since the Secret Santa art pieces have been revealed, I figured that I should share mine here in my art thread! my recipient was @/VernalLapin, and I was tasked to draw their OC Fugue. references were somewhat slim, and I don't know much about her personality, so I looked at the Pinterest boards of outfit ideas and went from there haha. I really like her pastel-lolita-esque style, and I knew that she would look cute in a springtime setting hehehe I hope that I was able to do her justice!
as a side note, obviously this wouldn't be a certified Bug™ art piece without bold colours and sparkles! I also experimented a bit with perspective and tried to include more dynamic shading, and I like how it turned out.
I'm finally back haha I haven't been motivated to draw much at all in the last few months to be honest, despite the fact that I have so many drawing ideas!! maybe now that I can catch my breath a little, I'll be able to work on some drawings. I'm currently in Toronto but I did bring my drawing tablet with me hehehe
anyway, there's something really special that I want to share, but first I would like to share a few smaller drawings that I've made so far this year. the first is a request that I did for @/Dunquixote! she requested that I draw Ken, the Animal Crossing villager, dressed like Akechi from Persona, specifically as the "Crow". I really wanted to do this request because it seemed interesting to me, and I honestly can't recall if I've drawn for Dun before! I decided to not shade it after it took me so long to finish OTL but I'm happy with the rest and she was too!
and a few days ago I made doodles of Lumew and Solmew, if they were very voluminous and fluffy loaves. I got the idea because @/Shellzilla_515 really likes these two, and he often tells me that he's thinking about them being super fluffy hehehe. I knew that I had to make a little doodle of each one, just being the fluffiest loaf you ever saw
I'll be back soon with something that's arguably even more exciting !!
okay all, I would like to introduce to you... Iris, the very first plushie that I've ever sewn!
for context... if you know me, you know that I love plushies. I mean, I love plushies. I'm on a little-over-a-week trip and I currently have... about ten or eleven plushies with me? they bring me so much peace and comfort. and for a long time I've been wanting to make my own plushies. I have soooooo many original characters and I think it would be awesome if I could make them into plushies!
three weeks ago today, I bought a sewing machine from someone. It's a Brother VX-1120, I believe it was made around 1998. It belonged to an older lady who passed away last year, she apparently used it a lot to hem clothes. I told the person whom I bought it from, presumably her child, that I would take good care of it. then, of course, I started to fixate on it; I bought a bunch of fabric (some from JoAnn and other craft stores, some from thrift stores), I bought a bunch of thrifted knockoff squishmallows so I could tear them open for their stuffing (lol), I bought all the materials that I needed, and I even bought a dog plush that I ended up taking apart at the seams so I could create a pattern for it. thankfully I had enough money to do this, because it's definitely pretty expensive to start a new hobby! but I was so excited to start possibly making my own plushies, I didn't mind.
my initial idea was to start by making a mega Inch plush... you know, Inch the beanie baby! I want to make one that's about three feet long lol. but I got cold feet, and I decided that I wanted my very first sewing project to be something different. so I decided to sew something that's, truthfully, much more difficult than Inch... I ended up finding a pattern online for a beanie baby cat. and I told myself, yeah, I'm gonna make a cat!
from there, I wanted to make plushies of Lumew and Solmew, since @/Shellzilla_515 brought it up and asked for a Solmew plush. but I knew that I would be leaving soon to go to Toronto and I wanted to finish them before I left, which I knew wouldn't be possible with how much I had to do. and soon, I realized that I could still make a cat plush, but I would make it out of different fabric. and I also decided, from there, that this would be a gift for the lovely @/Xara!
of course I didn't jump into this straight away. I had to learn how to even use the sewing machine first lol. I had to learn about backstitching, stitch width and length, threading a bobbin, correctly replacing the bobbin, and more. I had some pieces of scrap fabric that I used to test the machine, and it worked great! the very first thing I had sewn was a little catnip toy for my cats, it's a big square full of catnip and sewn into little pouches. they absolutely love that toy!
Feef approved!
About Iris:
The fabric that I used for this cat plush is in two parts: the white fabric is just some regular minky fabric that I bought at a local craft store, but the rainbow/unicorn fabric actually comes from a baby blanket that I thrifted! I saw it there, and I immediately knew that I had to buy it. I told myself that it would be absolutely perfect to make a plush out of! and later on, when I decided that I wanted to make a plush for Xara, I knew that I had to use this fabric for it. it gives me Barbie vibes, and reminds me of her iconic "I am Kenough" hoodie hehe.
I bought the beanie baby cat pattern super cheap online; I actually made the pattern for Inch by taking apart an Inch plush, but I didn't have any beanie baby cats that I was able/willing to sacrifice in order to make a pattern. I wanted this plush to be the size od a beanie buddy, so I made it as big as possible on my 32" TV, I taped some paper to the screen, and I carefully traced the pattern onto the paper haha. idk how other people do it, but this works for me! also, this pattern which I bought did not come with any instructuctions; I guess the pattern maker assumed that, if you were buying a pattern, then you knew how to make a plush from it. thankfully I already had some idea of how to make plushies from taking apart other ones, but this already made it a difficult experience for me starting out. I will say that it really helped that I have about ten beanie baby cats, so I was able to use one as a reference.
I started out by using a "washable" fabric marker to trace the outline of the pattern onto the fabric that I wanted to use. the pattern did not include separations for the paws, feet, and arms; I added lines myself, since future cat plushies may not need them, but this one did. I wanted her to have a white belly and white paws. also, I put "washable" in quotations because, while it did seem to come off with water, once it dried I could see the markings again. I ended up just drawing as lightly as possible on the fabric, so the marker wouldn't bleed through. I saw where someone on Reddit recommended using Crayola markers to make markings, since you can choose a colour that's relatively close to the fabric colour. I might try that for my next project.
