Patterning Plushies

I wanted to write a post on how I usually pattern plushies! Or maybe how I got into making plushies? Aha, it might just be me rambling, but hopefully someone might find it helpful! (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

So I started making plushies when I was like... 8? But if you look at my first attempts you'll find that they're PRETTY TERRIBLE LOL;; Well we all start somewhere so if you want to make plushies and find that your first attempts are really ugly, KEEP AT IT!

This one was actually made when I was like 12 or something

I really loved Kingdom Hearts

Anyways plushie patterning! There are really three methods I use to pattern plushies. Not saying these methods are correct or are the only way, but how I think about it!

Method 1 - Cut it to Shape!

This method is pretty simple! So you see a shape you want to make, why not just cut it into that shape? I used this to make the body of my Magikarp, separating it into the half circle thing I see is his face and then the weird fish shape that's his body. The fins are also made this way. Don't forget to put in seam allowance so you don't get a plushie that's much smaller than what you planned.

Pros - It's super easy and visual!

Cons - Unless you stuff it really well (like rock hard) this method makes pretty flat plushies.

Method 2 - Darts

So darts are those seams that help make fabric more 3D, I guess? This page will probably explain it much better than I ever will. Anyways, this is really important if you want your plushies to really POP! It's kind of hard to tell, but I used this method to make my Scraggy. It makes your flat cut to shape plush rounder and more realistic!

Pros - It's subtle and makes plushies nice and round without having a super glaring seam.

Cons - It's kind of hard to do? If you can't imagine 2D to 3D very well, it's hard to determine where to put the seam. It's one of my least favorite methods of making plushies because I'm kind of lazy and to make it look REALLY nice you have to use a lot of darts. And it requires more cutting and sewing LOL;;

Method 3 - Spheres

One of the first ways I learned how to make a really nice looking plush was by making a sphere. The simple equation to making one is to make a petal shape, kind of like this: (). The width should be 1/2 of the height, and you'll need 4 of these. So for my Drifloons, I made a petal shape 5" wide by 10" tall. I like sticking to only 4 panels because less seams, but if you want a really round sphere, you can google how to sew a sphere, and there's tons of them out there.

Pros: Since I've been using this method for so long, it's one of my favorites. It makes really nice, round plushies, and it's super easy to sew since you're essentially sewing easy curves~

Cons: The glaring seam, I guess? If you work with fuzzier fabric it's not as apparent, though.

Combining it all Together!

I've been able to make all my plushies so far using these three methods, but keep in mind, you're not sticking to only one. You have to use them all together! For example, here's a pattern I'm working on right now. Can you guess hoo it is?

AHA sorry for the bad pun-- But it's Rowlet! So, separated by the three methods, here's my plan for making his body parts.

Cut it to Shape: Rowlet has a lot of flat features which can just be cut into shape and then sewn or satin stitched in place: his eyes, bowtie, tail, and, if I'm feeling lazy, his feet. I'll also be using this method to make his wings, but I'll explain that a bit more in a later section.

Darts: Since I hate making darts, I like to avoid using this as much as possible. However, Rowlet does have a clear body part which would require using this: his beak! If you look at the character art you'll see that it's almost asking for a dart to be put in there! And if I'm not feeling lazy, his feet should have a couple darts to make them less flat.

Spheres: Rowlet's body is super round, so I immediately wanted to make his body out of a sphere. He's not a perfect circle though, so I adjusted the height and width just a bit to make him less... well spherical. I'll also be making his wings this way combined with the cut it to shape method! When I patterned this, I made a simple sphere first to make sure his body looks right. Then using that, I drew where I want the wing to be. The pattern will be his wings + spherical body. WE'LL SEE IF THIS WORKS THOUGH--

SO as you can see, plushie patterning is a lot of trial and error! It kind of sucks, because if you're used to clothes patterning, you can test your patterns out immediately on your body, but for plushies, you have to make the whole thing, and then manually stuff it to make sure the shape looks right. AND IF YOU MESS UP, welp you have to unstuff and redo.

If you have any questions on any of this or if you want me to clear anything up, please feel free to contact me! I don't know how comments work on blogger l-lol but feel free to comment or @ me on Twitter c: Good luck!