Stuffed animal – Page 2 – Hopefully Creative

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.

Turtle

Who could say no to that adorable turtle face, even if he is a bit head-heavy.

It might have been a while, but this little turtle has been finished since June 6th, but my motivation for writing has been lacking. This turtle is, of course, a free Choly Knight/Sew Desu Ne pattern. This one was a little bit more difficult because the shell requires stopping before the end of the seam in order to have everything fit together nicely. I also sewed a wrong side to a right side in the ‘shell edge’, which meant a lot of unpicking invisible thread in high pile fabric. Not my favourite activity for sure.

The pattern has a few different options. You can choose nostrils or a smile, I chose the nostrils. You can also choose what shape the extremities would have, either flippers (my choice) or arms/legs, which basically are very similar to the tail that I used. In the examples, the shell is empty or embroidered. I chose to leave it empty because embroidery wouldn’t show up on this fabric when I tried it before.

I do think his eyes and nostril combination is particularly cute. Up next might be a frog? I think? I put eyes one of the remaining cut patterns, but I forgot which one it was. There are so many projects on my to do list that my word file ‘Projects’ has 20 separate projects listed, and it’s not complete. Curse my overactive imagination!

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.

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.

Penguin!

A bite-size penguin has been added to the family.

As mentioned in Kevin the Owl, I’ve somehow amassed a decent stash of cuddly fabric that I need to sew up. So yesterday after work, I decided to take another stab at it. This would involve a really cute free penguin pattern from Sew Desu Ne/Cholyknight. It’s a penguin lying on its tummy with an adorable tail sticking up. He’s made of black, white and ochre cuddly fabric and some black and white felt.

Last night, I sewed on the eyes and prepared the face by adding the black forehead and sewing that down. Then this morning, the rest of him got sewn together in about 2 hours. I’m for sure not the fastest sewer, but it was a nice process nonetheless. Most of the pattern came together easily apart from adding the tummy. I think I stretched the fabric a little so I had to really manipulate it to fit and then I went back for a bit that was not very oval-shaped anymore. Still, he worked out wonderfully well.

He’s quite small, which is nice. The one thing I changed from the pattern is that I didn’t add pink blush ovals under his eyes. I don’t like pink and he’s cute enough as is. I’m not at all sure what I’ll do with him, but he’ll probably be hanging out in my house for the foreseeable 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.

Dinosaur Tag Toy

Making a tag toy in the shape of a dinosaur for a little one.

With the friends’ spawn officially entering air-breathing life, time for a visit. One cannot show up empty handed, so I sewed a little gift. Found this project and decided that would do. Not only was it a dinosaur, but apparently tag-things are much fun for tiny humans or something. So I printed the pattern and got out some of the leftovers of making owl pajamas many years ago. I definitely don’t keep leftovers in my hoard for too long, nooooooo. I also found some ribbon-bits from eons ago and set to work.

It’s very straightforward, just pin loops pointing to the dino tummy along the backside, and sew those down on the right side. Sew the other dino-side to the loopy-side while leaving a section open. Turn, stuff and sew the hole closed again. Easy peasy lemon-squeezy. It’s also funny how all the ribbons feel just slightly different. In conclusion, easy and quick project that was fun to make!

Tag: Stuffed animal