Once I pinned the pattern to the fabric, I cut about an inch around it for "seam allowance"; the pattern represents the seams, aka the part that you'll actually sew on. seam allowance is necessary so that the seams don't show, or bust open, on the plush. once all the pieces were cut out, the very first thing I attempted to sew was the tail, since it was just one piece that needed to be sewn on itself. fun fact, I actually had to adjust the original pattern because the tail was too short. but I sewed this piece, and I got super excited haha I thought, hey! it's starting to come together ever so slightly!
I started by sewing the feet onto the arms and legs, then sewing the arms and legs onto the belly. I didn't quite have a feel for the foot pedal on the machine; I was trying to push it in slowly so I could get it to move slowly, and it would still go really fast when I didn't want it to. I eventually learned that I had to push it in fast, but carefully, to get it to move at the speed I wanted. It still won't go that slow, though. maybe a newer sewing machine would be more sensitive, this thing is brutal haha.
regardless, this part was relatively simple. I think the hardest part was lining up the seams; the seam lines were on the inside of the fabric, and I needed to sew the inside parts on the outside, so that when they're flipped inside out it looks nice and clean. I used a lot of pins to hold the pieces of fabric together, and I had to carefully pull them out as the sewing machine went along the seam line. I heard that, if a sewing machine needle accidentally bumps a pin, it can actually destroy the needle, so I wanted to be careful to not do that. oh, and also to not poke myself also, when I initially sewed the back pieces together, I accidentally sewed the tail in upside down haha. I had to take apart the seam, which was so hard omg. the stitches on this thing are solid.
it started to get a little more difficult at this point. I had to carefully sew around corners, and I had to make sure I was sewing slowly and also moving pins out of the way before the needle crossed them. there were definitely a few times when the fabric slipped; minky fabric is really slippery and stretchy, and the fabric from the blanket was particularly tricky to work with, since it was a little more stretched than the white minky fabric that I bought. I was moving very slowly through this process, taking my time and making sure that I was doing it correctly. I definitely didn't want to take any more seams apart.
after a lot of trial and error, I finally had a solid body piece to work with! huzzah! it was so exciting to see this part hehehe. there were defintely a few seams that were sewn a little crooked, but I figured that the plush would still look okay, and that it wouldn't compromise the structure. and it didn't thankfully.
once I had that done, I moved onto the head. this proved to be the most difficult part! the body was relatively flat, so even with the rounded feet it wasn't too difficult to do. the head, however, is a round 3D object. the worst thing was when I tried to attach the ears. the first ear I actually accidently had sewn on incorrectly, and I had to rip the seam again, which was an absolute pain again. still very thankful that I was able to use an actual beanie baby as a reference, there's no way I could've figured it out correctly without a reference. eventually, I got a coherent head shape! it honestly looked kinda wonky, but I was just happy that I was able to make something that didn't look atrocious lol!!
I attached the safety eyes and nose pretty easily. then I sewed little pouches to put plastic pellets in, so I could insert smaller ones into the paws and feet, and sew a larger one into the tush. pellets give a plushie some nice weight, I personally prefer plushies that have pellets over plushies that don't. it surprised me how many at the thrift store didn't have any! Webkinz are known for putting pellets in their stuffed animals, and I love their plushies hehe. I also started to stuff the body, and I added a small amount of stuffing to the head.
this was one week after I started, and I had to leave for my trip. so I actually brought the plushie with me to finish here! all I needed to do was carefully attach the head, which would have to be sewn by hand. technically the whole plushie could've been sewn by hand, but the sewing machine certainly sped up the process a lot. so earlier today I spent about an hour sewing the head onto the body, adding more stuffing to shape the body and head, and then closing it up. and would you look at that! I made a plushie!!
the final touch was to add a tag that is reminiscent of the cute little heart-shaped hang tags that you find on Ty's beanie babies and other plushies. back home I had bought some giant thick paper, and I cut out a few rectangular pieces to take with me on the trip. I folded it in half, traced and cut out a heart, and then I designed it how I wanted. on the front I wrote "tay", but I'll explain: so my first name is Taylor, and most people call me Bug, but my brother calls me "Tay". and a few days ago, when I told him that I wanted to make a tag similar to a beanie baby tag, he suggested "tay". I thought that would be perfect, because it's a parody of "ty" and it's my nickname! how clever the inside of the tag is personalized, saying that it was handmade in the USA (ofc where I live hehe) and showing the name. I decided to name her Iris, which is a Greek name that means "rainbow". and in line with Ty's beanie buddies, I wrote a short saying, which reminds the reader that they are loved. I also wrote that Iris's birthday is March 3rd, which aligns with Xara's birthday!
anyway, here are a few more pictures of Iris. she's definitely not perfect and there are some things that I would/will definitely do differently next time I make a plush from this pattern. but for a first attempt I'm seriously proud of this. I'm afraid I won't be able to see Xara while I'm here in Ontario this week, so I'll keep Iris safe for her until I return. for now I will share some different angles of the plush!
also wanted to mention that, if you look closely at this last picture, you'll see that I cut the fabric so that it has little pink, yellow, and blue hearts on the right side of her face. I saw those hearts, and it reminded me of the pan flag! I also coloured those little hearts into the tag for good measure.
anyway, I know this post is super super super long, so I'll stop here haha. but I want to ping @Xara so she can see it. Xara love, I will hold onto her for as long as you need me to, and I'll be sure to pass her along when I see you again someday. I know she would love your hugs!
okay all, I would like to introduce to you... Iris, the very first plushie that I've ever sewn!
