Hand-Stitched Ornaments

Here's a fun way to make hand-crafted fabric ornaments.  It is very similar to the way I make hand-quilted eyes for my stuffed animals (you may want to review that post first).  They can be made from leftover scraps, and they make another nice portable project.

First, decide on a base layer of your ornament. I like to use felt as my sturdy back layer.

Then cut out layers of colored fleece, cotton, or felt to stack into an eye design, from largest to smallest or vice versa.  Fleece and cotton fabric will probably fray more, but may give you more color options. The larger/background colors are sewn first, with each smaller layer stacked on top and sewn individually.  

I like to use a matching thread to sew each color into place.  You can still see that each layer is hand-sewn, but the stitches don't disrupt your design too much.  But any complimentary color will work.  Knot each thread on the back of your panel so that the ends won't show through when the two panels are finally sandwiched together.

Lastly, add quilted felt eyes, or beads, or embroidery thread, for extra flair.  Remember to leave a felt edge surrounding eyes, to make stitching the eye into place easier (using a dark felt base for the eyes also creates a nice bold outline that helps your eye design to pop).

Once all of your embellishments are in place, stitch a ribbon loop into the top edge of one of your panels, about a quarter of an inch in.  Be careful to keep these stitches from piercing through the outermost layers of fabric, so that you do not disrupt your design, but use several stitches to securely attach the ribbon.

You now have two finished panels, like so:

You can then stitch the two panels back to back, along their felt borders.  I like to use thick black embroidery thread.

You can pull your thread ends through a bead and knot them with ribbon as an ornamental accent, or hide your thread ends in your stitching.

Keep the back panel plain, or create a double-sided piece:

As you can see, these techniques can be easily adapted to make decorative Christmas tree or door handle ornaments for any season.  Felt quilting can also be easily adapted for craft projects with children--all you would need would be colored felt, embroidery thread, and those blunt plastic embroidery needles, materials that can be found at most craft stores.

Have fun experimenting!

Plushie Construction: Hand-Quilted Eyes

In looking back over my previous construction tutorials, it appears that I have never completely addressed how I make the quilted eyes that I use for my stuffed animals.  I shall remedy that here!

QUILTING

As I have stated in previous posts, many people get confused about what quilting is.  They picture beautiful patchwork blankets (which are of course called "quilts"), and think that patchwork is quilting.  In fact, quilting is the sewing of multiple layers of sandwiched fabric together.  The traditional quilts that you may think of are usually one layer of patchwork, a layer of flat, insulating batting (stuffing), and then a "backing layer" (the underside of your quilt).  Some quilts have all three of these layers, while others are only made with a top and bottom layer.  In the amazing quilting technique of "Trapunto," the stuffing is bunched and molded into pockets that help the sewer create sculptural effect, an entire fabric bas-relief.

EYE CONSTRUCTION

I like to make my eyes out of felt.  Felt is a sturdy fabric that does not tend to fray when you use scraps in detail work, and it comes in a wide variety of colors.

The layers of different colors of felt create a slightly rounded dome--a cross between a two-dimensional and three-dimensional eye.  I use black felt as my base layer, white as the "white of the eye" (surprise), and then I get more creative with the iris and pupil.

I recommend cutting out all of your layers before stitching, so that you can see the overall size and effect while you can still tweak everything.  Make sure to leave a border of your base layer around your eye design, so that you can easily stitch your completed eyes to your plushie.  This border will also create a nice, bold eye border on your finished plushie face.

Try to use a matching thread color for each layer.  The eyes are still clearly hand-stitched, but the stitches won't distract from the overall eye design.

And voila, you have a quilted eye:

When attaching your eyes to your plushie, try to stitch at a bit of a diagonal, stitching from the outside of the eye and sliding the needle between the layers of fabric a bit, to tack a wider section of the felt eye to the plushie head.  These plushies may see some wear and tear, after all, and you don't want to worry about the eyes tearing off.

The larger the eye, the more detail and layers you can include.  But this eye technique looks great either way, and can give your plushie a nice bit of flair.  This is also a nice, compact bit of crafting that you can carry around with you from place to place, and it can turn your scraps into something functional.

