not cutting into anything you don’t want to! If you notice your pattern coming apart, stop and pin where you need to. As you pull the pattern off your plush, you probably have pinned through the fabric beneath it so gently remove the pin and replace it.

Now you will have all your pattern pieces in paper towel form! But, this isn’t sturdy at all, especially with pins holding it together. If you’re anything like me your pattern pieces go through hell and back. Trace your pattern piece onto your REAL patterning material of choice (I just use normal printer paper). Make up for any minor rough parts/inconsistencies (you can see I corrected the rough edge around the armpit). Add seam allowance if that’s how you roll with your patterns. I use 0.25″ and just eyeball it, but you can certainly be precise with a ruler. Mark what piece they are and what side of the fabric it is as necessary.

Repeat with all your pattern pieces. For the back, you can see I just mirrored the pattern I made by folding the paper and tracing the pattern along the edge (this isn’t really necessary either, since I’m going to end up just folding it in half and placing it on the fabric that way, but whatever). Now you have a nice pattern that should fit your plush just perfectly! Hooray!

[makeshiftwings30]

Sewing Tips #9 V2.0 - Applique Using Your Embroidery Machine

I unknowingly gave some bad advice on my last version of this sewing tip, so the old version has been deleted. I learned the proper way to do it, so here’s a new one to replace it!

Applique is when you take one piece of fabric and attach it to another piece of fabric by satin stitching (tight zigzag stitches). This generally looks more professional than top-stitching and makes it easier to add complex designs to your piece. Applique can be done two ways - what I call “by hand” (still sewn with a sewing machine, but not programmed with an embroidery program) or with an embroidery machine (with the stitches sewn by an embroidery program). This tutorial will go over the latter method.

Each method has its pros and cons: by hand takes less up-front work, but tends to be messier depending on the skill level of the maker; by machine takes a decent amount of prep up-front, but is very clean and isn’t dependent on the skill of the maker. I generally prefer the embroidery machine method, unless it is a very small piece on a part of the plush that is not a “focus point”.

I wanted Poliwag’s white belly piece to be applique. It is a very large part of the plush, and if I made the white part embroidery, it would be rough to the touch and take a ton of stitches. It would likely also warp the shape of the plush since it’s a big, rounded piece of embroidery. 

The first step is to design the applique in your embroidery program. I can only speak to Embird. Use the “Create applique object” button (5th from the bottom on the left) and trace the outline of your applique object. Embird automatically will program two basting stitches and the satin stitch if you use this feature. All you have to do is draw the shape. Adjust the parameters of the piece as necessary (I usually make the stitches a little more dense and up the pull compensation a tiny bit).

I will not go over the creation of the eyes in this tutorial since they are embroidery and not applique.

Once you’re done, print out your design and trace your pattern over it. Cut it out. Cut out a piece of minky larger than your pattern. Do not cut out your pattern piece. You want this piece to be bigger so you have some margin for error in placement of your embroidery here. Mark the center of the applique, NOT the pattern (these two happen to be the same on this design, but that’s not always the case) on the piece of fabric.

Cut out a piece of stabilizer for your embroidery hoop. My design goes over 4″x4″, so I’m using the 4″x7″ hoop. I measure by placing the hoop on the stabilizer and cutting about 1″ past each edge.

Spray the stabilizer with adhesive spray. Make sure the adhesive is for sewing/embroidery. I keep a piece of cardboard handy for spraying stabilizer.

Do NOT spray the fabric - it makes it extremely sticky and nasty.

Place your fabric on the stabilizer. Make sure the nap is going the right way (depends on how your design lays in the hoop).

For now, we are not going to put water soluble stabilizer on top. We will later!

Hoop your fabric. Use the placement guide your hoop came with as needed.

Hook the hoop onto your machine. Since I’m using the larger hoop, there are 3 different positions you can hook it onto the machine. Be aware of which section your embroidery belongs in, depending on your design. You don’t want to mess this up!

