I mentioned in my Kukcrafters June challenge that I had attempted making something truly crafty. It also happens this will be something I hope to have on sale for my new improved collection of puppets/products for Puppets in Melbourne as discussed here. Having been totally turned off by the difficulty of making jewellery, I took a look at my character design that I will be using as my ’signature’ character, and decided it would make the most excellent plushie.

So here is my second prototype (the first having been binned as mentioned in the first link, because I sewed it incorrectly). The images are shown at the bottom of the post in a slideshow (PS. on my blog the pics are small, so if you want to view the slideshow full screen and see more detail, head to Flickr.). - Also, I do have one more prototype to present, that of the kit I hope to create, but as it’s fairly late in the day and I have other things to get on with, I’ll post it later. I will also be presenting something I received just this week, and it’s very cool.

Firstly, the plushie too small. You can see that the ends of the hands and feet aren’t stuffed very well, and I will probably resize about 10-15% just to make things easier. I intended on sewing the majority on my machine, but because of the size it was difficult to get the detailed curves - hence the binned first try. Hand-sewing managed to make things better, but if I plan to sell these, I need to cut down on the time spent making them. For the most part, I hope to upcycle/recycle old fabrics from op shops and decorate with beads and stuff - making one of a kind plushies of the same pattern - but in this case I just used some leftover chocolate fleece from a puppet project.

The original idea was to have two versions of the plushies: one plain (or rather, as decorated below), and the other would be a message board. I like the idea of the empty space in the head being a place to add custom messages, so I could insert a piece of plastic - the leftovers from cutting away the circle from the puppet design, shown in the third link above - and use a felt-tipped pen to write on it. I could easily attach a hook to the back of the head to hang it on the wall. The other idea is to custom-embroider a piece of fabric inside the head’s hole, with a person’s name or message. So far, embroidery is off the menu. I have self-taught myself a technique used with a tambour hook, without the actual tambour (a very thin metal crochet hook can be exchanged). However, I’ve discovered that the proper hook really would be better and the fabrics that I have don’t seem suitable. I still like the idea, and perhaps when I have more time I could try again.

The last thing is that as I was carrying the plushie to ask for opinions from my family, it occurred to me that as it is, the item could work just as well as a door-hanging decoration (the hole in the head makes for a perfect hook) or even a half-decent handbag with some modification (again the hole makes for a good handle). Honestly, I’m not sure I’m keen on the latter, given it’s a heck of a lot more work to make.

Whatever happens, the prototype has been enjoyable to make and I’m pretty pleased with the results. Frankly, this idea suits my new look and the type of things that I make than jewellery (particularly as I haven’t worn the latter myself for several years). And they’re different enough to be of interest to the local crafts/arts market audience here in Oz. … I hope…