for context... if you know me, you know that I love plushies. I mean, I love plushies. I'm on a little-over-a-week trip and I currently have... about ten or eleven plushies with me? they bring me so much peace and comfort. and for a long time I've been wanting to make my own plushies. I have soooooo many original characters and I think it would be awesome if I could make them into plushies!
three weeks ago today, I bought a sewing machine from someone. It's a Brother VX-1120, I believe it was made around 1998. It belonged to an older lady who passed away last year, she apparently used it a lot to hem clothes. I told the person whom I bought it from, presumably her child, that I would take good care of it. then, of course, I started to fixate on it; I bought a bunch of fabric (some from JoAnn and other craft stores, some from thrift stores), I bought a bunch of thrifted knockoff squishmallows so I could tear them open for their stuffing (lol), I bought all the materials that I needed, and I even bought a dog plush that I ended up taking apart at the seams so I could create a pattern for it. thankfully I had enough money to do this, because it's definitely pretty expensive to start a new hobby! but I was so excited to start possibly making my own plushies, I didn't mind.
my initial idea was to start by making a mega Inch plush... you know, Inch the beanie baby! I want to make one that's about three feet long lol. but I got cold feet, and I decided that I wanted my very first sewing project to be something different. so I decided to sew something that's, truthfully, much more difficult than Inch... I ended up finding a pattern online for a beanie baby cat. and I told myself, yeah, I'm gonna make a cat!
from there, I wanted to make plushies of Lumew and Solmew, since @/Shellzilla_515 brought it up and asked for a Solmew plush. but I knew that I would be leaving soon to go to Toronto and I wanted to finish them before I left, which I knew wouldn't be possible with how much I had to do. and soon, I realized that I could still make a cat plush, but I would make it out of different fabric. and I also decided, from there, that this would be a gift for the lovely @/Xara!
of course I didn't jump into this straight away. I had to learn how to even use the sewing machine first lol. I had to learn about backstitching, stitch width and length, threading a bobbin, correctly replacing the bobbin, and more. I had some pieces of scrap fabric that I used to test the machine, and it worked great! the very first thing I had sewn was a little catnip toy for my cats, it's a big square full of catnip and sewn into little pouches. they absolutely love that toy!
Feef approved!
About Iris:
The fabric that I used for this cat plush is in two parts: the white fabric is just some regular minky fabric that I bought at a local craft store, but the rainbow/unicorn fabric actually comes from a baby blanket that I thrifted! I saw it there, and I immediately knew that I had to buy it. I told myself that it would be absolutely perfect to make a plush out of! and later on, when I decided that I wanted to make a plush for Xara, I knew that I had to use this fabric for it. it gives me Barbie vibes, and reminds me of her iconic "I am Kenough" hoodie hehe.
I bought the beanie baby cat pattern super cheap online; I actually made the pattern for Inch by taking apart an Inch plush, but I didn't have any beanie baby cats that I was able/willing to sacrifice in order to make a pattern. I wanted this plush to be the size od a beanie buddy, so I made it as big as possible on my 32" TV, I taped some paper to the screen, and I carefully traced the pattern onto the paper haha. idk how other people do it, but this works for me! also, this pattern which I bought did not come with any instructuctions; I guess the pattern maker assumed that, if you were buying a pattern, then you knew how to make a plush from it. thankfully I already had some idea of how to make plushies from taking apart other ones, but this already made it a difficult experience for me starting out. I will say that it really helped that I have about ten beanie baby cats, so I was able to use one as a reference.
I started out by using a "washable" fabric marker to trace the outline of the pattern onto the fabric that I wanted to use. the pattern did not include separations for the paws, feet, and arms; I added lines myself, since future cat plushies may not need them, but this one did. I wanted her to have a white belly and white paws. also, I put "washable" in quotations because, while it did seem to come off with water, once it dried I could see the markings again. I ended up just drawing as lightly as possible on the fabric, so the marker wouldn't bleed through. I saw where someone on Reddit recommended using Crayola markers to make markings, since you can choose a colour that's relatively close to the fabric colour. I might try that for my next project.
Once I pinned the pattern to the fabric, I cut about an inch around it for "seam allowance"; the pattern represents the seams, aka the part that you'll actually sew on. seam allowance is necessary so that the seams don't show, or bust open, on the plush. once all the pieces were cut out, the very first thing I attempted to sew was the tail, since it was just one piece that needed to be sewn on itself. fun fact, I actually had to adjust the original pattern because the tail was too short. but I sewed this piece, and I got super excited haha I thought, hey! it's starting to come together ever so slightly!
I started by sewing the feet onto the arms and legs, then sewing the arms and legs onto the belly. I didn't quite have a feel for the foot pedal on the machine; I was trying to push it in slowly so I could get it to move slowly, and it would still go really fast when I didn't want it to. I eventually learned that I had to push it in fast, but carefully, to get it to move at the speed I wanted. It still won't go that slow, though. maybe a newer sewing machine would be more sensitive, this thing is brutal haha.
regardless, this part was relatively simple. I think the hardest part was lining up the seams; the seam lines were on the inside of the fabric, and I needed to sew the inside parts on the outside, so that when they're flipped inside out it looks nice and clean. I used a lot of pins to hold the pieces of fabric together, and I had to carefully pull them out as the sewing machine went along the seam line. I heard that, if a sewing machine needle accidentally bumps a pin, it can actually destroy the needle, so I wanted to be careful to not do that. oh, and also to not poke myself also, when I initially sewed the back pieces together, I accidentally sewed the tail in upside down haha. I had to take apart the seam, which was so hard omg. the stitches on this thing are solid.
