i believe making plushies is an art, so i'm putting this here. (this could also go in the discussion forum)

i've just started to dive into the world of plushie making. i have made palm sized bunny and fox heads and a heart. i use felt and i'll probably use arcylic paint to paint on eyes and mouths.

who here makes plushies?
what fabrics do you use?
do you sew in the eyes and/or mouth or do you paint them on? what paint do you use and on what fabrics?

i sometimes make plushies when bored... i use felt as well, because it's cheap and easy to handle, since i actually suck at sewing...
so far i made a little octopus and gaia's bani clips x3 they turned out too cute.
for eyes and mouths i usually use fabric pens... they aren't easy to handle on felt, but kinda okay. you paint the stuff on, iron it and voilá - it's durable. for white spots in the eyes (since you can't really leave them free when painting because of the structure of felt) i used small rhinestones - shiny!

Poring dolls.. about eight or nine so far. Two sizes; small (the base is slightly larger than a quarter), and normal, where the base is the size of a gamecube game disk. They're super simple, because I'm just not very good XD.

They're pretty cute though, or at least I think so. They're not all Porings per se, some of them are just little blobby dolls. I use anything I can get my hands on; denim, cotton, mostly from old clothes, but mum got me two colours of fleece since it was on sale, and I can't wait to work with it. It's in light pink and light green, perfect colours for a Poring and a Poporing.

I embroider the face using woven wheels for the eyes and for a splash of white at the corners of the eyes (or french knots for the small size dolls), and sort of modified woven picots for a bit of blush below the eyes. For the shines in the eyes I just knots a bit of white thread around in the appropriate spot.

I think the faces can take almost as long as the doll on the normal sizes! A little less time on the small ones though XD.

I have made one plushie in my life xD a cat plushie. she looks pathetic :( </3 I can't really sew or make patterns so... yep.

wow I love this , well I started making dolls once thing is I bought the cloth body already done but in blank that is without hair or face or anything just the shape, then I used whool pink whool for the hair and added ribbons to create pigtails for the dollie then I found two really small round black buttons for the eyes (it was the kind of buttons that look like pearls really small and not the combentional type) then I drew the mouth line with an acrylic painting and some blush for her cheeks I also drew the eyebrows.
Then I sew a dressie, it was simple really cause unfortunately I suck at sewing T__T well then I asked a friend to knit small shoes for her, shoes were a problem really cause I didnt know how to solve them so I decided knitted shoes would be a solution even if they looked more appropiated for a baby doll.
Then I added some little details like a pocket and some flowers to decorate her it ended up looking pretty sweet I think I still have her somewhere, if I do I will find a pic for you guys, though I bought 10 doll bodies and ended up making only one doll >.<;;

I've made some, I've done little ones w/felt and bigger ones with fleece, plus I just learned to crochet so I've mad some amigurumi-type plushies, too.
(:

I prefer to embroider the mouth/eyes, sew on beads or glue them on. I tried the paint thing and it didn't look that great.

http://soupcomplex.deviantart.com/
(my deviantart)

I'm still a beginner though, I only started making plushies a few months ago. ;O

Soup: I love the gaiaonline plushies XD what a cute idea! I think your cake plushie and the 'lopsided' Nyanko are adorable too. The amiguri bear is really awesome as well, wish I had that kind of skill.

I really think embroidery is the way to go on small dolls. On large ones it's probably better to sew on pieces of felt (although I might still embroider the mouth), simply because of the massive amount of thread that large eyes would use XD.

LazyKat, it doesn't really take any sort of skill to do what I do. XD Now, for some people who do in fact have skills, their work with simple pieces of felt ISLIKEWHOA.

Originally Posted by soup

LazyKat, it doesn't really take any sort of skill to do what I do. XD Now, for some people who do in fact have skills, their work with simple pieces of felt ISLIKEWHOA.

