The Round Stable

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:23 pm

I guess I should make an actual OP for this. This thread Doesn't have to be just for my attempts. I'm so alone. In progress shots, tips, patterns, whatever. Throw it down in here.

On a whim I decided to try and make a pony plush, so I picked up a sewing kit, fired up instructables, and taught myself to sew. A few days ago I went by the fabric store and got some fleece, and then around 16 non-contiguous hours later I had this thing on my desk.

It's technically a prototype Zecora, but mostly I was just getting used to hand stitching and using a pattern. I used a double threaded needle and a modified back stitch for the bulk work, with some slip stitching to close up the back.

The red guidelines have been bleached out now, and I'm trying to decide if I want to do stripes, eyes, and cutie marks; or just leave it as an Albino Blind Blank Flank.
Pattern is from here, with some modifications: http://nuno-runo.blogspot.com/2010/04/zebra.html

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:20 pm

Got some more fleece to try for detail work and embroidery junk. Note to self, do embroidery before sewing the patern together.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:38 pm

Also, for anyone else interested in trying plushes or learning to sew, these are the instructables I learned from:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Sew./
http://www.instructables.com/id/Embroidery-101/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Minecra ... eper-Doll/

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:55 am

Got a mock up of the stripe and cutie mark details. Gonna be a bitch and a half to do with the plush already sewn together. If I were a clever person I'd have done this part before cutting out the body patterns.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:41 am

Never again. Never, ever again. At this point starting over and doing it right is seeming like the less finger bleeding prospect. Dealing with these curved needles and pins and just screw that noise. I somehow pushed a needle through my fingernail and into my thumb.

Sooo, time to modify the pattern to fix some proportion issues, figure out how I want to do the dual tone stitching, actually make a mane and tail pattern, and then start again from the top.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:16 pm

Alright, got my supplies and got my new pattern. I'm gonna try again soon, when I have free time anyways. I hope to get more/better in progress shots as I go this time. We'll see how that turns out. :pinkieshrug:

(?) · by **Glazius** (?) » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:49 pm

Good luck! The world needs more plush ponies.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:54 pm

Glazius wrote:Good luck! The world needs more plush ponies.

Thanks!

New Stuff!

So among the supplies I bought was some printable iron on applique sheets. I used these to print out the pattern, and then Iron it onto my fabric, which makes it a lot easier to cut and sew the black fabric, because the temporary pens are hard as hell to see on black.

Now, I don't have an Iron, but I have a tea kettle. They're the same thing right? So here is me "ironing" the pattern bits on:
(Yes, there is water in the kettle, because it's a bad idea to heat a kettle without water in it.)

With that done, I thankfully remembered that I have some embroidery to do before cutting out the white pattern, so I popped it into my hoop and got to work. Embroider takes a really long time if you're doing it by hand. Most of the plushes I've seen have machine embroidery, which I can't really afford right now. I'm going to be embroidering the eyes, chin stripes, and cutie mark by hand.

And that's as far as I got between classes today. About 6 hours. And this was only one side. I still have to print out the pattern for the other side. (My fingers are unhappy.)

(?) · by **Lazy** (?) » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:25 pm

Looking forward to seeing it finished. Don't see Zecora plushes often.

(?) · by **Herr General** (?) » Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:07 am

Looks pretty neat, if you make a lot of them you can probably sell them at bronycon or something.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Sat Jan 21, 2012 6:09 am

TheLaziestBrony wrote:Looking forward to seeing it finished. Don't see Zecora plushes often.

That's kinda why I wanted to try it. I realize now that it was not the best choice to learn to sew on. There are so many little details on her, and so many extra stitches for the two tone parts.

Herr General wrote:Looks pretty neat, if you make a lot of them you can probably sell them at bronycon or something.

Haha, I wish. My production output is not going to be very high with how my schedule is now. I also probably also won't have time/money to go to bronycon.

Anyways, here's the finished cutie mark for one side:

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Sun Jan 22, 2012 8:07 pm

Aight, got some more sewing done. Basically stitching the black back bits to the white body bits.

What I'm doing is stitching on the inside so that there aren't any bits of fabric ends sticking off on the outside.

Which was really probably not my best choice for how to do the stripes, but I think it looks cleaner then just overlaying the two fabrics and then stitching. The end result takes some time and accuracy, but it looks pretty good.

And yes, I know that she isn't actually black striped in the show. Unfortunately the fabric store near me doesn't carry grey fleece. Thankfully I found some grey floss for the cutiemark.

(?) · by **Westy543** (?) » Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:46 am

I saw some of the earlier pics the other day and this is shaping up quite well! Go CR! :yay:

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:19 pm

Westy543 wrote:I saw some of the earlier pics the other day and this is shaping up quite well! Go CR!

Thanks bro man dawg.

This picture was titled [banwesty].jpg before uploading. Not sure why.

(The pins are there just to keep the legs from curling. Everything is sewn together for this side. Now i have to do everything again for the other side of her.)

