A while back, I accepted a commission to make a gazillion tiny plush koi fish for wedding favors. I had worked out all the details, what they were supposed look like, how big, what color, etc., and then I got stuck. I didn’t know what to make them out of. Normally I use felt for my little plushies, but I needed something with a particular fish scale pattern. After an exhaustive search I hadn’t found anything that fit and I was actually starting to consider ways to paint the scales on. Then in a moment of brilliance, I remembered hearing about an awesome sounding website called Spoonflower a few months back. Spoonflower offers custom printed fabrics and the minimum order size is less than a yard. I have to admit, once I remembered this I was thrilled to have an excuse to try it out. The idea of being able to get exactly what I wanted without all the searching was pretty fantastic. So I whipped up the pattern I needed and ordered me some fabric. A week or so later, and ta-da! My fancy fabric showed up in the mailbox.
This past week I needed a simple activity to distract me from being desperately unhappy about being on a diet of gelatinous material. For some reason I can’t fathom now, I allowed some villains to remove seven of my teeth. I think I must have been tricked. I get rather put out when I am denied enjoyment of tasty foodstuffs. Combined with all the other discomforts resulting from teeth thievery this made me a big Grumpasaurus Rex. To alleviate this situation I turned to my store of instant gratification projects. Continue Reading…
An introduction into the properties of faux fur and where to acquire it.
Long ago when I first became a maker of plushies, all I used was craft felt because it was well suited to the tiny creatures I made. Also, I was dead broke and that was all I could really afford to work with. As I got further into the world of plush I dreamed of the days when I would have a vast array of fabric at my disposal. Having inherited my mother’s weakness for outrageous colors and fabrics, I yearned for all sorts of exotic materials. In particular I lusted after a stash of wild and colorful faux fur. Continue Reading…
I’m back from the northern land of Canada! This past weekend I embarked on a road trip to the great city of Toronto. One of my jobs as a full-time professional Maker of Things is producing lots of squishy cuteness for a very nice Canadian man named Jack (also known as Rich) who runs Jack and Pookie Publishing. I have never actually met this man in person, so he invited me to be a guest of honor at his booth at FanExpo. I love a good road trip and the prospect of adventure so I readily accepted. Seeing as how it is a nine hour drive from my home in Maryland to Toronto, I decided to break out one of my fancy little booklets from my last post and make a small journal of my journey. It turns out, it’s much more satisfying and entertaining than just taking photos.
Now I present to you:
Every now and then I find it important to have what I consider an “instant gratification” project. Usually it’s the end of the week and my brain is through being creative, but I still want to make something. Other times I use it as a pick-me-up when I get frustrated because a prototype has just epically failed or I’ve had another string of losing battles with my sewing machine. It’s something that I know I can’t screw up and that is going to turn out fine even if everything else I’ve been working on has made me want to cry. Ideally these projects are quick and entertaining, cheap as free (or nearly so), and don’t require any special tools or skills. I’ve come up with many of these projects over the years, so this is the first of many in this theme. Continue Reading…
A couple of weekends ago, I decided to venture into Baltimore to witness the event that is Otakon. For the unaware Otakon is a large annual convention for fans of anime, manga, video games and the associated culture. There are lots of fun events, artists, and vendors of all manner of strange wares. In essence it is a huge Otaku geekfest. Now, I’m not really an anime nerd, but I’ve never gone to one of these events and I have to admit I was rather curious what it was actually like. Last summer I happened to be passing by Otakon and the bizarrely dressed throngs of people were fascinating. The vast majority who attend Otakon dress up or cosplay as their favorite characters so it is quite something to behold. Despite Otakon being focused Eastern Asian art and culture, the variety of costumes also spreads across the rest of the geek spectrum. So, truthfully the primary reason I attended was to see all the people who turn out for this sort of thing.
Where’s Waldo?
Resolution at last! Often I have this overly optimistic uncluttered timeline that I think I work on. In reality, unless someone is paying me, things never get done like I imagine. I actually finished this up last weekend, but it took me a whole week to get the time to post it. I’m still figuring out this whole blog thing.
Anyways, picking up from where I left off last week, this is the exciting conclusion of my companion cube tutorial. At this point I have the six sides of my cube finished and it’s time to transform it into a 3-D shape.
