Hug Me Plushie walk-through

A big thank you goes to Keri for allowing me to use her plushie and character for this tutorial!

Character and artwork © Kerijano 2009 �

(Click on thumbnails for larger images)

First start with paper pattern. I have a basic 'hug me' pattern which I adapt to the individual character's features.

Materials- paper and card just plain old cheap printing stuff. �

Tip- when making the pattern be aware that you just can't 'stuff' something into shape, you have to control the shape of it by using panels.

Example, to make a sphere you might try cutting out two circles and sewing them together thinking you can stuff it out. That doesn't work, you end up with something rather flat. Instead you have to make a set of curving panels, exactly like on a beach ball to get the right shape.

I mention this as I am surprised to find so many people have the misconception that you can simply stuff something in to the desired shape! �

The pieces are then cut out of the fabric. This plushie consisted of 41 fur pieces and 20 felt pieces.

Tip- when marking out the pattern on white fur fabric, use a very light pencil, if you use anything too dark you can see the pencil through the fabric

Materials- Felt and some of the fur fabric was bought at my local haberdashery. Other fur was bought in various shops when i've been out and about and spotted some good fur colour. You can also buy it from stores online and on Ebay �

Dying the pieces. While I have 4 banana boxes crammed full of various colours of fur fabric peoples character's colours are often different from what I have. Particularly browns and grays are difficult to obtain in anything other than 3 basic colours. So I dye my pieces to get them as close to the character as possible.

I use a fabric colour as close as possible to the one I want then I dye them with 'Syn-dye' which is only available from this Australian company Beary Cheap. As far as I know this is the only dye formulated to work on fur fabric and is completely colour fast.

I also buy my eyelids and noses from this site though these are also available in some US online shops.

The dye is a powder that you add to boiling water. I have to mix together the colours to get the one I want so there's quite a bit of guess work involved. Because the white just needed knocking off a little I simply dipped the pieces quickly in the dye and then rinsed them. That was sufficient to get the colour I wanted. �

The darker brown pieces for the hair needed a longer treatment, these were simmered for an hour. You want to avoid actually boiling the water as it makes the fur texture go a little funny.

Also, the powder and dye stains work tops and non metal sinks so make sure they're all covered over and wipe them down with a little mild bleach.

Materials- Syn-dye, old saucepan, old wooden spatula, newspaper �

The pieces are rinsed to remove any excess dye then are laid out to dry. I always comb them out while they're drying so the fur grain lays straight otherwise they can dry with the fur sticking out all over the place. It takes about 3-4 days for these to dry completely. they need to be completely dry so they don't rust the sewing machine needle and so out plushie doesn't end up smelling foisty.

Materials- newspaper, comb �

Pining the parts together. Some parts that are small and fiddly I sew by hand but the larger parts can be sewn on the sewing machine.

Materials- pins �

I have a bog standard second hand sewing machine. You can sew these all by hand if you don't have one, it just takes longer.

Tip- sewing fur fabric is very heavy work for a bog standard sewing machine, you need to use a heavy needle (100 is ideal), sew slowly and avoid sewing more than two layers of fabric together. If you get to an area where the are several seams that need sewing together, wind the machine on by hand. Sounds pedantic but a basic rate of £50 just to get someone to look at a broken machine it's not worth breaking your machine over.

Tip- okay, those purple glasses are not for decoration. I had an incident while sewing that the needle snapped and the sharp point flew out and hit my eye lid a few millimeters below my eye. I still feel sick at the thought of what would have happened it that had gone in my eye at high speed. So I wear those glasses as eye protection. Moral is - if you value your eyesight, wear eye protection!

Materials- sewing machine, cotton �

Pin and sew

Pin and sew again

Then hand sew the smaller/ fiddly parts �

At this point the plushie undergoes a quality control check by Jasper the Cheesy Puff.

Having passed the check the parts are turned round the right way and the fur is combed/ pulled out of the seams (the most tedious job that I don't like) �

The eyes are clear plastic eyes so I can paint the back of them any colour as most teddy bear eyes only come in orange or dark blue. I paint the back of the with acrylic paint. It takes about 3- 4 coats so I dry off each layer with a hairdryer. I also painted the black nose pink as they only come in black or brown.

Materials- acrylic paint and brush (art/ craft shop) 1 pair clear plastic eyes (local haberdashery) I pair black eyelids and 1 flock nose (beary cheap), old craft board, hairdryer �

The parts are made up. they are stuffed with some toy filling (be careful not to over stuff, you want them to be squishable) and the openings sewn closed. The paw pads are hot glue gunned on. I used to use UHU glue but had feedback that the parts came unstuck after a while so I don't use that now.

The head has had the ears sewn on, the eyes and nose attached.

The mouth is sewn on with some thick black waxy thread. I mark out where I want to sew the thread with pins. Once that is right I try a knot on the end of the thread (this is the only time I ever use a knot when sewing these!). I then go through the back of the head to the nose. Once I have sewn the mouth I pass back out the back of the head and tie the end knot. this means both knots will be hidden under the hair and not visible anywhere.

Tip- I don't stuff the upper portions of the arms and legs to give them flexible movement

Materials- Minicraft toy filling (local haberdashery/ craft shop), pins, thick black waxy thread (no idea what it's called or remember where it came from, sorry) big heavy needle with eye large enough for the waxy thread �

The parts are all sewed together.

I add the marking with Prisma colour markers. I had to find something that I could do markings with but it had to be colour fast so the plush is hand washable and also mustn't make the fur clumpy or stick together. In my quest I discovered Alcohol-based markers do the job, they colour on the fur and once dry don't run, smudge, rub off on to other things or wash off and leave the fur soft! I use prisma markers because they're cheaper but copic markers are also alcohol based so can be used. Water-based markers are no good.

You can also use acrylic paint. Build up the colour by brushing on a little at a time, let it dry and brush out to avoid fur clumping.

Tip- use a tissue to protect any other areas from accidentally getting ink on.

Materials- alcohol markers (i got a bundle off Ebay), tissues, damp cloth (to wipe over once dry to remove any excess) �

Pieces for the hair are cut and trimmed. on the right is an untrimmed piece and the left is a trimmed on. I trim them because it gets the fur the right length and looks neater. Cut the fur how you want it then lightly chop into the ends of the fur at an angle just like how the hairdresser feathers your hair to avoid having a hard blocky edge to the trimmed fur. �

Tip- you can use electric hair clippers to trim down fur too!

The cream ear spots and inner ear fluff are sewn on (I try and sew everything I can rather than glue to make things more secure) The cream under the eye was hot glue gunned as the fabric piece was so thin I couldn't sew it.

The claws were made out of felt hot glue gunned on.

Tip- Paint the back of the felt with PVA to stop any disintegration when cutting and playing with the toy

Tip- if you're a klutz like me then you can remove any hot glue you've accidentally got on your clothes by using Stain Devil Number 8

The hair pieces were them sewn on and styled. The markings added to it with the markers.

Materials- PVA glue (craft store), felt (local haberdashery), Hot glue stick and glue sticks (local hardware store) �

Finished plushie!