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:26 pm

You would think that seeing all of these cool crafting threads would only be encouraging for me to try my hands at it all. Sadly, seeing how hard it is, and how long it takes, it is only having the opposite effect! :gonkity:

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:31 pm

Aramek wrote:You would think that seeing all of these cool crafting threads would only be encouraging for me to try my hands at it all. Sadly, seeing how hard it is, and how long it takes, it is only having the opposite effect!

It's actually not all that hard, just very very time consuming and detailed work. You get out what you put into it. I was kinda hoping other peopled start on their own projects and post alongside with mine. Even if it's just some simple learning to sew projects. That way we can all help each other out.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:12 am

Welp, made some good headway on the other half of Zecora. Eye and cutie mark are done, thank God, and I hopefully won't have to do any more embroidery because my fingers might revolt.

I did make a mistake of cutting too close to the pattern before embroidering, so I had to use some of the interfacing sheets I got. These basically go between the hoop and the fabric on your embroidery hoop. They help hold the fabric in place.

The ones I got dissolve in water.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:12 am

Aight, finally got the second side done after stumbling across some free time.

Now to start on the underbody. I am getting really tired of these stripes.

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:26 am

Are you using interfacing on the fleece? I used a lightweight fusible interfacing on this one fleece plush I'm working on, and it's been a tremendous help - the transferred pattern is clearer, makes the material easier to handle, and the stitches aren't pulling through when I stuff it.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:46 am

VoodooTiki wrote:Are you using interfacing on the fleece? I used a lightweight fusible interfacing on this one fleece plush I'm working on, and it's been a tremendous help - the transferred pattern is clearer, makes the material easier to handle, and the stitches aren't pulling through when I stuff it.

Yeah, that's what I'm ironing on with the tea kettle in those earlier pictures. It really does help a lot, but mine has a bit of a problem sticking. Especially on that black fleece. Not sure if it's because a tea kettle isn't an Iron or just because the fabric is really fuzzy.

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:20 pm

Ah, ok, the images weren't loading for me last night, so I didn't see. It might indeed be the tea kettle that's the problem. XD
I do it a bit differently, I iron on the entire sheet of interfacing, then draw the pattern, then cut it out.

(?) · by **Aramek** (?) » Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:20 pm

He's iron-less, so, he's using the kettle. Quite intrepid, frankly. I don't think I would have thought of that. :allears:

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:11 pm

VoodooTiki wrote:Ah, ok, the images weren't loading for me last night, so I didn't see. It might indeed be the tea kettle that's the problem. XD
I do it a bit differently, I iron on the entire sheet of interfacing, then draw the pattern, then cut it out.

Yeah, I may pick up a really cheap iron at some point to actually do it right. Having the pattern printed on the interfacing helps a ton with the embroidery details. Because of the two tone thing going on with Zecora I'm not sure if I could have just ironed on the whole sheet. I'm definitely still figuring out the logistics of making plushes.

Aramek wrote:He's iron-less, so, he's using the kettle. Quite intrepid, frankly. I don't think I would have thought of that.

Haha, thanks! It was probably not the best choice, but it worked pretty well.

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:34 am

Aramek wrote:He's iron-less, so, he's using the kettle. Quite intrepid, frankly. I don't think I would have thought of that.

Yeah, I couldn't see the pics. And that should also teach me not to write stuff when I'm halfway asleep. I was impressed - I wouldn't have thought of it. I hope it didn't come across like I was dumping on Concerned Reader. I'm impressed CR jumped in at the deep end as far as making plushies.
It's cool what you can draft into service for, for example my stuffing stick is a kabob skewer. Works great.

My iron was pretty damn cheap, under $9. I got it specifically for interfacing, just super basic el cheapo deluxe from Big Lots.

(?) · by **latilati** (?) » Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:55 am

That is looking quite awesome, I really want to see it finished! Your embroidery looks great! :allears:

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:39 am

This is a little pattern test. Just felt, and I can see a lot of problems that need fixing, so it probably won't get any more finished than this.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:32 am

latilati wrote:That is looking quite awesome, I really want to see it finished! Your embroidery looks great!

Thanks! It was soo tedious, but I'm really happy with the end result.

VoodooTiki wrote:This is a little pattern test. Just felt, and I can see a lot of problems that need fixing, so it probably won't get any more finished than this.

Other then the kind of weird bow in the rear legs this looks really nice!

On my own stuff I finally broke down and bought an Iron.

Got down and ironed on the rest of the pattern bits. Also decided to lint roll the fabric beforehand just to clean up the fabric a bit.

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:18 pm

Concerned Reader wrote:Other then the kind of weird bow in the rear legs this looks really nice!

Thanks! I need to fix up the inner back leg piece - she's kind of bowlegged atm.

Also, yay, iron!

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:32 pm

VoodooTiki wrote:Thanks! I need to fix up the inner back leg piece - she's kind of bowlegged atm.

Is that something where darting the inside joint would help? I never really understood darting.

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:50 am

Concerned Reader wrote:
Is that something where darting the inside joint would help? I never really understood darting.