Materials Roundup
- 6 complete sides from Part I
- polyester fiber fill or other fluffy filling of choice (fabric scraps can be used too)
- gray thread
- plastic pellets or rice (optional)
- nylon hosiery (foot part) or sock (optional) Continue Reading…
Well, I have recovered enough from my grievous thumb injury and mostly caught up on work to continue on with the undisclosed project. Now for the big reveal! I am working on making a Weighted Companion Cube. Again. This is not actually the first of these I have made. Two years ago I had just finished playing Portal and was still feeling the pangs of loss over The Cube. In my grief I decided to make an effigy for Mr. Boy. At the time I was very satisfied and even made a crude tutorial.
The First Cube
Now it has recently been announced there will be a Portal 2!! My inner fangirl went squee and decided I must make a new and improved homage to the beloved cube. And so we are brought to the present.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let Wikipedia enlighten you or better yet, go play the game. In short, Portal is a delightful first person puzzle game and the Cube is part of it. It’s hard to understand what the fuss is about unless you have played the game, but the wiki will give you some idea what I’m making.
Now back to what I was doing…
If you would like to follow along with this project listed below are the things you will need. Just a warning, this isn’t a particularly expensive or difficult project, but it is a bit time consuming. There are a lot of little pieces to put together and it is all handsewn. It is not a quick afternoon project. Unless you are some kind of sewing wizard. I’m not quite at that level yet, but I’m working on it.
Materials
- 1 9×12″ sheet light gray felt
- 1 9×12″ sheet dark gray felt
- 1 9×12″ sheet light pink felt
- light pink thread
- light pink embroidery floss or pearl cotton
- gray thread
- polyester fiber fill (or other stuffing of choice)
Optional
- rice or plastic pellets for weight
- extra felt, fleece or quilt batting for padding
A few notes on materials: The first time I had trouble finding both colors of gray felt in the handy 9×12″ sheets so I used white and gray instead. I eventually realized the felt can also be found on bolts in the regular fabric section. A quarter of a yard is plenty for this project. If you check the remnant bins at the fabric store (usually near the cutting tables) sometimes you get lucky and find the colors you want and it’s super cheap. Another option is to buy all of it online where there is usually a greater selection all in one place.
A pattern might also be handy at this point, and luckily I happened to have made one. This pattern, left unsized, makes a cube that is 3″ big.
TERMS OF USE: This pattern is for personal use only! You may not sell this pattern or cubes made from this pattern. Please do not distribute copies of this pattern to others. Instead please refer back to my blog so others can download it for themselves. Make sense?
On to the nitty gritty!
The Making
- First off I cut all the pieces out. My pattern has the corresponding color and number of each piece conveniently marked, so I end up with 6 dark gray squares, 24 light gray corner pieces, 12 light grey tabs, 6 light grey circles, and 6 pink hearts. I also wanted to add a bit more dimenstion to my cube so I cut out extra pieces to go underneath the circles and the tabs. I have lots of fleece scraps so that’s what I used, but felt or quilt batting would work too.
So many pieces!
Make sure to trim these pieces slightly smaller than the pieces they will go under.
- Starting with the bottom layer details, I used pink embroidery floss and the backstitch to add the lines that cross the center of the cube. The stitching doesn’t go all the way to the center or the edges since other pieces will cover those areas.
It helps to trace some guidelines first to keep the lines straight
- Next the little hearts were sewn onto the gray circles using whip stitch. From here on whip stitch is what I use to sew everything together unless I state otherwise.
Aww…
- Taking the padding and the just finished small circles, I carefully center and then sew them on top of the dark gray squares.
The extra layer will make the center pop out more
Now it is starting to look familiar
- Now comes probably the most tedious part of this whole venture: attaching all 32 corner pieces to the squares. The corners are lined up on top of the squares with the edges sticking out and sewn together where they overlap. It makes more sense if you look at the pictures.
Some straight pins are handy at this point
This is how the corners should line up
- And that’s all for part one! Now there are six finished sides and all that’s left is putting them together and stuffing. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion sometime next week.
Progress is beautiful
And remember:
There’s no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake
Once upon a time there was a girl who came to be know as a Maker of Things Varied and Wonderful. All sorts of curious things did this girl create–hats and pastries, monsters and all manner of fantastic beasts. One day it was suggested that perhaps the Maker of Things should share her adventures and secret knowledge with the world. Acknowledging a desire to share her learnings and accomplishments, the girl set forth to pen her adventures for the edification of all. Here begins her epic tales of craftery. Continue Reading…