Have fun crafting!

BATS, Part 2 & MICROBATS

BATS, Continued:
Last time, I showed you how I made my first bat.  With my later bats, the main difference is that I now add simple little feet:

Before I stitch the body to the base panel, I tack a simple split-triangle piece into the bottom corner of the belly panel to create a little pair of feet.  This foot panel can be edged with stitching or not (the fleece will not fray).  This panel then gets sandwiched into the bottom front of the body when I stitch the last, base panel to the body:

My first two completed bats:

 

The eyes make up a lot of the personality of each bat:

THE MICROBAT:

For the "Microbat," I wanted to go even simpler and even smaller.  This plushie is made with 3 identical body panels, a face panel, and a pair of wings:

Here, I have all of the fleece panels I need, plus a small brow crest:

 My narrow care label panel also functions as a tail or mounting loop:

First, I stitch the skeletal ridges to the wings.  As stated in previous tutorials, I always use two layers of fleece to create a stiffer wing:

To create the body, I start by stitching two of the body panels together on one side with a zig-zag stitch.

 I then invert the double-wide panel , so that the stitches are facing up (towards the outside of the finished body), and sandwich the crest, wings, and folded label between it and the third panel.  I always stitch this seam two or three times, to make sure everything is secure.

I then stitch the final two long edges of the body panels together, with the stitches facing out.  All three body panels form a domed triangle shape, and I usually stitch the panels together so that the third, bottom panel which forms the belly has both its seam stitches on the outside, for extra flair and a flatter base.

Now that the body is all sewn together, I tack the head panel to the belly panel, right where my fingers can be seen pinching them together.  As with the belly seams, I tack the head to the body on the "right" side of the plushie, with the seam facing out.

All panels have now been attached. The microbat looks like this:

View from the side.  All that remains to finish the body is to add stuffing and tack the head to the neck:

Before I stuff and close the bat, I sew the eye(s) to the face, and secure the thread on the inner side of the panel.

I always try to stitch at an inward angle, to get more of the black felt securely quilted to the fleece panel.

Then I check all seams, and then stuff the body cavity, like so:

Finally, I spiral-stitch the face to the body, creating a secure seam and a decorative edge that matches the base seams:

Secure and hide the last knot (see the hidden knot tutorial), and voila!  A Microbat!

View of the underside of the wings and belly panel:

View of the wings from above:

Front view.  The points on the head panel become ears:

And that's how you make a Microbat!



BATS! The Basics...

Fun Fact: I based my bat pattern off of my red dragon pattern!  The general shape of the dragon head comprises the body for the bat.

 

COMPONENTS

The basic components for a bat, not counting miscellaneous spines, eyes, feet, etc.:

 

ASSEMBLY

The ear panels are assembled into cones and stitched to the forehead panel in the same way as in the red dragon's assembly (please see the red dragon tutorial for detailed instructions for both ear and wing construction).  Next, the two side panels, forehead, and belly panels are all stitched together, starting from the tip of the nose, to create a pouch.

 

Here, you can see the prototype pattern beside the prototype bat body (decorative spines have been sandwiched into the rear seam):

 

I then add a base panel and two wings.  These are exactly the same as the wings I use in my dragon pattern--two quilted layers of wing with a skeletal accent stitched into the inner side.

When all components are roughly assembled, the bat prototype looks like this:

For this prototype, I've sewn the wings together into one continuous piece (I've since decided that this is an unnecessary and complicating step, and no longer bother to do it, so feel free to skip doing this).

With the wings assembled, I now have three pieces: The body, the base, and the wings:

I lay the inside-out bat against the base panel, sandwiching the wings between the back seam (the one with the spines) and the top of the base panel, and stitch them together 3/4ths of the way around.  Then I sew the eyes onto the bat face.  With this prototype, I have also sewn two stuffed cones to the face, to create a beak.

 

Finally, I simply stuff the bat and stitch the final edge closed (You may review how to close your plushie using whip stitch and blind stitch here).

 

And there you have it!

That's how I made my first bat!

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Next time, I'll show you how to make the "Microbat," which is much simpler, and I'll show you some more pictures of my completed bats.

See you then!

