Plush – Page 2 – Hopefully Creative

Hamster

This little hamster won’t stay upright but he’ll stay cute

In direct contrast to my last post, I only managed to keep the plushy draught to two days.

The thing is.. I’ve been wanting to knit for the last couple of evenings, but the project I want to knit is the starry night sweater. I only have one ball left and half of the front and half of the back to complete. One ball will not be enough for that. So at the end of June I ordered more yarn in hopes that I can dye some more starry night shades and get my sweater finished. The yarn was bought in the UK which is now no longer in the EU so I figured it might take a little while, but after three full weeks there still was no word on my package which was shipped July 1st. I sent a message and received a tracking number which states that my package is being held hostage by immigration. I’m fine with paying VAT on it, which I think is what this is about, but they do need to inform me if that’s the case, which they haven’t done. The tracking info states that it’s ok to be released to my local post office on the 16th (!) and also that the package service still has not received it. You can imagine my dismay that the package which I’ve been waiting for is still in some sort of limbo. Aargh. We’ll see what next week brings.

While waiting for my package, I did want to do something while binge watching Bones and I settled on fusing the faces of the three plushies I still have cut. So the hamster got its face, the shark got its eyes and teeth and the sloth got its face too. I started some sewing but mostly continued the next day by stitching some faces down.

The first one that was finished was the free Hamster/Chinchilla pattern from Sew Desu Ne / Choly Knight. I chose to make the hamster because I was intrigued by the head. It has tiny cheek darts to give him an even fuller face. The instructions were very meticulous about sewing the irregular face shapes together. However, I decided to chuck those out the window and just sew it down in one fell swoop. It’s decent enough I think. I really like his little cross features even if it needed to be pink, my least favourite colour.

He’s got a poly-pellet pouch in his bottom but I didn’t fill it enough to offset his giant head so he regularly tips over. If you actively squash him down on a flat surface, he’ll stay upright, so that’s been the method so far. Sewing went smoothly, no picking out or wrong bastes. I guess some focus does help!

Friggin’ Frog

After some serious trials and tribulations, a tomato frog joins the tribe

When you try to make a cute little frog plush and it fights you every step of the way. That was my experience at least. As usual it’s a free pattern from Sew Desu Ne / CholyKnight aptly named Frog. I’m fairly certain my issues had nothing to do with the actual pattern, but more with fabric choice and not paying enough attention.

Tomato Frog from https://www.everythingreptiles.com/tomato-frog/

Anyway, I wanted to make a red frog and then googled to see if they exist and found the Tomato Frog. Perfect name for a red frog. They seem to have light coloured bellies, so I chose the off-white for that. All the pieces got cut out (so far, so decent). I stuck on the eyes which took a few tries and the nostrils, and I’m fairly certain that by that point the head-bits got stretched out of shape (friggin’ frog moment 1). I recut them and sewed all the possible red bits together. I then chucked the frog in a corner for a few weeks because I didn’t own any more red thread. Then I lost one of the feet (friggin’ frog moment 2) only to remember that it might be in my bag for when I went out to buy matching thread.

Yesterday, I finally got the courage to get going on the frog again. You see, this frog requires visible topstitching for its feet and this fabric does not want to show stitching. In the end, I sat down and hand sewed some toes. Then used long bent tweezers to stuff the toes so that there was some definition. To get some more effect, I even trimmed the webbed bits to see if it would help. I then had to attach the legs to the body. The one side went fine, the other side I basted in place a whopping 4 times (friggin’ frog moment 3) because I first put it in the wrong place – there was a notch?, then upside down twice before finally figuring out how to do it. Going back to the first failed baste.. Why was there a notch on the head?! Turns out, I stitched the head together wrong (friggin’ frog moment 4) and spent the next 45 minutes picking out tiny stitches.

After putting the head back on correctly, and attaching the belly the remainder went well. Just some stuffing to do after all and sewing a frog’s butt closed. While working on the back legs, I kept wondering how someone can think in 3D shapes in such a way to make one ‘moon-shaped’ pattern piece resemble an entire back leg of a frog and I decided to just be in awe. I don’t love this one nearly as much as some of the others. Which is ok, not everyone can be on top. I still have a few more plushies cut out, but I’m probably going to leave them cut and unsewn for a while. We’ll see where the sewing machine and mood take me.

