Most of those who know me IRL also know I've been sewing plushies (aka plushy, stuffies, aka stuffed animals, or whatever you wish to call them) for a couple of years now. Many of you have even been recipients of one. I've also made reference to the hobby here on this blog, but it occurred to me that I haven't published a list of tips for those who want to take the plunge into some plushie sewing of their own.
I do not want to re-invent the wheel here by simply repeating what the pattern designers put in their instructions, so this should be brief. I hope. But you know me!
(Update 1/2022: This was not brief. This update is briefer, and contains a few extra tips!)
Pattern Selection
Save yourself a lot of trouble and expense and simply start with the free patterns from cholyknight.com.
Choly is my favorite pattern designer, hands down, and 9 out of 10 plushies I've sewn are from her collection. She has for several years released one free pattern per month, so you have lots of chose from. Many of them are of licensed characters such as Pikachu, Baby Yoda, or Jiji the cat, but there are also generic bears, cats, and even the occasional llama or hedgehog.
What sets her patterns apart from the herd (aside from the large free library) are the beautiful, clear instructions. Lots of photos, lots of explanation, very readable and easy to follow.
Choly also sells patterns through Etsy, and I have purchased several. I do not, however, suggest that you start here: her paid patterns are, as a class, considerably more detailed and therefore complicated. Save them for after you've gained some experience and confidence.
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| Choly Knight's (paid) Wyvern / Dragon pattern |
Printing tip: For the instruction booklet, I like to print two pages to one sheet of paper. Saves a good deal of ink, and it's still plenty big enough to read.
Materials Selection
Choly goes into plenty of detail on materials, which I will summarize as "don't use felt; do use things that stretch and do not ravel." Read it. It's good stuff.
As a new sewist, I strongly suggest starting with anti-pill fleece from Joann Fabrics or similar. You don't need much: rarely as much as a quarter yard per pattern in the base color. So even at full price you won't be out a lot of dough. That said, watch the sales, as this fabric is usually at least 40% off a couple of weeks per month.
The cheaper "blizzard" fleece really does pill, which I find annoying.
There are plenty of more expensive options out there. Of them minky, a short piled polyester, is the next easiest to work with after fleece. I am using this more and more, as the added expense isn't much and it really looks great on the finished product. I frequently get a fat quarter of a fun color or pattern at Craft Warehouse for under $5. But nearly everything is more slippery than fleece, and this can cause problems when you're not prepared for it.
Faux furs can be tricky as well as expensive.
Before committing to a furry fabric, check the Stretch and check the Back.
I once had a whole "Jiji" pattern traced and half cut before I realized that my faux fur was not stretchy enough for the tight curves and narrow spaces. That was irritating.
I have also found some "great" cheap low pile fuzzy furs at Michael's this year. The problem with these is more subtle: the back and front of the fabric are nearly identical, and the fuzzy stuff is nearly impossible to trace a pattern on. The extreme stretch of these fabrics also bites you when trying for precision.
The better furs have a easy, solid back for tracing. But they're messy to cut and slippery even more than minky, and depending on what you're sewing, you may end up really hating it by the end. So again, save it for when you've gotten some confidence. (I have used it most on my owls. It works because the body is large and uncomplicated. You usually can't get much detail in the wings or "ears," but that's a fair compromise in my opinion.)
And for a bonus tip: shop the remnants bin at JoAnn every time you visit. It's a great way to save on fabric you don't need in quantity (and you don't need Any of it in quantity), and sometimes you can find some real treasures.
3. Pattern Transfer
Unless you pay through the nose for a professionally published pattern at the craft store, you are going to printing your patterns out at home on regular paper, not soft, flexible tissue. What this means to you is that you will be cutting out your pattern pieces first, and then tracing them onto your fabric. If you try to pin and cut, you will almost certainly regret it. And carbon paper is not a great choice with the heavy fabrics you'll be using either.
You can pay a lot for a fancy disappearing ink fabric marker made especially for this task. I suggest that you do not. The last thing you want is for a pattern you spent an hour tracing to disappear before you get the chance to cut it out.
9 times in 10 I use a Sharpie. Yes, a full on permanent marker. You'll want the standard size for fleece, but an ultra-thin will work on Minky. Although I try to use the lightest color pen that will show, even light colors of fleece are fairly opaque, and the markings will be on the wrong side and inside the seam allowance anyway. I have almost never regretted using a Sharpie.
The more difficult situation is when your fabric is too dark colored for a Sharpie to show. Again, there are specifically designed transfer markers available, but I found that raiding my kid's pen box for her Crayola Gel Markers has worked best. They're not a perfect solution, especially as they take a few seconds to "bloom" on many fabrics, so you may initially think they're not working. But they work better than anything else I've tried.
Pay close attention to stretch and nap markings on the pattern pieces. (Note: fleece does not have a nap; minky and faux fur does.)
