Not So Quick and Dirty Sewing: More Tips for Sewing Plushies

 A year ago I published an extensive tip-sheet for sewing plushies, my current crafting obsession. 

In the ensuing months I've gathered a few more tips, which I will share here in abbreviated form. You can consider this an improvement and mostly a replacement of my previous post as there will be overlap, but my intent is for this one to be SHORT. (We'll see!) 

1. Do start with free patterns from Choly Knight.  And DO read her instructions and tips carefully. Mine are purely supplementary! 

2. Do cut your patterns out of regular printer paper and trace them on the wrong side of your fabric 

3. Do NOT waste your money on any of the pattern tracing options from the Notions wall (soapstone, pencils, disappearing ink, carbon paper, tracing wheels, etc.) 

• The only possible exception is the Mark B Gone pens from Dritz. The white one may save your bacon when tracing on black fabric. But they are overpriced and underperforming, and they couldn't even be bothered to design a cap that fits on the end of the pen! I prefer Crayola's gel markers for black paper in most situations.

4. Do use Sharpies in a slightly darker color for most pattern tracing. Yes, really. 

5. Do use anti-pill fleece as your minimum cost acceptable fabric, but spend the extra $ for minky whenever you can. 

 

5b. Use felt+fusible web for eyes and appliqued details. See original tips post for details on eyes.
Update: If you have a Cricut, you can with some effort use it to cut your appliqued details. It won't save you time or money, but it looks great. Here's a tutorial.

6. Do splurge on Clover Mini Wonder Clips. (Be careful of buying online; there are many knockoffs. With coupon I got 20 of them for about $12 at Michael's, which is plenty.)  While these do not entirely solve the slippage problem when sewing together small pieces of minky, they Do solve the "constantly pricking my fingers" problem quite neatly. 

Above: "Wonder Clips" replacing pins on this wing

7. As to that slippage problem... it's a beast. I Hate it when this happens! And it does happen frequently, despite my best efforts and bunches of clips or pins. 

Above: Top and bottom fabric pieces slipped during sewing. Stitching missed one layer entirely on lowest point of wing. 

Here's one strategy: Stop cutting corners. No, really! You do not have to cut right at the line on the complicated shapes. (Wings. dragon crest spikes, toes, etc.) Leave some extra fabric on at Least one of your pieces. This leaves you more margin for (inevitable) error. You will need to trim your seam allowances after sewing anyway. 

Above: Leave a larger margin when cutting out your small or complicated shapes. You have to trim after sewing anyway! 

8. Finally, let's talk compromises on transferring those complicated wing, claw, and spike shapes. 

You Could cut off the seam allowance from your paper pattern pieces after the initial transfer to fabric and then use it as a tracing template. This is what Choly recommends, and it works every time. It also makes it hard to reuse your pattern piece. 

OR you could poke holes in your paper pattern at the pivot points (I use a ball point pen and a heavy piece of cardboard behind) and transfer just the dot markings to the fabric. Then, depending on your confidence, how complicated the shape, etc you can either eyeball and draw a dotted line on your fabric, or you can leave just the pivot points and eyeball it while sewing. I've done both. 

Quick warning: Transferring dots is one place you might use a water-based, non-Sharpie pen. Experience shows that this is the place your markings are most likely to bleed to the right side of the fabric because you are poking, not drawing. It is also the place most likely to show on the final project because it is right at the edge of the seam allowance. If you miss when sewing, the dot might show through.  

OK, that's all I have for today. I hope you find it useful. Have fun sewing!