*gets so jealous* I hate looking at other peoples things when they are SUPERGOOD. Totally discourages me from even touching a needle ever again.

I still think that bear is the bees knees though.

I've only made one to my knowledge. It's a felt mole I made for chem class. (extra credit)
It's all sewn and has button eyes and shit. xD

It was a pun for the term 'mol'.

DieTot: oh~ rhinestones for the eyes. i think i'll try that.

Lazy: thanks for that link. <3 i use basic stitching so it'll take some practice.

sagitar: i first attempt at a plushie was blah too. i tried to make a bunny, but the pattern turned out to be a fox. XD

Trinity: that sounds really pretty! sadly, i'm not ready to make a doll yet. ^^;

soup: those are so cute! <33 i must stalk you now. XD i'm still a beginner too. just started a month ago. ^^

Din: which area are you in? my chem class had to make plushie moles too for extra credit.

Speaking of stitching, I use a backstitch to sew the parts together, it's really quite strong and I think it's very useful to learn. I do most of the sewing by hand, especially on smaller projects, and having a good strong hand-stitch method really helps when you don't have the uniform strength of the sewing machine.
Also just for your information;

Cherry Mix has some cute, simple patterns. The Mochi pattern is the one I modified to make my first poring dolls. The cupcakes are always a fun project as well XD doing Mochi's will help prime you for cupcakes, if you feel they're complex. I'm not sure how you'd rate your level of complexity-readiness, mine was absolutely 0/10 when I started XD

araa, I really wish I had the skills to make plushes! Unfortunately, i am utter fail at sewing. XD

Go kongouseki!

I wanted to try making the felt sortofflat type of plushies, but when I went to try to buy the stuffing stuff, it was like £13/$26 a bag. So I was all...kthnxbai. And didn't get it. xD;;

I once made sock puppets for Spanish class though. Several years ago. They were pretty involved for sock puppets, but it was fun. :'D Dyed a wal-mart sock pink. lmao

I've been a professional toymaker for 26 years. Pretty much all I make are stuffed animals. Mine are made of imported german mohair, with glass eyes and they are full jointed.

I do all my own designs and each piece is one of a kind. It's been a great job, I've gotten to travel all over the world to do shows and been able to help quite a few charities along the way. Here is a pic of one of my bears:



I've been wanting to learn to crochet recently however, I really love some of these amigurumi pieces. I want to try that out for myself.

Lazycat: nice! *favorites links*

Prodigy: but you're good at other things. <3

Solinhild: i didnt buy stuffing, i used the leftover felt and cut it into small pieces and made that the stuffing. XD

Blondheart: that's so cute! it's difficult for me to learn crocheting. my aunts my "teacher", but i'm left handed XDD

Oh I bet it is hard to learn left handed. I don't even know if I can do it right handed! XD

Originally Posted by Kongouseki

DieTot: oh~ rhinestones for the eyes. i think i'll try that.

Lazy: thanks for that link. <3 i use basic stitching so it'll take some practice.

sagitar: i first attempt at a plushie was blah too. i tried to make a bunny, but the pattern turned out to be a fox. XD

Trinity: that sounds really pretty! sadly, i'm not ready to make a doll yet. ^^;

soup: those are so cute! <33 i must stalk you now. XD i'm still a beginner too. just started a month ago. ^^

Din: which area are you in? my chem class had to make plushie moles too for extra credit.

California. =] 95219 ring a bell?

Felt primarily. It works well, comes in many different colors, can be bought in small sheets (because most of my projects are small), and is quite a forgiving fabric. You can create bumps and dents by pushing or pulling it. A lot of other fabrics don't work that way. I attach velcro to bits so that you can remove pieces and change it around like a paper doll. Hair, clothes, even limbs are removable. It lets me keep the same faces on dolls and simply switch out the bodies. [In as uncreepy a way as possible, I mean.] Body fits into panda outfit.

I make a range of plushies or whatever, but they're poorly done and I don't use patterns etc.