it started to get a little more difficult at this point. I had to carefully sew around corners, and I had to make sure I was sewing slowly and also moving pins out of the way before the needle crossed them. there were definitely a few times when the fabric slipped; minky fabric is really slippery and stretchy, and the fabric from the blanket was particularly tricky to work with, since it was a little more stretched than the white minky fabric that I bought. I was moving very slowly through this process, taking my time and making sure that I was doing it correctly. I definitely didn't want to take any more seams apart.
after a lot of trial and error, I finally had a solid body piece to work with! huzzah! it was so exciting to see this part hehehe. there were defintely a few seams that were sewn a little crooked, but I figured that the plush would still look okay, and that it wouldn't compromise the structure. and it didn't thankfully.
once I had that done, I moved onto the head. this proved to be the most difficult part! the body was relatively flat, so even with the rounded feet it wasn't too difficult to do. the head, however, is a round 3D object. the worst thing was when I tried to attach the ears. the first ear I actually accidently had sewn on incorrectly, and I had to rip the seam again, which was an absolute pain again. still very thankful that I was able to use an actual beanie baby as a reference, there's no way I could've figured it out correctly without a reference. eventually, I got a coherent head shape! it honestly looked kinda wonky, but I was just happy that I was able to make something that didn't look atrocious lol!!
I attached the safety eyes and nose pretty easily. then I sewed little pouches to put plastic pellets in, so I could insert smaller ones into the paws and feet, and sew a larger one into the tush. pellets give a plushie some nice weight, I personally prefer plushies that have pellets over plushies that don't. it surprised me how many at the thrift store didn't have any! Webkinz are known for putting pellets in their stuffed animals, and I love their plushies hehe. I also started to stuff the body, and I added a small amount of stuffing to the head.
this was one week after I started, and I had to leave for my trip. so I actually brought the plushie with me to finish here! all I needed to do was carefully attach the head, which would have to be sewn by hand. technically the whole plushie could've been sewn by hand, but the sewing machine certainly sped up the process a lot. so earlier today I spent about an hour sewing the head onto the body, adding more stuffing to shape the body and head, and then closing it up. and would you look at that! I made a plushie!!
the final touch was to add a tag that is reminiscent of the cute little heart-shaped hang tags that you find on Ty's beanie babies and other plushies. back home I had bought some giant thick paper, and I cut out a few rectangular pieces to take with me on the trip. I folded it in half, traced and cut out a heart, and then I designed it how I wanted. on the front I wrote "tay", but I'll explain: so my first name is Taylor, and most people call me Bug, but my brother calls me "Tay". and a few days ago, when I told him that I wanted to make a tag similar to a beanie baby tag, he suggested "tay". I thought that would be perfect, because it's a parody of "ty" and it's my nickname! how clever the inside of the tag is personalized, saying that it was handmade in the USA (ofc where I live hehe) and showing the name. I decided to name her Iris, which is a Greek name that means "rainbow". and in line with Ty's beanie buddies, I wrote a short saying, which reminds the reader that they are loved. I also wrote that Iris's birthday is March 3rd, which aligns with Xara's birthday!
anyway, here are a few more pictures of Iris. she's definitely not perfect and there are some things that I would/will definitely do differently next time I make a plush from this pattern. but for a first attempt I'm seriously proud of this. I'm afraid I won't be able to see Xara while I'm here in Ontario this week, so I'll keep Iris safe for her until I return. for now I will share some different angles of the plush!
also wanted to mention that, if you look closely at this last picture, you'll see that I cut the fabric so that it has little pink, yellow, and blue hearts on the right side of her face. I saw those hearts, and it reminded me of the pan flag! I also coloured those little hearts into the tag for good measure.
anyway, I know this post is super super super long, so I'll stop here haha. but I want to ping @Xara so she can see it. Xara love, I will hold onto her for as long as you need me to, and I'll be sure to pass her along when I see you again someday. I know she would love your hugs!
oh my god my brain is so dead, but I am crying??? there are real tears in my eyes right now??? this is genuinely one of the sweetest and most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me WHAT. I was so excited for you and impressed when I heard you were going to learn how to sew your own plushies because I know how much plushies mean to you, and the fact that the very first plushie you've sewn is for me??? I am on the floor????
Iris is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! my almost birthday twin!!! if you had told me that she was an official beanie baby, I would've 100% believed you!! she looks so professionally made omg!! she is so adorable and precious, and all the thought and care you put into making her and all her little details means the world to me! her fabric really is so Barbie coded, I love it so much, and the pan flag coloured hearts on her face are everything!! the Tay tag is so clever and adorable, and the message inside is everything to me!! I also love that you used pellets!! the weight of plushies with pellets in them is so comforting to me as well.
I'm so sorry again that I'm not able to see you while you're here this week, but I cannot express enough just how much your friendship and thoughtfulness means to me! the fact that you spent your time, effort, and money on making something for me is so insane to me, and I am beyond words and so grateful! I adore Iris just seeing her through photos, so I know I'll love her just as much, if not more, seeing her in-person; not just because she's one of the cutest plushies I've ever seen (she looks so soft!! look at her lil face!!), but because she was made by my dear friend Bug. I can't wait to see you again in the future and finally give Iris a hug!! I am also very excited to see all the plushies you make in the future!
