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A Geometric Approach to Making Plushie Patterns
Published: 2014-03-18 01:55:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 99284; Favourites: 2296; Downloads: 6405
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Description
Here's something that I've been wanting to write up for a while, but never got around to for a couple of months. A lot of people have asked me about the techniques I use when patterning, so in this document lays out in (somewhat excruciating) detail the general approach I take when designing plushies. In general, methodical guides to making patterns are rather lacking on deviantART; I've seen a lot of guides offer only very simplistic advice like "trace out the body shape" without going any further, so this document is an attempt to expand on the varieties of techniques you can use to improve your patterns without having to sculpt foam or anything like that.I understand that this is a very dense and verbose writeup and that it's likely to confuse a decent amount of people, especially since a lot of my examples are rather abstract and a lot of my images are drawn in MS Paint. If someone out there would like to become my personal editor for any future tutorials I write, I'd love to hear from you
In all seriousness, If there's anything in particular I can attempt to clarify, please leave me a comment! If enough people ask me the same question, I may eventually update the tutorial with new details and clarifications.This guide is intended for people who have already put together one or two plushies; if you're a complete beginner looking to get into making plushies, check out my completely non-technical beginner's guide !
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Comments: 125
Haha, who knows, maybe plushing can be your next hobby
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No problem. I'm just a curious person is all. I could actually see this technique be used in paper crafting (requiring a very careful hand) and 3d software (especially when UV unwrapping a model).
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I've been looking for something like this for a long time! Thank you for making this!
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Glad you found it useful! It's good to know that my tutorial is filling some sort of unfilled niche.
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This is REALLY helpful! Thank you for writing it up!
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No probz, glad I could help out!
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This is gonna be sooo helpful! Thanks for that!
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No problem, good luck with your plushies!
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Another amazing tutorial! Thank you for sharing!
It is interesting to see how other plushie makers deal with shapes. I started off with a sphere and then worked my way up from there...I used an orange for some help hehe.
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Yeah, it really is true that everyone has a different way of dealing with shapes. I've lost track of how many times I've gone back and revisited the basic sphere pattern, it's just so useful; in fact, I'd wager that my only plushies which didn't involve reusing the sphere pattern were Goodra and Lanturn.
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True, for me it was one of the most important shapes!
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Too much math for me to get into, lol. I read a little bit though, very nice work.
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You should be glad I didn't pull out the calculus, there's definitely a few parts in the guide that could've involved calculus
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This is an amazingly useful and thoughtful guide!! I think this deserves a daily deviation!
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Haha, thanks! I must admit I have no idea how the daily deviation system works, but I'm happy that you think it's worthy of that status
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Wellp, if you think it's worth a DD, there are a bunch of deviants (like mods of the deviantart website) who you can send a link to! I did that for this :3
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Ah, is that how it works? Haha, shows how much I know about dA. Thanks a bunch for suggesting it, I'm glad you thought my tutorial was worth the effort of doing so
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Very informative! Thank you for taking the time to write this! I like how you went into the technical aspects and geometry of plush-making. Some people may be intimidated by such an idea, but I think you explained it in a way that most beginners should be able to understand. 
If you have time (or are in need of suggestions for future tutorials), it may be worth it to have a discussion about the actual sewing process (e.g. different stitching methods). I have yet to run into an in-depth tutorial that provides a comprehensive way to hide stitches so that a hand-sewn plushie, bag, etc. looks more professionally made.
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I was definitely worried at first that a lot of the stuff I mentioned was very abstract and confusing; it doesn't help that I literally wrote and edited 2/3 of the whole document in the span of 2 or 3 days. (I was bored!) The images were the hardest part, because the methodology I tried to explain was very general so it was hard to think of examples.
I must admit I don't consider myself a master of the actual stitching process
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WHOAHAA amazing!! This was the kind of thing I have been waiting to read when it comes to the science of plush making~ bravo
and who better to write it than a mathematician?
I think a lot of people do think it's excessive that one would pull out a calculator but rulers and calculators (or old school pencil and paper, heh) get REGULAR use when it comes to my plush workshop~
Thanks for your insights! I think you've really devoted a lot of thought and time into the art!
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Haha, I always feel silly when I open up Excel to make plushies. It's like, what am I, an accountant? (Well, that's not too far off, but still.) It's funny though because geometry was always one of my weaker areas of math. I always considered myself more of a calculus/analysis person.
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