Quick tip: When tracing your pattern pieces, do not forget that when you need two of something, the second one needs to be a mirror image! (In other words, flip the pattern piece upside down.) I wish I could say I've never made that mistake, but that would be untrue! :)
Next tip: Choly mentions this, but it's important, so I will again. Many pieces can be quite intricate (wings, toes, etc.) It is almost certainly worth your time to make your fancy pattern shapes "hollow" by cutting around the seam allowance line. Then you can trace these lines onto your fabric piece. Having them to follow is critical on anything with intricate curves.
4. Eyes, mouths, and noses
The face of your creature is the most critical part to get right. (And also usually where you should start.) You can have ears that don't quite match, crooked seams in the head, and all sorts of other minor problems and no one is ever going to notice. Screw up the face, though, and you go from cute to creepy in second. Choly's fantastic "kawaii" face design also sets her apart from the herd in a big way, so if you're using one of her patterns, be prepared to spend some time getting it right.
I assume that you, like me, do not own an embroidery machine. This means you are going to need to applique your faces.
Do this step before you sew anything. Trust me!
As far as materials, go ahead and use felt.* It is cheap and easy to pick up in tons of colors. And it looks just fine when you're done. It's also Fine to use the same plush or fleece you are using for the rest of the project, but beware of nap. The pile on minky can also be troublesome around the edges.
Choly suggests that you use heat activated applique paper for this task, and I wholeheartedly agree. Trying to trace the intricate shapes onto fleece or felt is a recipe for disaster, and holding pieces in place while you hand sew is also a great way to make very visible mistakes.
I have used two brands, Pellon's EZ-Steam II and Steam-a-Seam. ** The process is the same for both types.
Here is a TL;DR for success with fusible web
DO: Use the steam setting on your iron
DO: Use a cotton pressing cloth
DO: Press for at least an entire 30 seconds
DO: Press from both sides
DON'T: Be surprised if you end up having to sew it down by hand anyway.
Now, Way More Detail than you want on cutting and pasting your faces
a. Do not cut out the pattern. Just trace it!
b. Using a narrow permanent marker, carefully trace your pattern onto the semi-transparent fusible web sheet. You could use a window or light box to make this easier; I often also use a narrow Sharpie to go around the lines on the pattern page so that I can still see them when I flip the pattern for a mirror image.
(I have used carbon paper with Some success, but it really doesn't make as crisp and heavy a mark as I want, so I always go back to Sharpies.)
c. Note the color and orientation of each piece inside of it. It is surprisingly hard to "put the puzzle together" sometimes.
d. Do a rough cut on your fusible web, leaving a comfortable margin around your pieces. Then carefully remove the backing paper on the side *without* your markings, and press it onto your felt or fleece.
e. Very carefully cut out your pieces with good, sharp, small scissors. This is harder than you think it will be, but you don't need to obsess. It needs to be very close, but not perfect.
f. Build your eye sandwich carefully, removing the second layer of backing paper and pressing down firmly. Use the master "face" pattern piece for placement of the eyes and noses: Choly goes into good detail here and I won't repeat her.
g. Iron for 20+ seconds on the highest safe heat for your fabric and using steam. Always use a pressing cloth. I have had a couple of disasters or near disasters when something I was ironing was a little more meltable than I thought it was.
h. And now, resign yourself to hand-sewing those eyes on after all.
Look, you might get away with just the adhesive if you are planning to display your finished plush on your bed. If you are planning to give it to a small kid, though, those eyes are going to come right off. The product Just Isn't That Great. So I always back up my fusible web with at least a few hand stitches. You can leave this step for last, though. I like to do it in front of the TV myself!
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| All ready to be ironed |
* Except when the applique might end up inside a seam allowance and have to be flipped inside out. Specifically, when I made Choly's Pikachu, I used brown felt at the base of the tail. Then I sewed the two pieces of the tail together and tried to turn the finished piece. Not happening. Felt doesn't stretch at all. I should have used fleece, and I will next time!
** Which fusible web to choose? I don't have a strong preference. The end results are about the same, and like I said, you have to hand-sew in both cases.
Pellon is a little more opaque and the backing paper tends to have a few bubbles. This makes it harder to trace on. And it's hard to get the right piece of backing off sometimes.
Steam-a-Seam is much easier during the tracing stage, but you will quickly learn that it has the opposite problem from Pellon: the backing is hard to keep on when cutting out tiny pieces. In fact, the smaller the piece, the less likely you will be able to keep both sides of the backing paper attached during either the rough cut or the final cut. It takes a lot of diligence.
So pick up whichever one the fabric store has. Just beware it's not a perfect product and this will be the tedious part of the project!
I think that's where I will stop, as I find Choly's directions more than adequate on the sewing side of things. Take it slow and steady, check against the directions frequently, and don't skip the pins. You'll do fine!
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