When you load your design into the machine, you’ll see several different segments. The first couple are basting stitches. Stitch the first segment. It will stop automatically.

It will outline your applique piece with some wide stitches. We will use this as a guide to place our applique fabric. Cut out a piece of fabric for your applique slightly larger than your final applique piece. The bigger it is, the less chance of error, but the more fabric wasted.

Place the fabric over the basting stitches. I did spray the back of this fabric with adhesive spray to help keep it in place. I know I said not to spray the fabric earlier, but in this situation the wrong side of the piece will never be exposed again and I will not be sewing this individual piece TO anything. The spray adhesive can make sewing very difficult, but that’s not an issue here.

Let the second segment run. It will stitch the applique piece in place.

Now you need to trim the edges as close as possible to the stitching.

Finally, put water soluble stabilizer on top. Since we didn’t hoop it with the fabric, I usually pin it in place. But be careful, since they can get stitched over! Try to put them way out of the way.

The final segment will do the satin stitching. After it’s done, do any further embroidery as necessary. When you’re finished, remove the stabilizer from the top and bottom of the piece. If there is any extra fabric sticking out from the satin stitching, clean it up the best you can. Then you’re all done!

[makeshiftwings30]

Sewing Tips #8 - Jointing Skinny Limbs

Jointing limbs on a plush is simple and instantly adds character. It won’t detract from cuddliness and sometimes is even easier than sewing a limb on the normal way!

This technique should be used for skinny limbs like arms and some legs. I used a different technique on Kecleon’s legs. This also won’t work for heads, unless the head is extremely small.

Buy a set of plastic doll joints. I buy mine from CR’s Crafts: http://www.crscraft.com/products/vProduct1.asp?pid=Joint&L1=1&L2=8&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0&V2=1&V3=0&V4=0&T2=Style&T3=&T4=&cat=doll+supplies&sub=Fasteners&class=&searchOffset=x

There are three parts. From left to right: the post, the lock washer, and the washer.

With your cat’s help, determine where you want your joint to be. For arms I place the post in this position, with a bit of room around the circle, kind of like a seam allowance.

Using a water-soluble fabric pen mark where the post itself will come out of the fabric. This is the side of the arm that will touch the body (obviously). If you have identical pieces for the front and back of the arm it won’t matter, but Kecleon did not.

This is kind of hard to see, but I like to stitch a circle around the dot to give some stability to the fabric. You’re going to be cutting a hole in the fabric so it will help with any unwated stretching or tearing. I just use a circular stitch that already comes with my SE400. If you don’t have one, you can do a zig-zag stitch around it. Cut inside the circle, large enough for the post to slip through.

Sew the arm together as normal.

Take the post and slip it through the hole you made. Stuff the arm. You should stuff the ‘shoulder’ more firmly than the rest of the arm, so it will naturally have some strength to hold itself up.

There are a couple ways to attach the arm to the body. The first is to follow the process described above, marking a dot where the post will enter and sewing a circle around the dot then cutting the hole. The second (and in my opinion, preferable) method is to leave a gap in the side seam of the body. That means no cutting holes, so the fabric is preserved, and you can just slide the post in the seam. Unfortunately this is not always possible because of seam placement and where you need the limb to go.

Once you’ve made the entry point, put the post into the body.

Take the washer and slide it all the way down onto the post from inside the body.

Take the lock washer and begin to slide it on, flat side down towards the other washer. Be careful about how far you slide it down. If you push it all the way to the last notch, the arm might not turn; it’ll be too stiff. If you don’t push it down far enough the arm will be too loose. I usually stop one notch away from the bottom. If you mess up, it IS possible to get the lock washer off. In the past I’ve used pliers to yank it off, or even to push it off from underneath.

Finish your plush as normal. Now they can wave!

[makeshiftwings30]

Sewing Tips #7 - Adding Dimension with Machine Stitching

You can machine stitch objects after they are stuffed to give them dimension. This can be used in a variety of ways - ears, feathers, or tails, as seen here.