I'm finally back haha I haven't been motivated to draw much at all in the last few months to be honest, despite the fact that I have so many drawing ideas!! maybe now that I can catch my breath a little, I'll be able to work on some drawings. I'm currently in Toronto but I did bring my drawing tablet with me hehehe
anyway, there's something really special that I want to share, but first I would like to share a few smaller drawings that I've made so far this year. the first is a request that I did for @/Dunquixote! she requested that I draw Ken, the Animal Crossing villager, dressed like Akechi from Persona, specifically as the "Crow". I really wanted to do this request because it seemed interesting to me, and I honestly can't recall if I've drawn for Dun before! I decided to not shade it after it took me so long to finish OTL but I'm happy with the rest and she was too!
and a few days ago I made doodles of Lumew and Solmew, if they were very voluminous and fluffy loaves. I got the idea because @/Shellzilla_515 really likes these two, and he often tells me that he's thinking about them being super fluffy hehehe. I knew that I had to make a little doodle of each one, just being the fluffiest loaf you ever saw
I'll be back soon with something that's arguably even more exciting !!
Thank you so much again . I love your art so much and again I must tell you how much I love how you did my drawing. I was honestly unsure how well my Ken-Akechi idea was; I’m no artist hut I can imagine it is a bit of a challenge at least to do some crossovers of two entirely different styles. What you did was exactly was what I hoped for though . You are seriously so talented and so amazing!
okay all, I would like to introduce to you... Iris, the very first plushie that I've ever sewn!
for context... if you know me, you know that I love plushies. I mean, I love plushies. I'm on a little-over-a-week trip and I currently have... about ten or eleven plushies with me? they bring me so much peace and comfort. and for a long time I've been wanting to make my own plushies. I have soooooo many original characters and I think it would be awesome if I could make them into plushies!
three weeks ago today, I bought a sewing machine from someone. It's a Brother VX-1120, I believe it was made around 1998. It belonged to an older lady who passed away last year, she apparently used it a lot to hem clothes. I told the person whom I bought it from, presumably her child, that I would take good care of it. then, of course, I started to fixate on it; I bought a bunch of fabric (some from JoAnn and other craft stores, some from thrift stores), I bought a bunch of thrifted knockoff squishmallows so I could tear them open for their stuffing (lol), I bought all the materials that I needed, and I even bought a dog plush that I ended up taking apart at the seams so I could create a pattern for it. thankfully I had enough money to do this, because it's definitely pretty expensive to start a new hobby! but I was so excited to start possibly making my own plushies, I didn't mind.
my initial idea was to start by making a mega Inch plush... you know, Inch the beanie baby! I want to make one that's about three feet long lol. but I got cold feet, and I decided that I wanted my very first sewing project to be something different. so I decided to sew something that's, truthfully, much more difficult than Inch... I ended up finding a pattern online for a beanie baby cat. and I told myself, yeah, I'm gonna make a cat!
from there, I wanted to make plushies of Lumew and Solmew, since @/Shellzilla_515 brought it up and asked for a Solmew plush. but I knew that I would be leaving soon to go to Toronto and I wanted to finish them before I left, which I knew wouldn't be possible with how much I had to do. and soon, I realized that I could still make a cat plush, but I would make it out of different fabric. and I also decided, from there, that this would be a gift for the lovely @/Xara!
of course I didn't jump into this straight away. I had to learn how to even use the sewing machine first lol. I had to learn about backstitching, stitch width and length, threading a bobbin, correctly replacing the bobbin, and more. I had some pieces of scrap fabric that I used to test the machine, and it worked great! the very first thing I had sewn was a little catnip toy for my cats, it's a big square full of catnip and sewn into little pouches. they absolutely love that toy!
Feef approved!
About Iris:
The fabric that I used for this cat plush is in two parts: the white fabric is just some regular minky fabric that I bought at a local craft store, but the rainbow/unicorn fabric actually comes from a baby blanket that I thrifted! I saw it there, and I immediately knew that I had to buy it. I told myself that it would be absolutely perfect to make a plush out of! and later on, when I decided that I wanted to make a plush for Xara, I knew that I had to use this fabric for it. it gives me Barbie vibes, and reminds me of her iconic "I am Kenough" hoodie hehe.
I bought the beanie baby cat pattern super cheap online; I actually made the pattern for Inch by taking apart an Inch plush, but I didn't have any beanie baby cats that I was able/willing to sacrifice in order to make a pattern. I wanted this plush to be the size od a beanie buddy, so I made it as big as possible on my 32" TV, I taped some paper to the screen, and I carefully traced the pattern onto the paper haha. idk how other people do it, but this works for me! also, this pattern which I bought did not come with any instructuctions; I guess the pattern maker assumed that, if you were buying a pattern, then you knew how to make a plush from it. thankfully I already had some idea of how to make plushies from taking apart other ones, but this already made it a difficult experience for me starting out. I will say that it really helped that I have about ten beanie baby cats, so I was able to use one as a reference.
I started out by using a "washable" fabric marker to trace the outline of the pattern onto the fabric that I wanted to use. the pattern did not include separations for the paws, feet, and arms; I added lines myself, since future cat plushies may not need them, but this one did. I wanted her to have a white belly and white paws. also, I put "washable" in quotations because, while it did seem to come off with water, once it dried I could see the markings again. I ended up just drawing as lightly as possible on the fabric, so the marker wouldn't bleed through. I saw where someone on Reddit recommended using Crayola markers to make markings, since you can choose a colour that's relatively close to the fabric colour. I might try that for my next project.
Once I pinned the pattern to the fabric, I cut about an inch around it for "seam allowance"; the pattern represents the seams, aka the part that you'll actually sew on. seam allowance is necessary so that the seams don't show, or bust open, on the plush. once all the pieces were cut out, the very first thing I attempted to sew was the tail, since it was just one piece that needed to be sewn on itself. fun fact, I actually had to adjust the original pattern because the tail was too short. but I sewed this piece, and I got super excited haha I thought, hey! it's starting to come together ever so slightly!