Fluffy-Toothed T-Rex

Feathers are not fleece, but who knows, maybe T-Rexes really were this fluffy?

I think this one is the cutest so far. He doesn’t look like much from the front on account of his eyes being invisible, but from a side angle, very adorable. It’s the free T-Rex pattern from Sew Desu Ne/CholyKnight. After finishing the Turtle Duck, I was supposed to finish a turtle. While the turtle has its eyes by now, it’s not completed. So why did I start on this one, you ask? Because I had blue thread in the sewing machine from completing the not denim pants. I was simply too lazy to change it out so I grabbed my previously cut pieces and got to work.

I’ve still got at least 4 more cut out plushies, since I decided to cut the free plushy patterns that I’d been eying for a while on the same day. All the bits are now waiting in plastic wallets with their appropriate paper pattern pieces. With the cutting out of the way, it took about 3.5 hours to complete this little critter. I’m just never going to be a fast sewer I think.

Of course I have a weakness for dinosaurs, so it’s not a surprise that I like this one. I do find the teeth quite challenging. Fluffy teeth seem wrong in some way. That doesn’t make me want to hug him any less though!

Turtle Duck

This time the duck has a shell and four feet. He has become the elusive Turtle Duck!

As alluded to in the previous post, the (Turtle) Duck pattern by CholyKnight also has a Turtle Duck. In contrast to regular ducks, turtle ducks do not actually exist in nature. They are creatures that were created for the Avatar the Last Airbender universe. It’s effectively a duck with a turtle shell on its back and four feet instead of two. It also required different pieces for the head that allowed a stripe to be formed.

I basically attempted to follow the colour palette as it was on the pattern. A beige for the body, green for the shell, orange for the feet, sand for the beak and a light brown for the head-stripe. Of course my stash composition limited the selection somewhat, so the body is off-white, the shell is more turquoise than true green and the beak is the same colour as the stripe, ochre.

I had to put the shell on a few times before it would line up satisfactorily. This was because both the body and the shell didn’t turn out symmetrical when I sewed them – user error. So when I put the shell on, it looked all crooked. Some forceful maneuvering of the filling in the body and another attempt at shelling and it was as good as it was going to get. This one also has a pellet pouch in the back, but it isn’t as good as keeping the turtle duck from falling face first. I guess I put the head a little too far forward. If I put him on a slight incline, he’s perfectly fine though.

While I didn’t plan on being repetitive, it’s happening and the next plush is a turtle. This one will not be based on the same pattern though, so I guess that’s something?

Ducky!

Imitating nature with a white duck.

Back to regular programming with wellness fleece, felt features and CholyKnight free patterns. This time it was the (Turtle) Duck pattern. On the front it had an example with a white duck, which I thought was lovely. I have seen white ducks around, so I figured I’d stay pretty close to the original.

It’s got an ochre beak and orange feet. I don’t own any wellness fleece that is more yellow than this ochre, so this is what I use. I’m of course still a little on the lookout for yellow fleece, but I’m also not in a hurry. Shouldn’t add to the stash if this whole thing is supposed to be a stash-busting exercise, right. Anyway, it came together easily and has a pellet pouch located near its rear. That’s to keep him upright as his head would otherwise completely ruin the center of gravity and he’d be on his face the whole time.

I think he’s cute, even if his eyes are a little demonic, and I really like him. Ducks are always awesome.

Next up will be this guy’s very close relative, mr. Turtle Duck.

Repeat Fish

Making another black fish, last seen in 2017.

This one is slightly different from all the other plushies of late. The first big difference is that it’s made of regular fleece, not wellness fleece. The second is that it’s not a pattern by CholyKnight. The third is that this one has safety eyes, not felt features.

The fabric choice means that it is not as cuddly but it does hold its shape pretty well. I’ve used this pattern before, you can see the previous fish here. However, I cannot remember where this fish went. I think it might have gone in the stomach of the Toothless gift, but I’m not sure at all. I remember that I lost a fish at the time, which was one of those things that I didn’t think was possible but it happened.

The pattern is by Astrocat on Deviantart here. I think it used to be available without logging in, and I still had the pieces from when I made it before in 2017. All the fins are doubled and turned. I still really like these types of fishes. I think they are so pretty with their wavy tails just bobbing about in an aquarium.