Dragon Prototype II: Finishing Your Project

At this point, I could have turned my dragon "sleeve" into either a puppet or a stuffed animal:

STUFFING
I began by stuffing small pieces of fiberfill into the head and arm cavities.  These narrow arm and leg tubes need to be firmly stuffed, especially where they join the body, so that they will be able to hold the finished plushie in an upright position, and also so that they will maintain their form when washed.

When the body is completely stuffed, it looks like this:

I stuff the tail and seat firmly, but not too tightly.  My plushies may shrink a little bit in the wash.  So while it is important to have the plushie be firmly stuffed, the seams should not be strained.

CLOSING UP
To approximate the strength and security of the machine-stitched seams, I usually hand-sew my plushies closed, and then go over the seam again a second time.  I also double up my thread through the needle, to reduce the risk of snapping the thread when I am pulling it tight.  In other words, when I have knotted the ends of my doubled-up thread together, I am sewing stitches with 4 threads at a time.

WHIP STITCH
I began by knotting the thread and securing it just beyond one end of my opening.  I then sewed the plushie closed using a simple 'spiral," or "whip" stitch. 

To do this stitch, you simply angle your needle upwards every time you stitch, so that your thread forms a spiral up the seam.  I sew through a fold of fabric on each side, instead of through the very edges of the fabric.  This also gives me a stronger seam when I pull the thread tight (I am not tugging at already broken and unraveling edges).

BLIND STITCH
I then sewed the "ladder," or "blind" stitch over my pre-existing seam. 

The point of this stitch is to have the thread outside of the fabric for the bare minimum of space.  You do this by always having the outer stitch be a horizontal stitch.  Any "vertical" advancement up the seam is done on the inside, or invisible side, of the fabric.  Your stitch should have no diagonal movements.  You stitch horizontally over the seam, then vertically up, under the fabric, and then repeat to move your needle back across you seam.  Left>Up>Right>Up, and so forth (if your seam is oriented vertically, like mine).

I usually begin by stitching a couple blind stitches, and leaving the thread slack. 

Then I manually push the seam inward with one hand while I tighten the thread with the other.  I hold the thread tight, and continue to sew.  When I have reached the end of the opening, I knot my thread to keep it from loosening up under all the tension.

 

Here is an exaggerated example of the finished stitch. 

 

If you leave your stitches widely spaced, like this, you will end up with a sort of tooth pattern, almost like you had zipped the two pieces of fabric together.  This is especially noticeable when you are joining two different colors of fabric.  It creates an interesting visual effect, if you should ever want to do it on purpose.  But for this project, it is better to take your time and make small, even stitches.  These will allow your seam to blend together much better.  If you are using faux fur, or a very fluffy fabric, this is less of a concern--the fluff will spread to cover your stitches and knots.

 

For more tutorials on blind stitch, check out this link and this link. 

 

FINISHING: THE HIDDEN KNOT

When finishing your piece, the above tutorials instruct you to knot your thread, and then poke your needle through the seam and bring it out somewhere else.  Then you just pull the thread tight, snip your thread, and the end of thread is sucked back into the plushie body. 

 

This method does work just fine.  But I have recently started using a different finishing technique.  These plushies are made to be handled, so I like to do this extra step, for additional security and peace of mind.  I unfortunately haven't been able to find the tutorial link that taught me this technique, but here is a very similar quilting example.

For this knotting technique, you knot your thread at the end of your seam, like normal.  Then you poke your needle into the seam near your knot, and bring it out again an inch or two away.  If you can get your knot to pop through the stitches to the inside of your seam, that's a bonus.  But don't worry about it too much.

You can pin where your thread comes out, if that will help you.   Make a knot flush with the surface of your fabric.  Then push your needle back through the same hole the thread is coming out of, and push the needle out of a third spot on the plushie.

Pull on your thread, until you hear a little "pop" as your knot is pulled to the inside of your fabric.  This will only work if your fabric has a little give to it, and if you have gone back through the exact same hole.  Now your thread end is secured inside your plushie by the knot.  Pull your thread tight, and snip the thread, and it will be pulled back into the plushie.

THE FINISHED DRAGON

And there you have it!  My new dragon design!