you can make your very own lil goober using the pattern ive put together below! everything is hopefully labelled to be helpful to some degree...
for personal use only please :]
(when printed at 8 1/2" x 11", the finished plush is about 8" x 5".)
ill also include the embroidery files i made up to go along with the pattern if you have an embroidery machine! (note that the embroidery files are in a .pes format)
Start with a large sheet of cardboard. Stores like home depot have large moving boxes that come flat like this, perfect for this project.
I use a projector to trace my butterfly, but you can also put tracing paper up to a screen and glue it to your cardboard, or ask your library to let you use their projector.
Make sure to trace not just the outside, but also all of the markings and patterns. Doing the antennae as well and keeping the scrap cardboard will allow you to measure out the right length.
2.
Cut around the outside of your lepidopteran and crease where the wings meet each other and the body. I use my hands, but a ruler can help. After bending your wings into a natural position, make the body and head with your clay of choice, mine is foam clay which is cheap and easy to use.
Blend the sides of the body into the wings just enough to stick, this will hold the pose you've chosen.
Prop up the wings with whatever is around and keep in a safe spot to dry. Mine dries overnight at this size. You can see I've used bottles for mine
3.
Once dry and solidified, the clay holds the wings in place in the way you left them.
Measure your antennae wire a little longer than needed and poke it into the clay. If it doesn't stay, add a little dot of super or hot glue at the base.
Glue a mounting bracket on the back. You can angle this however you like to have your lepidopteran upright, sideways, or even upside down
4.
Paint your sections individually so you don't lose your trace lines. I go in with white first to cover up the print on the cardboard, then put the correct colors over that.
If making a high contrast lep like this, go in with black at the end to clean up your edges.
If adding any fur to the body, get a piece larger than you need and hot glue it on, then trim the backing underneath the fibers with tiny snips, as not to cut the fur itself, and carefully glue the edges of the backing to the body as well
5.
Brush a matte finish like mod podge over your final product. Hold your lep up to where you want it to hang, then mount with a nail
a kiln god is a small clay sculptural creature that stays on/in/near a kiln while itās firing, to watch over the pottery inside and protect it
mine are all vaguely humanoid and holding pottery, but they can be anything
a lot of people leave their kiln gods unglazed, and only ever make one or two. because I work with a shared kiln, my kiln gods have to be inside the kiln so they donāt get bumped or broken, so it makes more sense to glaze them and keep making more
(^this one I kept, she lives on my pottery desk)
people have lots of little traditions around kilns and pottery. there are so many variables to successfully finishing a piece of pottery, and many of the steps are out of our control. itās nice to have a kiln god watching over our work
if you take a pottery class, your teacher might mention the kiln gods. for some potters/studios theyāre more of a concept than anything physical
what can I say, humans just love to make little guys
I saw pill bugs on here a few weeks ago and really wanted to make my own! The pattern is a bit rough but I hope it works (I tried to get it perfect for like a week before calling it good enough).
Just print out (or copy from a screen) the first page and cut out the pattern pieces. Hopefully the pictures on page two will help but if not I will do my best to answer any questions!
Hope you enjoy and make your own lil isopod friend!
If anyone makes this, I would love to see pictures š
AAA ok so a lot of people have been asking for the pattern to this, tho Iāve been using just these two little papers to do the cut outs lol
i tried my best to translate it into digital so that people get a bit more accurate look at them. Tho bear with me Iāve never done an actual pattern design sheet before!
so basically my hope is that anyone could print these out to any size of their choosing and get the same result, but ive never tried anything larger than approx. 3 inches with these sooo idk if you try it tag me!
the goal is to sew the backs together to the lines at the tip of the head to the middle of the butt. then leaving a space along the belly piece near the butt end and sewing from one side of the butt including all the legs and the āmouthā to the other side with its legs to get back to the butt. if that makes sense
i usually pause sewing up the body once the head is fully sewn together,, usually after ive sewn both arms and ill yank it inside out where ill start sewing on the little poofball eyes so i know theyre in a good place, then resuming the body, and then pulling the whole thing inside out and pushing out the tips of the limbs with a skinny blunt object like a dull pencil until i can see the stitches. if you attempt this piece definitely make sure you stitch up the arm and leg crevices very well!!!!
then just stuff the lad and sew up his back end and its done :)
one suggestion for fabric is always try to use a stretchy soft fleecy fabric with these because its much easier if mistakes are made during sewing and to hold the ROUND shape better
Overall its a very good use of scraps if youāve accumulated a lot and donāt know what to do with them šš
Every time I'm forced by circumstance to hand-sew something, I remember a fairytale I once read. There are lead-up shenanigans as the humble protagonist helps small animals and meets the princess and all that, but in the climax, the princess rigs a contest for her hand by setting her own task: sew her a dress in a single night.
The noble suitors, who have never sewn a thing in their lives, sabotage themselves by their own ambitions: they choose difficult fabrics to work with and cut huge, elaborate patterns and select gems and pearls and beads to sew onto it, and snip such long bits of thread that they lose time detangling their stitches, and ultimately resort to pinning bits together as they run out of time, so that their offerings initially look beautiful and flashy, but when the princess tries them on they stick her with pin ends and fall apart as she moves.
The humble protagonist uses a very simple pattern without embellishments and sews using short lengths of thread (snipped off and threaded for him by little birds of course) which don't tangle and therefore save time. His dress is plain by contrast, but holds together and the princess is able to move freely in it, and so he wins the contest and her hand.
I particularly think about the bit about threading the needle with shorter lengths of thread, needing to tie off more often but avoiding tangles and thereby saving time.
I then ignore that piece of wisdom passed down through who knows how many years and proceed to cut the longest damn length of thread I can manage because I hate tying off beginning or ending knots and I will not subject myself to more of that even if it does mean more tangles along the way.
I am professional seamstress and make garments, mostly corsets, for a living. But at first I was taught to hold a needle and sew by my grandma at age 4 or 5. It was over decade since she passed but every time I thread a needle I can hear her voice in exact tone she used to reprimand me "Long thread - lazy seamstress!". Every time for nearly 35 years of sewing.
I want to share my terrible attempt at making a Gangle hex
And then to make it worse, I didnāt edit the proportional values that change how she looks as a kitten, so when you first get her she looks like this
pixelskylines
baratheonpilled
dededos
kaledo-art
romaincrisis
janainaart
origamiaround