I started by sewing the feet onto the arms and legs, then sewing the arms and legs onto the belly. I didn't quite have a feel for the foot pedal on the machine; I was trying to push it in slowly so I could get it to move slowly, and it would still go really fast when I didn't want it to. I eventually learned that I had to push it in fast, but carefully, to get it to move at the speed I wanted. It still won't go that slow, though. maybe a newer sewing machine would be more sensitive, this thing is brutal haha.
regardless, this part was relatively simple. I think the hardest part was lining up the seams; the seam lines were on the inside of the fabric, and I needed to sew the inside parts on the outside, so that when they're flipped inside out it looks nice and clean. I used a lot of pins to hold the pieces of fabric together, and I had to carefully pull them out as the sewing machine went along the seam line. I heard that, if a sewing machine needle accidentally bumps a pin, it can actually destroy the needle, so I wanted to be careful to not do that. oh, and also to not poke myself also, when I initially sewed the back pieces together, I accidentally sewed the tail in upside down haha. I had to take apart the seam, which was so hard omg. the stitches on this thing are solid.
it started to get a little more difficult at this point. I had to carefully sew around corners, and I had to make sure I was sewing slowly and also moving pins out of the way before the needle crossed them. there were definitely a few times when the fabric slipped; minky fabric is really slippery and stretchy, and the fabric from the blanket was particularly tricky to work with, since it was a little more stretched than the white minky fabric that I bought. I was moving very slowly through this process, taking my time and making sure that I was doing it correctly. I definitely didn't want to take any more seams apart.
after a lot of trial and error, I finally had a solid body piece to work with! huzzah! it was so exciting to see this part hehehe. there were defintely a few seams that were sewn a little crooked, but I figured that the plush would still look okay, and that it wouldn't compromise the structure. and it didn't thankfully.
once I had that done, I moved onto the head. this proved to be the most difficult part! the body was relatively flat, so even with the rounded feet it wasn't too difficult to do. the head, however, is a round 3D object. the worst thing was when I tried to attach the ears. the first ear I actually accidently had sewn on incorrectly, and I had to rip the seam again, which was an absolute pain again. still very thankful that I was able to use an actual beanie baby as a reference, there's no way I could've figured it out correctly without a reference. eventually, I got a coherent head shape! it honestly looked kinda wonky, but I was just happy that I was able to make something that didn't look atrocious lol!!
I attached the safety eyes and nose pretty easily. then I sewed little pouches to put plastic pellets in, so I could insert smaller ones into the paws and feet, and sew a larger one into the tush. pellets give a plushie some nice weight, I personally prefer plushies that have pellets over plushies that don't. it surprised me how many at the thrift store didn't have any! Webkinz are known for putting pellets in their stuffed animals, and I love their plushies hehe. I also started to stuff the body, and I added a small amount of stuffing to the head.
this was one week after I started, and I had to leave for my trip. so I actually brought the plushie with me to finish here! all I needed to do was carefully attach the head, which would have to be sewn by hand. technically the whole plushie could've been sewn by hand, but the sewing machine certainly sped up the process a lot. so earlier today I spent about an hour sewing the head onto the body, adding more stuffing to shape the body and head, and then closing it up. and would you look at that! I made a plushie!!
the final touch was to add a tag that is reminiscent of the cute little heart-shaped hang tags that you find on Ty's beanie babies and other plushies. back home I had bought some giant thick paper, and I cut out a few rectangular pieces to take with me on the trip. I folded it in half, traced and cut out a heart, and then I designed it how I wanted. on the front I wrote "tay", but I'll explain: so my first name is Taylor, and most people call me Bug, but my brother calls me "Tay". and a few days ago, when I told him that I wanted to make a tag similar to a beanie baby tag, he suggested "tay". I thought that would be perfect, because it's a parody of "ty" and it's my nickname! how clever the inside of the tag is personalized, saying that it was handmade in the USA (ofc where I live hehe) and showing the name. I decided to name her Iris, which is a Greek name that means "rainbow". and in line with Ty's beanie buddies, I wrote a short saying, which reminds the reader that they are loved. I also wrote that Iris's birthday is March 3rd, which aligns with Xara's birthday!
anyway, here are a few more pictures of Iris. she's definitely not perfect and there are some things that I would/will definitely do differently next time I make a plush from this pattern. but for a first attempt I'm seriously proud of this. I'm afraid I won't be able to see Xara while I'm here in Ontario this week, so I'll keep Iris safe for her until I return. for now I will share some different angles of the plush!
also wanted to mention that, if you look closely at this last picture, you'll see that I cut the fabric so that it has little pink, yellow, and blue hearts on the right side of her face. I saw those hearts, and it reminded me of the pan flag! I also coloured those little hearts into the tag for good measure.
anyway, I know this post is super super super long, so I'll stop here haha. but I want to ping @Xara so she can see it. Xara love, I will hold onto her for as long as you need me to, and I'll be sure to pass her along when I see you again someday. I know she would love your hugs!
I need to read this again when I have more time so I can reply fully, but just from what I saw right now, I want to tell you that is so fricking adorable! So creative and cute! I love Ty beanie babies and I really love what you did! Also you have an adorable kitty I’ll reply again if I have more to add once I get time to look at this and your thread more. Might be awhile since I’m working on my collage, but I’ll be back!
since the Secret Santa art pieces have been revealed, I figured that I should share mine here in my art thread! my recipient was @/VernalLapin, and I was tasked to draw their OC Fugue. references were somewhat slim, and I don't know much about her personality, so I looked at the Pinterest boards of outfit ideas and went from there haha. I really like her pastel-lolita-esque style, and I knew that she would look cute in a springtime setting hehehe I hope that I was able to do her justice!
as a side note, obviously this wouldn't be a certified Bug™ art piece without bold colours and sparkles! I also experimented a bit with perspective and tried to include more dynamic shading, and I like how it turned out.