Next up, a plush based on a fish-eating creature.

Fennec Fox

Little fennec fox plush completed.

I’m still not over the whole ‘make a plushie zoo’-phase of making. So this is another one that got finished recently. This is the Fennec Fox by Sew Desu Ne/CholyKnight. Another nice free pattern that came together pretty smoothly. The eyebrows on mine are a little.. odd looking, but apart from that, it’s all good.

I had to make his head a little smaller than the original pattern because I fused his face on a little crooked. If I’d sew him as he should have been, his face would have been extremely lopsided. I also sewed most of his bottom by hand because the pulling by the machine had distorted certain bits along the way. He’s quite soft and has some pellets in a little pouch in the bottom to keep him stable. So now I’m also slowly using up the bag of pellets that’s been hanging out in my sewing room. Maybe, one day, the hoard will be reduced back to a stash size. I just don’t think it’ll be soon.

Narwhal!

So quick, so easy, so narwhal

Stash reduction is the name of game at the moment.

I’ve selected a good few toy patterns and am determined to make enough plushies to allow the pushy-fabric box to actually close again. Next up is a really tiny, really easy Narwhal!

Again, I used a free pattern by SewDesuNe/CholyKnight, appropriately called Narwhal Plush. He’s only got 4 pattern pieces and a total 8 pieces of plush fabric. So not very much of the stash was used, but at least some has a new shape now.

I like the way they had me made the tusk. It’s a small cone where you use small gathering stitches to give it that signature spiral look. Next up should be a Fennec Fox. I’ve got all the pieces cut, it just needs to be assembled.

Familiars Brought to Life

When your memory keeps failing and you try to help it by crafting a literal reminder.

I play DnD 5th edition with a friend of mine over Discord every so often. My character is a Kenku, a bird-like creature that cannot fly but can perfectly recreate sounds it hears, think Lyre bird. Her name is Rustle Crowe [sound of a piece of paper rustling, sound of a crow] and she’s got a familiar: Kevin. Kevin is an owl most of the time and he’s dumb as a rock. Still very helpful but I regularly forget he exists. So when the DM said: “why don’t you get yourself a reminder?”. That was reason enough to start making a new plush.

I used Sew Desu Ne/Choly Knight’s free owl pattern to make this plush owl. When googling owl, I found a picture of an Eastern Screech Owl that I really loved, and he became the main inspiration. I looked through my stash and was limited in the colours and fabrics I had. So Kevin doesn’t look like an Eastern Screech Owl, but he’s still pretty cute. I made three deviations from the pattern. 1. His head tufts are supposed to have two spikes, but I made a continuous one. 2. His feet are a little smaller than the original because I couldn’t get them symmetrical so just resewed them entirely. 3. He’s got a tail feather that isn’t included in the original pattern and I drafted myself. As usual for the Choly Knight patterns, it came together easily and the instructions were marvelous. I have now also amassed quite a stash of this type of wellness fleece fabric, so I will need to make more plushies in the future!

New Shoulder Friend

When the perfect shoulder dragon pattern comes your way, you have no choice but to craft a new friend!

Have you ever had that moment that you spot a pattern for something online and you just.. had to have it? I had that Monday a week ago when I found the pattern of a plushy shoulder dragon by Choly Knight. In the basket it went and out of the printer it came. All the pieces were cut and taped together, and some were printed again so I could optimize my layout. The main colour was blue, it’s belly would be a light blue, then green claws and a white spine-spikes. Coincidentally: my new best friend is a lint roller and I don’t think my vacuum will forgive me if I force it to suck up another bit of blue fuzz.

I then started the process of putting my new friend together. I chose to make a western style dragon with clawed legs, and the pointy spine-spikes. From the free add-on pattern, I chose the toothless style horns and face-spikes. He’s got the lizard style eyes and the lizard scales on his forehead and legs. The pattern is extremely comprehensive and easy to follow. My machine didn’t particularly like the enormous amount of layers along the spine-wing attachment, but he got through it. This was also the first time I used armature wire, and it wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be.

So last Saturday at around 7 o’clock, Pjotr the Shoulder Dragon was completed. He’s a slightly sub-par scarf, but still a lot warmer than nothing. So far, he’s been received with universal acclaim and he’s literally the cutest thing in my house.

Tag: Plush