Yeah, the dart isn't sufficiently deep. Lord knows I'm terrible at explaining things, but I'll try (excuse the terribad drawing). Without darts under the legs the plushie will have a tendancy to sprawl like a bear skin rug. Basically you are folding the fabric along the "armpit" crease (red line) so A touches B, which brings the leg under the body. You'd cut out the excess fabric (the blue circle) so it isn't sticking up into the body cavity.

(?) · by **Confounded Ponies** (?) » Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:45 pm

Alright, you crazy bastards have inspired me to try my hand at this stuff.

I was looking for the pattern this person used to make these:

But it seems like she's not sharing it, or at least as far as I could find. This is her tumblr and DA page, if anyone finds them, please post them here if possible.
http://nsomniacartist.deviantart.com/
http://midnightcosplay.tumblr.com/

Talking in IRC and seeking out patterns, I found this:

From this magnificent person. http://babylondonstar.deviantart.com/gallery/

There's even a tutorial! Fuck yes!

(?) · by **Lazy** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:48 am

Is it bad that I want that example plush more than anything else?
It's really really cute and that last picture makes it seem sad and lonely. :fluttersmith:

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:03 am

Confounded Ponies wrote:Alright, you crazy bastards have inspired me to try my hand at this stuff.
Talking in IRC and seeking out patterns, I found this:

From this magnificent person. http://babylondonstar.deviantart.com/gallery/

OH yeah! I saw this one too, but the creator requested that the pattern not be used for commercial works, and it looked a bit more complicated (read: required a sewing machine) than I was ready to try. (I also don't really like the final design. It's cute, but not really the style I'm going for.)

(?) · by **Confounded Ponies** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:45 am

It needs a sewing machine?

Well fuck.

Also I am making progress on mine. I'm a fuckin moron and I did this without an embroidery hoop, because I forgot to buy it on friday :bluh:

My hand hurts now.

How am I doing sewing goons? I have never sewn anything before, and the last time I did any kind of needlecraft was some cross stitching 16 years ago.

I fucked up the direction of the eyes, that's why the patterns are messed up. Shouldn't affect anything though.

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:57 am

I don't think you need a sewing machine for that pattern. I do 99% of my stuff hand sewn and I've been sewing for 14 years now. It's slower but I actually find hand sewing easier for little fiddly pieces.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:59 am

VoodooTiki wrote:I don't think you need a sewing machine for that pattern. I do 99% of my stuff hand sewn and I've been sewing for 14 years now. It's slower but I actually find hand sewing easier for little fiddly pieces.

I probably mis-read the directions then. :pinkieshrug:

Confounded Ponies wrote:It needs a sewing machine?

Well fuck.

Also I am making progress on mine. I'm a fuckin moron and I did this without an embroidery hoop, because I forgot to buy it on friday My hand hurts now.

How am I doing sewing goons? I have never sewn anything before, and the last time I did any kind of needlecraft was some cross stitching 16 years ago.

I fucked up the direction of the eyes, that's why the patterns are messed up. Shouldn't affect anything though.

Oh yeah, the hoop will make a ton of difference. It looks pretty good for doing without!
Though, what stitches are you using? Because you've got a lot of fabric showing through in places. For the eyes on Zecora I went with a modified cretan stitch. (By modified I mean that I have no idea if I'm doing it right, so I just went with what looked good.) For the outline stuff, try only doubling back half way and coming up midway through the previous stitch. (Split stitching.)

(?) · by **Brainbread** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:42 am

After seeing how much effort you put into your work, I am starting to feel bad about the pure laziness that motivates all of my sewing >.>

(?) · by **Confounded Ponies** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:54 am

Concerned Reader wrote:Oh yeah, the hoop will make a ton of difference. It looks pretty good for doing without!
Though, what stitches are you using? Because you've got a lot of fabric showing through in places. For the eyes on Zecora I went with a modified cretan stitch. (By modified I mean that I have no idea if I'm doing it right, so I just went with what looked good.) For the outline stuff, try only doubling back half way and coming up midway through the previous stitch. (Split stitching.)

Back stitch and satin stitch, because I am a complete hamfisted dork with no skill.

Also holy fuckin effort at that cretan stitch, god damn. :starity:

That's way beyond me right now.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try something a little better when I do the apples for her mark.

(?) · by **VoodooTiki** (?) » Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:40 pm

I'm with ya on the hamfisted dork, CR. I covet a sewing machine that can do embroidery! Mine is a 1978 singer that predates computers. Ah well.

(?) · by **Concerned Reader** (?) » Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:36 am

VoodooTiki wrote:I'm with ya on the hamfisted dork, CR. I covet a sewing machine that can do embroidery! Mine is a 1978 singer that predates computers. Ah well.

That would be CP. I'm CR. I don't really have skill either, but my hands are more like spindly little things.

But yeah, I don't have a sewing machine at alllll. I used to do tech support for a place that had a computer controlled embroidery machine though. It was really cool.

The Round Stable

So I Bought Some Fleece [Plush Attempts]

So I Bought Some Fleece [Plush Attempts]

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