Just saw that this was posted here and I wanted to thank you again! I’m glad you love Fugue’s style, I had a blast making her pinterest board ^^ As you may have guessed by my name, I love Spring and so does Fugue! ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪
okay all, I would like to introduce to you... Iris, the very first plushie that I've ever sewn!
for context... if you know me, you know that I love plushies. I mean, I love plushies. I'm on a little-over-a-week trip and I currently have... about ten or eleven plushies with me? they bring me so much peace and comfort. and for a long time I've been wanting to make my own plushies. I have soooooo many original characters and I think it would be awesome if I could make them into plushies!
three weeks ago today, I bought a sewing machine from someone. It's a Brother VX-1120, I believe it was made around 1998. It belonged to an older lady who passed away last year, she apparently used it a lot to hem clothes. I told the person whom I bought it from, presumably her child, that I would take good care of it. then, of course, I started to fixate on it; I bought a bunch of fabric (some from JoAnn and other craft stores, some from thrift stores), I bought a bunch of thrifted knockoff squishmallows so I could tear them open for their stuffing (lol), I bought all the materials that I needed, and I even bought a dog plush that I ended up taking apart at the seams so I could create a pattern for it. thankfully I had enough money to do this, because it's definitely pretty expensive to start a new hobby! but I was so excited to start possibly making my own plushies, I didn't mind.
my initial idea was to start by making a mega Inch plush... you know, Inch the beanie baby! I want to make one that's about three feet long lol. but I got cold feet, and I decided that I wanted my very first sewing project to be something different. so I decided to sew something that's, truthfully, much more difficult than Inch... I ended up finding a pattern online for a beanie baby cat. and I told myself, yeah, I'm gonna make a cat!
from there, I wanted to make plushies of Lumew and Solmew, since @/Shellzilla_515 brought it up and asked for a Solmew plush. but I knew that I would be leaving soon to go to Toronto and I wanted to finish them before I left, which I knew wouldn't be possible with how much I had to do. and soon, I realized that I could still make a cat plush, but I would make it out of different fabric. and I also decided, from there, that this would be a gift for the lovely @/Xara!
of course I didn't jump into this straight away. I had to learn how to even use the sewing machine first lol. I had to learn about backstitching, stitch width and length, threading a bobbin, correctly replacing the bobbin, and more. I had some pieces of scrap fabric that I used to test the machine, and it worked great! the very first thing I had sewn was a little catnip toy for my cats, it's a big square full of catnip and sewn into little pouches. they absolutely love that toy!
Feef approved!
About Iris:
The fabric that I used for this cat plush is in two parts: the white fabric is just some regular minky fabric that I bought at a local craft store, but the rainbow/unicorn fabric actually comes from a baby blanket that I thrifted! I saw it there, and I immediately knew that I had to buy it. I told myself that it would be absolutely perfect to make a plush out of! and later on, when I decided that I wanted to make a plush for Xara, I knew that I had to use this fabric for it. it gives me Barbie vibes, and reminds me of her iconic "I am Kenough" hoodie hehe.
I bought the beanie baby cat pattern super cheap online; I actually made the pattern for Inch by taking apart an Inch plush, but I didn't have any beanie baby cats that I was able/willing to sacrifice in order to make a pattern. I wanted this plush to be the size od a beanie buddy, so I made it as big as possible on my 32" TV, I taped some paper to the screen, and I carefully traced the pattern onto the paper haha. idk how other people do it, but this works for me! also, this pattern which I bought did not come with any instructuctions; I guess the pattern maker assumed that, if you were buying a pattern, then you knew how to make a plush from it. thankfully I already had some idea of how to make plushies from taking apart other ones, but this already made it a difficult experience for me starting out. I will say that it really helped that I have about ten beanie baby cats, so I was able to use one as a reference.
I started out by using a "washable" fabric marker to trace the outline of the pattern onto the fabric that I wanted to use. the pattern did not include separations for the paws, feet, and arms; I added lines myself, since future cat plushies may not need them, but this one did. I wanted her to have a white belly and white paws. also, I put "washable" in quotations because, while it did seem to come off with water, once it dried I could see the markings again. I ended up just drawing as lightly as possible on the fabric, so the marker wouldn't bleed through. I saw where someone on Reddit recommended using Crayola markers to make markings, since you can choose a colour that's relatively close to the fabric colour. I might try that for my next project.
Once I pinned the pattern to the fabric, I cut about an inch around it for "seam allowance"; the pattern represents the seams, aka the part that you'll actually sew on. seam allowance is necessary so that the seams don't show, or bust open, on the plush. once all the pieces were cut out, the very first thing I attempted to sew was the tail, since it was just one piece that needed to be sewn on itself. fun fact, I actually had to adjust the original pattern because the tail was too short. but I sewed this piece, and I got super excited haha I thought, hey! it's starting to come together ever so slightly!
