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)

The Making (continued)

1. At this point I decided to trim back behind the light gray corners pieces.  In theory this helps the shape when I stuff it, but I’m not sure it’s really that noticeable in the end product.
   

   This is how it looks from the back. Be careful not to clip your stitches.

2. Now it is time to start joining all the pieces together.  First I attach them all together in a flat pattern.  The order or pattern isn’t really significant, but this is how I chose to do it.
   

   Just line up the edges and sew them together

   

   This is how I joined the all together. The letters correspond to the order that I put the sides together in the next step.

3. After the pieces are all joined I start connecting the sides to form a 3-D box.  I sewed together everything but the top flap so it resembles a jack in the box.
   

   Ready for stuffing!

4. Surprise extra lesson time!  Before I go any further I have a few things to say about the art of stuffing.  It is a bit trickier than it seems and can be frustrating when you are just starting out.  I suppose it should also be noted I’m crazy nuts about certain details and may have spent an unhealthy amount of time considering this topic.  This project is fairly easy but I will be super detailed because I can!  Here are a few tips:
   • Don’t over fill. It’s really easy to get carried away and keep stuffing until your plushie is a poor bloated mutant.  Overstuffing can also permanently distort or stretch your fabric.  On the flip side, if you don’t stuff enough, it will lose it’s shape.  Ideally there is just enough stuffing to hold the shape but not be bloated.  Don’t be afraid to take stuffing out and try again.
   • Don’t wad. Be careful not to wad or ball the stuffing too much or your plushie will end up lumpy.  If it gets balled up, tease it loose again.
   • Not all stuffing is created equal. The regular (sometimes labeled  “premium”)  stuffing is good general purpose, fluffy but coarse, and inexpensive, but I think it is better suited to larger projects.  “Ultra Plush” is very soft and is really nice for stuffing smaller pieces as it is easier to shape.  However it tends to compact a lot  so it takes more and is more expensive.  Fabric scraps are probably the cheapest option and will behave completely differently than a fiber filler.  Fabric scraps are very dense when packed and will have less squishiness, especially depending on what sort of scraps you use.  I would recommend cutting the scraps into smaller mostly uniform pieces because they will create a more even filling.

Optional step: I want my Weighted Companion Cube to actually be weighted, so before stuffing I filled a little sack made from some cut up nylons with about 1/2 cup of the little plastic beanbag pellets.  In my original cube I used rice, but have since become more internet shopping savvy and discovered that the little plastic pellets are very inexpensive and I don’t have to worry about bugs or moisture making them icky.  I imagine the toe end of a sock or some other little pouch can be used to contain them just as effectively as the nylons.

I think I used about half a cup of pellets, but it’s mostly a matter of preference and what will fit.

1. Let the plushing commence!  First I take four small pieces of stuffing and push one into each of the the four bottom corners to make sure the corners get filled in.  Next I make a layer for my “bean bag” to rest on.  After that I continue to add more stuffing around the bag until I reach the top of the cube, but I don’t cover the top yet.  If you don’t put any weight in, you can skip the “nesting” part and just put a big clump in.  Just remember that the more stuffing you add, the rounder your cube will be.
   

   It’s important to get the corners first.

   

   The layer on the bottom is fairly shallow. Just enough to keep the bean bag/weight padded.

   

   Put the weight in on top of that bottom layer before adding more stuffing.

   

   Essentially I’m building a little cozy nest around my bean bag.

2. Taking my needle and thread back up, I begin to sew the top closed leaving one last side open.  Before I close it I carefully push small pieces of stuffing into the top corners same as I did for the bottom.  Then I fill in the rest of the empty space at the top and finish sewing up the final side
   

   Now you can add the rest of the stuffing.

   

   The end is in sight!

Optional step 2: Break for tea and pickles.  We’re in the home stretch now and must gather ourselves for the final push.  Mmm…Earl Grey and bread-and-butter pickles.  I would recommend having the pickles while you put the tea kettle on.  If it’s after five o’clock, a beer is also a good choice for those of age.

1. There is only one thing left to do and it’s attaching all those little light gray tabs that go in between the corners where the sides come together.  Once again I layered a piece of fleece underneath the felt for extra thickness.  This step is rather tedious and straight pins are rather handy.  I didn’t think this through all the way when I did it so I pinned them all on at once and had pins sticking out everywhere which made it difficult to hold and sew.  It was a bit prickly.  (Cringe at my puniness!)
   

   Layers upon layers….

2. Finis!  I now have a beautimus beloved Cube.  I shall go forth and taunt my geeky friends.  Hopefully this tutorial has been clear enough that you can figure out how to make your own.  If you have any questions, please let me know!
   

   Victory for cuteness!

And away I go!

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.

PRINTABLE CUBE PATTERN

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

1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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…

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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