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MohawkMax β Tut: Making Better Plushies
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Published: 2011-08-26 23:18:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 19808; Favourites: 235; Downloads: 150
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Description
Want to make a plushie of some sort, but don't have a pattern and aren't sure how to develop one? This is for you!This tutorial does assume that you understand the basics of sewing, stuffing, and finishing a plush. It's just a method to help you develop better patterns.
Obviously, any pattern you create using this technique is YOURS and you can do whatever you want with it, including commercial applications. I did not invent this technique (only extended its application to plushies) and claim no ownership of it, although the tutorial itself IS mine. Feel free to link to this tutorial or re-post it, as long as my name and URL remain in place!
Let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, and if you try this technique for any project, I'd love it if you linked me to the final product!
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Comments: 33
what about embroidery? do you know some tuts, tips, or other stuff to know it well?
cool tutorial, whatever!
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I learned embroidery years ago from my mother, so I don't know of any online tutorials, but I'm sure there are tons out there.
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I've done this with 3D character models and Pepakura to make cosplay clothes.
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Although the method is immensely helpful, the end product has too many seams that could have been avoided. EXTREMELY helpful regardless!
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Just do better on your own end product.
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Immensely helpful. This shall allow me access to wallets of every brony in my area
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How did you manage to carve it in a rounded shape? I'm trying to make something with a similar method, where I have the side and back views of the character I drew onto foam but I'm having trouble making it not look... flat.
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Sorry for the delayed response.
I don't have a very good answer for this, I'm afraid. What I do is take a big sharp kitchen knife and saw around the outline, trying to make the cut at a 90-degree angle. Foam likes to bend under pressure while cutting, so unless that knife is sharp enough to cut bone, I'd aim for a slightly wider angle to avoid taking off too much. I'd do the side view and then the back view.
From there, take scissors and start snipping away at the sharpest, most obvious corners first, and just take off little slices at a time until it looks decently round. It's not a quick process, and I've never found it easy. (And the little foam shavings get everywhere and stick to everything... yay static!) It's better to take off too little than too much, though when I do slice too close, I take one of the bigger scrap pieces of foam, glue it on, and try again.
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Thanks for the advice ^^ I'll try that next time.
And I totally agree with the foam getting everywhere, even now I can find some scraps around my room xD
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It's like glitter. It never freaking goes away.
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I really appreciate you posting this, its certainly helping out with my plushie, but one thing I'm still a little confused on, maybe you could help me out with it, how do you awesome plushie makers make such great eyes? I have tried and I can't quite get them right?
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Flattery will get you nowhere.
I'm glad it's helpful for someone! Eyes? Uh... I don't know what to tell you. I can't see what you're doing.
These eyes here are embroidered, but it's a pain to do, and if you're having trouble with that, I've recently started painting my eyes instead. For the base I use plain white non-stretch cotton, like from an old sheet, and regular acrylic paints. It seems to work pretty well.
One other thing I've seen a lot of people do is buy that iron-on fabric that can be run through an inkjet printer, and just print the eyes out and iron them onto the rest of the fabric before stuffing.
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Well, yes I don't have any pictures up...since i lost my camera, but that idea for iron on sound quite good, I think I might try that, thanks for the suggestion
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Oh this is awesome! This is like the same technique used to make fursuit heads :] I've been wondering if I could apply it to plushies! So great! Thanks so much
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This is a great Technic! My only critic/suggestion is that your pattern has two many unnecessary pieces that could be merged together, that would make the plush look even better
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Nicely done, I prefer your tutorial over the one I read a couple months ago
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1. Cut yarn to twice the length of desired hair length. Easiest way: Wind it around a hardcover book or sketchbook and then cut the fibers by sliding one blade of the scissors along the page edges and snipping (the overhang of the book's covers will create a nice little gap between yarn and pages for the scissors to slide through).
2. Tie a knot in the middle of each piece of yarn.
3. Thread one end of one piece of yarn onto a yarn needle (it's got a MASSIVE eye on it).
4. Puncture needle through fabric from the inside and pull the yarn through to the outside. Remove needle. The knot, if you made it big enough, will hold the yarn in place. There, you've got one strand of hair now!
5. Thread the other loose end of that same piece of yarn onto the needle and send it through the fabric in the same way, maybe 1/2 cm or 1/4 inch away from the first strand.
You could also just cut the hair the right length the first time instead of doubling it, and tie the knot at the end of the yarn instead of in the middle. But you have to tie twice as many knots this way.
Does this make sense?
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Why yes it does. That would take an awful long time, huh? Thanks
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Glad to help.
It actually doesn't take as long to do as it does to explain. It's easy to get into a rhythm with it.
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β₯Nice. I have done one but I have not added it on my account yet. Thaankss:]β₯βͺβ«Sincerly-Melissa
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In all my experimenting with pattern-making, I've never thought about doing it this way... awesome!
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I totally love it!! 
I have my very own my little pony pattern, but is totally diferent from yours because I started with some images and I designed it completely with the computer
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Something that I'm confused about is that when you said ¨Cut off the tape¨, how exactly would we cut it off? Just cut it in random places so that it´s flat? I´m kinda confused. Fortunately, this tutorial (based on the same technique you used) helped me a little bit with the cutting part, but before i make a plushie using this technique i wanna clear this problem up completely. Otherwise, AWESOME tutorial!
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Oh, crud. I was going to put some more in the tutorial about that and completely forgot. ^_^;;
If you've made plushies before, or spent time looking at them with a critical eye, you can see that seam lines are usually in predictable places. Like, there's usually one going up the back, and one or two going up the legs like stocking seams, one around the circumference of the paw/hoof/foot, etc. I'd suggest you make those predictable cuts first, and as you pull these large pieces off the sculpt, then cut darts (or bisect into two pieces) as needed to make each one lay more or less flat. The closer it is to a standard, predictable plushie pattern, the easier it'll be to sew the pieces back together.
The other thing I forgot to mention (and I really, really should've) is that my example plushie here is one solid color. If yours is going to use more than one color or fabric type, then before you cut the tape off, mark right on there where the different markings/colors/fabrics are going to be. These, obviously, will also be cut lines.
...Does that help at all?
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It does! Thanks!
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I use the same technique with making doll clothes too. Instead of duct tape I just grab newspaper or something like that.
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This is a great tutorial. This is really similar to a tutorial I saw online, but I like the use of duct tape and suggestions for alternative ways of making a 3D pony first. Thanks!
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Good job with this tutorial! ;D you've got so cuuute plushie :3
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Thanks!
I just hope this helps people.
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