Baxter Plushie

For years I've loved to have custom-made plushies of assorted characters that aren't available in stores. Occasionally I would commission said plushies. About four and a half years ago, I decided to start making them myself, with the assistance of the pre-stuffed blank dolls from JoAnn's Fabric and Craft Store. Since I actually don't like sewing, this is a good way for me to handle it. I put together ears, faces, hair, and clothes, but I don't actually have to make the doll from scratch.

I think what I have the most fun with is figuring out expressions, the hair, and how to work unique things about the character's clothing or accessories. For Baxter, I had to figure out glasses. I knew wrestling with black-coated copper wire would probably be difficult, but I wasn't expecting it to be as much of a pain as it was. It still doesn't look very great, I know, but since it's just for me anyway and I'm satisfied, there's no problem.

I am probably most geekily pleased that I managed to make a vest that was stretchy enough to actually utilize as a pullover. I had some material bought four years ago that was intended to be used to make socks for plushies, but I ended up not doing it because I was afraid the material might eventually fade off on the plushies. It felt very stretchy and I decided to try making the vest out of it.

As of November 23rd, 2016, the plushie is finished except for the lab coat and the bowtie. The hair looks a little red in the close-up, but it isn't in reality; it's completely brown. I know a lighter brown would have been more accurate, but this was as light as I could get.

As of December 3rd, 2016, the bowtie has been added. I never could find one and I had to make it from a spool of ribbon. After wrestling with it to get the size I wanted, I cut it free of the spool and sewed a few stitches into the knot so it hopefully can't come undone.

As of December 6th, 2016, the lab coat is finished!

As of January 22nd, I finished some touch-up work with the hair. I tried to hide it in the pictures, but from the sides there were some small bald spots. A couple of weeks ago I sewed some small pieces behind the ears and sewed the main part of the hair down in the back to eliminate that problem.

I think in the above picture, you can especially see the cutoff between the main hair and the new piece I sewed in.

Then last night, I finally added a rounded part to the front of the hair. I never have understood how the hair got on crooked, because it was straight when I started sewing. But I wasn't about to rip the whole thing off and start over since it wasn't that bad. The rounded part makes it more obvious, though. But I still like that I got that on there.