how do you get into sewing stuffed animals? its always been my dream but im not sure how to start
Well, first you simply have to really want a plushie that doesn’t exist yet…
Just have a go! You could either try out a simple pattern or tutorial you like the look of, or maybe even find a kit with all the materials you need… or you could create something new from old charity shop toys by adding mods or splicing them together into weird creatures. Even if your first few tries are wonky and weird as mine were, you’ll love surrounding yourself with little friends you created!
I have bits and pieces of advice for learning to sew in my plushie advice tag. I do hope you give it a try!
Dear anon.
As someone who has made a single little funky mouse (Peaches the mouse pattern here) I highly recommend stopping by your local dollar store to get some felt. Most of the ones I've been to have at least some thick felt sheets available for cheap (dollarama has these little cubes of a bunch of felt sheets bundled together, dollar tree has larger sheets you can buy individually)
It's not exactly great quality felt, but it's cheap, and decently easy to cut/sew. I found that the really stiff stuff can even be handsewn without me needing to pin it. Very good for experimenting, and not too expensive at all. 10/10 would recommend starting with cheap felt and peaches the mouse (or similar patterns with few parts.) I've also used a modified version of this owl pattern <YouTube video> to make little pouches for lavender and that would also probably be a cute plushie to try, and you can make little ones with scraps.