Kecleon’s tail was perfect for this technique. If I didn’t choose to approach the tail this way, I would have had to make a long tube, stuff it, roll it up, then hand sew it all together. That is a LOT of work, and I’m not the biggest fan of hand sewing.

Instead, I traced the entire shape of the tail (with some adjustments for plush-ifying).

Sew around the edges and leave one area open for turning. Clip corners and curves as necessary.

Depending on how you are going to attach said item to the plush, you will either want to go ahead and machine stitch it on (as I did here) or move on to the next step if it will be hand-sewn on.

Stuff the item -lightly-. I say lightly because it has to fit under your machine foot. I had to take out stuffing after taking this picture. You want enough stuffing so that dimension will be added after you stitch, but not so much that you can’t fit it under. The “right” amount should be what you can just fit underneath your machine foot.

Trace the design you will be sewing with a water-soluble fabric pen.

Fit it under your foot and sew as normal. This can be a little tough. You can already see dimension where I started the stitch. As you’re going, if you notice areas that need a bit more stuffing, you can stop and add it before you “close off” that area with stitching.

When you’re done, clean up the marker and trim the thread where needed. All done! Saved so much time and it looks great!

[makeshiftwings30]

Sewing Tips #6 - Adding Stability to Pieces Without Wire

If you have a smaller to medium size piece on your plush, like an ear or open wings (notably MLP wings), you can avoid using wires for stability and instead use stiff felt sewn inside of the piece. This is especially desirable for any plush that will be for snuggling!

Buy some sturdy felt for this “interfacing”. The cheap stuff isn’t strong enough, so I would suggest something mid-range.

You will need a couple layers of felt for a piece to stand on its own. I’ve used up to 3 pieces before, but the more you use, the harder it’ll be to turn it right side out.

I typically don’t trace the shape of the pattern piece, I just cut out a slightly larger piece so I don’t have to worry about it lining up. If you have corners in your piece, do not put any felt in this area. They won’t turn right side out well.

Make sure you get felt all along the seam line as well. You want to sew the felt into the seam of the plush wherever this piece is going, otherwise the piece will be floppy.

Sew the piece as normal, and trim the seams and felt.

Now you have a sturdy piece that is still soft!

[makeshiftwings30]

Sewing Tips #5 - Patterning Darts

Patterning darts was always confusing to me. Sure, I could draw a triangle on my pattern, but slashing my pattern and twisting it by exactly the amount you adjusted your pattern by was not intuitive. Now that I found this method I don’t have to worry about that anymore :D

This is the beginning of Vaporeon’s head pattern. It’s not even close to being complete, but I know I want a dart in the top area marked with a line. Measure how long you want your dart to be.

On a piece of paper where you will transfer your pattern, draw a line that is equal to that length + seam allowance. 

Add the desired width of your dart, and complete the triangle. Note that your triangle should REALLY end at the seam allowance line, but I fudged up and drew it too far down.

Now, the end goal is to fold the paper so the sides of the triangle meet. I find it easiest to begin by folding the paper along the 3 long lines you just drew.

Now fold the paper together, meeting the sides of the triangle.

Your paper will no longer lay flat. That’s perfectly fine. Smooth it out the best you can by creasing the paper.

Lay your pattern over the fold you just made. Have the top of the pattern meet the top of the dart, and the bottom meet the line where you added seam allowance. Have the folded line and your drawn dart line exactly line up (mine is a little off here).

Trace your pattern onto the paper.

Now when you unfold the paper and straighten it out, your pattern automatically adjusts itself for the width of the dart!

I like to draw in the additional seam allowance on the sides and cut out the original triangle for easier transferring to patterns. (Don’t forget I drew my triangle too far down, and as such cut too far, but that’s ok, it’s just a first draft! don’t do that to your own pattern though :D)

That’s it!