I started by sewing the feet onto the arms and legs, then sewing the arms and legs onto the belly. I didn't quite have a feel for the foot pedal on the machine; I was trying to push it in slowly so I could get it to move slowly, and it would still go really fast when I didn't want it to. I eventually learned that I had to push it in fast, but carefully, to get it to move at the speed I wanted. It still won't go that slow, though. maybe a newer sewing machine would be more sensitive, this thing is brutal haha.
regardless, this part was relatively simple. I think the hardest part was lining up the seams; the seam lines were on the inside of the fabric, and I needed to sew the inside parts on the outside, so that when they're flipped inside out it looks nice and clean. I used a lot of pins to hold the pieces of fabric together, and I had to carefully pull them out as the sewing machine went along the seam line. I heard that, if a sewing machine needle accidentally bumps a pin, it can actually destroy the needle, so I wanted to be careful to not do that. oh, and also to not poke myself also, when I initially sewed the back pieces together, I accidentally sewed the tail in upside down haha. I had to take apart the seam, which was so hard omg. the stitches on this thing are solid.
it started to get a little more difficult at this point. I had to carefully sew around corners, and I had to make sure I was sewing slowly and also moving pins out of the way before the needle crossed them. there were definitely a few times when the fabric slipped; minky fabric is really slippery and stretchy, and the fabric from the blanket was particularly tricky to work with, since it was a little more stretched than the white minky fabric that I bought. I was moving very slowly through this process, taking my time and making sure that I was doing it correctly. I definitely didn't want to take any more seams apart.
after a lot of trial and error, I finally had a solid body piece to work with! huzzah! it was so exciting to see this part hehehe. there were defintely a few seams that were sewn a little crooked, but I figured that the plush would still look okay, and that it wouldn't compromise the structure. and it didn't thankfully.
once I had that done, I moved onto the head. this proved to be the most difficult part! the body was relatively flat, so even with the rounded feet it wasn't too difficult to do. the head, however, is a round 3D object. the worst thing was when I tried to attach the ears. the first ear I actually accidently had sewn on incorrectly, and I had to rip the seam again, which was an absolute pain again. still very thankful that I was able to use an actual beanie baby as a reference, there's no way I could've figured it out correctly without a reference. eventually, I got a coherent head shape! it honestly looked kinda wonky, but I was just happy that I was able to make something that didn't look atrocious lol!!
I attached the safety eyes and nose pretty easily. then I sewed little pouches to put plastic pellets in, so I could insert smaller ones into the paws and feet, and sew a larger one into the tush. pellets give a plushie some nice weight, I personally prefer plushies that have pellets over plushies that don't. it surprised me how many at the thrift store didn't have any! Webkinz are known for putting pellets in their stuffed animals, and I love their plushies hehe. I also started to stuff the body, and I added a small amount of stuffing to the head.
this was one week after I started, and I had to leave for my trip. so I actually brought the plushie with me to finish here! all I needed to do was carefully attach the head, which would have to be sewn by hand. technically the whole plushie could've been sewn by hand, but the sewing machine certainly sped up the process a lot. so earlier today I spent about an hour sewing the head onto the body, adding more stuffing to shape the body and head, and then closing it up. and would you look at that! I made a plushie!!
the final touch was to add a tag that is reminiscent of the cute little heart-shaped hang tags that you find on Ty's beanie babies and other plushies. back home I had bought some giant thick paper, and I cut out a few rectangular pieces to take with me on the trip. I folded it in half, traced and cut out a heart, and then I designed it how I wanted. on the front I wrote "tay", but I'll explain: so my first name is Taylor, and most people call me Bug, but my brother calls me "Tay". and a few days ago, when I told him that I wanted to make a tag similar to a beanie baby tag, he suggested "tay". I thought that would be perfect, because it's a parody of "ty" and it's my nickname! how clever the inside of the tag is personalized, saying that it was handmade in the USA (ofc where I live hehe) and showing the name. I decided to name her Iris, which is a Greek name that means "rainbow". and in line with Ty's beanie buddies, I wrote a short saying, which reminds the reader that they are loved. I also wrote that Iris's birthday is March 3rd, which aligns with Xara's birthday!
anyway, here are a few more pictures of Iris. she's definitely not perfect and there are some things that I would/will definitely do differently next time I make a plush from this pattern. but for a first attempt I'm seriously proud of this. I'm afraid I won't be able to see Xara while I'm here in Ontario this week, so I'll keep Iris safe for her until I return. for now I will share some different angles of the plush!
also wanted to mention that, if you look closely at this last picture, you'll see that I cut the fabric so that it has little pink, yellow, and blue hearts on the right side of her face. I saw those hearts, and it reminded me of the pan flag! I also coloured those little hearts into the tag for good measure.
anyway, I know this post is super super super long, so I'll stop here haha. but I want to ping @Xara so she can see it. Xara love, I will hold onto her for as long as you need me to, and I'll be sure to pass her along when I see you again someday. I know she would love your hugs!
I had more time to read and wanted to tell you thank you for sharing this with us. And I think it seriously looks purrfect - i mean it . You make it look so easy, but it definitely sounds like an expensive and challenging project regardless what size a plush you make. That’s really interesting how you made it! The pattern you used is really adorable and the tag is really cute too! You’re so incredibly talented. I can’t wait to see more of what you make
I hope that I was able to do her justice!
I haven't been motivated to draw much at all in the last few months to be honest, despite the fact that I have so many drawing ideas!! maybe now that I can catch my breath a little, I'll be able to work on some drawings. I'm currently in Toronto but I did bring my drawing tablet with me hehehe 
I got the idea because @/Shellzilla_515 really likes these two, and he often tells me that he's thinking about them being super fluffy hehehe. I knew that I had to make a little doodle of each one, just being the fluffiest loaf you ever saw 
they bring me so much peace and comfort. and for a long time I've been wanting to make my own plushies. I have soooooo many original characters and I think it would be awesome if I could make them into plushies!
About Iris:
also, when I initially sewed the back pieces together, I accidentally sewed the tail in upside down haha. I had to take apart the seam, which was so hard omg. the stitches on this thing are solid.
I also wrote that Iris's birthday is March 3rd, which aligns with Xara's birthday! 
. You make it look so easy, but it definitely sounds like an expensive and challenging project regardless what size a plush you make. That’s really interesting how you made it! 
