Handmade Plushies

Introduction

Plushy? Stuffy? Stuffed animal? Whatever you want to call it, I made it. Twice. I made them as Christmas presents for my niece and nephew both around 1 year old. However, these would make great baby gifts too. They are pretty easy to make, and I finished them both in about 5 hours.

Let's talk about the controversy. Yes, my great grandmother made over 60 hand sewn quilts in her lifetime of 98 years. Yes, for this project, I decided to cut one of them up. Yes, I hesitated during the first cut. Yes, you might not like it. Yes, I did it anyway. No, I don't need to explain myself, but I will.

The reason I decided to cut up the quilt is that no one in my family is particularly fond of the entire piece. The quilt would simply get more use if I were to cut it up. Yes, I have plans to use the rest of it. Future quilted jean jackets for my sisters? I think so. Whether you are offended or not, there are ways to make these stuffies without cutting up your great grandmother's handmade quilt.

Materials

• 👕Scrap Fabric (I used velvet and my great grandmother's hand sewn vintage quilt.)
• 🟦Scrap Felt (I had some felt left over from another project I did, but the link provides a good quality felt on Amazon.)
• 🪡Sewing Machine
• 🧵Embroidery Thread and Needle
• ☁️Stuffing
• ✂️Fabric Scissors
• 🩹Fabric Glue

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Instructions

1. Choose your design. My older sister influenced the decision for the shape of the plushy for my niece, a happy moon. She was inspired by Honey Dove vintage's Moon Baby, and therefore I was forcefully inspired by the Moon Baby plushies. As for the other inspo, my nephew has been very drawn to a felt penguin that I made as part of my younger sister's custom advent calendar last year. So we have it, a moon and a penguin (you can sketch any creature you'd like). I'll use the moon for most of the pictures in this blog because I forgot to take pictures of the progress of the penguin. My bad.
2. Draw and cut out your pattern. Since we are going for a flatter shape here and are not getting all complex with this project, it's pretty easy to sketch out a pattern. I sketched out a rough shape of the moon a little larger (wider and taller) than the size that I wanted. You need to account for sewing the edges as the plushy naturally shrinks when you turn it right side out. I used a large white envelope because a standard piece of paper was not large enough for the size that I was going for. Improvisation at its finest. Once you are satisfied with your sketch, cut it out.

3. Cut out your fabric. At this point, you will need to choose a fabric for both the front and the back of the plushy. For the moon, I decided to use velvet for the front and my great grandmother's quilt for the back. For the penguin, I used the quilt for both the front and the back. Pin the pattern to your fabric right side up and cut out the form. Next, flip the pattern over, pin it to the back side fabric, and cut it out. The front and back pieces should mirror each other.

4. Create the details. Remember that felt I was talking about in step 1? Well that leftover felt from the advent calendar came in handy for this project. I wanted to add a face to the moon and a face, body, and feet to the penguin. I cut out the various shapes to create the detailed features for the moon and the penguin and glued them on with fabric glue so that they would stay in place. Pins simply wouldn't work for the size of the pieces if I wanted to topstitch cleanly. Once the pieces were glued on and the fabric glue was dry, I topstitched each of the felt pieces to make sure that they were extra secure. Note: When you complete this step, create the features that feel right for your plushy's personality.

5. Sew the sides together. Place the front and the back fabrics on top of each other, good sides together. Pin the two pieces together, and sew them together leaving a small opening at the top. Once you have sewn the pieces together, using the hole, turn the fabric right side out so the seams aren't showing.
6. Stuff your plushy. Using the polyester filling, stuff the plushy using the hole you left open in the previous step. Stuff until it is a little bit firm. This is a don't stuff it too much or too little situation. It needs to be just right, Goldilocks. Make sure you pull apart the filling prior to stuffing the plushy to ensure there are no large lumps in your final product. There is nothing worse than a lumpy plushy.
7. Sew the plushy closed. At this point, you should fold in the raw edges of the opening of the plushy, and pin everything down. Once the edges are pinned into place, sew across right along the edge to close up the plushy.
8. Sew around the outside. This is an optional step for aesthetic purposes. I like to sew around the outside of the plushy with embroidery floss in multiple colors to give it a more whimsical look. This step also helps clean up the outside lines of the plushy in case anything got weird throughout the sewing process. I opted for a blanket stitch (my go to video when I forget how to do it).

Conclusion

These plushies were so fun to watch my sisters open for their little ones over the holidays, especially when they found out that my great grandmother's quilt had been incorporated. Yes, we're back there one more time. The babies are already obsessed with snuggling with them. Nice work, Aunt Gretchen!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of these plushies with my pups, Pedro and Stevie. They were very interested in making them their own toys, and I wanted to keep them slobber and hair free for my niece and nephew. See the final products below. Maybe next time I will add a squeaker😉.