My spaceship is full of art

It's lovely, darling! (Fanart, Fanfics, Pony or not Pony. If you're creative, post here!)

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My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:18 am

Welcome back to my magical world of art and sewing. I've been drawing since I was at least 5 years old, which was also the only year that I ever took formal art lessons. It's not that I didn't enjoy art class; it was just too expensive for my family, & by the time it became a separate subject in grade school I decided to take more socially engaging classes like band (no regrets). So my informal art education is just years of doodling in notebooks, thinking up strange hybrid creatures, & drawing from photographs and real life. I started playing with watercolors almost 2 years ago as part of a reading-art challenge.

As far as the sewing goes, my mom (an avid quilter) taught me some of the basics back in high school and the rest has been gleaned from books, tutorials, and lots of practice. When I started watching MLP back in 2012 I decided to learn how to sew my own pony, using patterns from Voodoo Tikki. I made an Apple Bloom, Pinkie Pie, and a tiny AJ that I never really finished. When my daughter got interested in Pokemon over a year ago, I decided to try my hand at sewing some of those, too. I started off testing patterns that I'd found through browsing Pinterest, then I would tweak patterns that used some of the shapes that I figured a plush would need, and eventually I started devouring tutorials on how to design my own patterns. It's been a ton of work, but I love seeing my kids and their friends playing with what I make.

Since I don't want to clog up this post with a ton of images of past work, check out this gallery for some of my favorite works over the past few years.

Anyway, new forums, new thread, new projects!

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:36 am

My big project for this year (well, since June/July) has been to sew a Christmas plush for all of my nieces/nephews. There's a lot. Luckily, all the girls are fine with getting mermaids, so I designed my own mermaid, mer-man, and baby mermaid plushies this summer.
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The boys are a bit more varied in tastes, but that just means I get to try my hand at more things! The next few posts will show my process/progress on the elusive Umbreon.

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Gathering materials to make the pattern: Eevee pattern & plushies, official art, and my own sketch of Umbreon vs Eevee
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This helps me to figure out where to tweak/lengthen, as well as circle placement.
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Longer legs, with a hopefully wider stance.
Cut out all the pieces, and hope the pattern will work!

Next step: Cut & sew the fabric!

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:53 am

Umbreon project part 2:
I've got yellow minky and this black faux fur stuff. There was black fuzz everywhere. Everywhere. I'm using a different black fabric for the next attempt.
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Taking everything to my sewing room. It's important to have a separate area in my house for this because there are 2 small children that like to push buttons while I sew. This is not fun. The door now has a lock.
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Black furry fabric is annoying to sew. I have to pin every inch or it will slide away, even when it's a straight line.
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Keep sewing, picking out the bad lines (curse that fabric! :applejargh: ), and clipping corners/curves (the fuzz! :gonkity: ). Turn everything right side out. Then comes the long, patient game of stuffing everything. I like to do head separate from the body, so that the polyfill doesn't shift around/out of the head over time. I've got a store-made plush of an emperor penguin who has been snuggled/washed so much that its body is fluffy while its beak is just a hollow cone. Oh, also, I had to make the tail smaller than what I originally planned; I just took it in all around an cut off the excess.
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Next up: attach everything, make eyes, cut out pieces for another Umbreon (so I can keep one).

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Fri Nov 17, 2017 3:40 pm

Umbreon project part 3:
There are many ways to make eyes/mouths. Some people use pre-made safety eyes/noses that you somehow adhere to the head-- it looks like a special nut/bolt, but eye shaped. I don't know all the specifics since it doesn't appeal much to me. You could also use modeling clay to sculpt the extra features, but again- I'm not versed in that method either. Since I have little kids, I want to limit the amount of choking hazards & make things extra snuggly. Perhaps the nicest way would be to have embroidered add-ons, but I do not own an embroidery machine & don't want to spend the time doing hand embroidery of large areas. Instead, I use needle felting to make eyes/mouths. In this method, you cut out pieces of felt in the right sizes & colors, & then stab them together repeatedly with a special barbed needle. You need to make sure that the surface that you work on has some give to it, or else you'll break your needle on the first go. My friend that taught me this technique has a thick sponge that she uses, but she also says that a nice thick carpet works in a pinch.

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It took me a few months of crouching over the floor in my house, only felting in bits as my youngest napped, before I realized that we had some carpet samples in our laundry room from when we redid our downstairs carpet (a necessity due to the previous home-owners having several cats & me being allergic). It' been really convenient since then to pin my felting projects in place on the portable carpet, working on it whenever the time comes up. Plus, it makes me think of some strange bug collection, but for eyeballs.

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Finished eyes, & half-finished paws. On the left, you can see how embroidering toes on the paws kind of smoosh down each paw (compared to the 2 on the right).

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All put together. To attach the ears/head/tail, I used a ladder stitch, reinforcing at the ends at tying anchors at hidden parts on the body to help prevent the seams from busting with rough play. Of course, too rough play and there's nothing much you can do but sew it back together. I used a whip stitch to put on the eyes and forehead circle on. Not bad, but I'm going to alter both the tail and ear pattern pieces before I make the next one, & I should have used red instead of black thread to attach the eyes, come to think of it.. Oh, & use a different type of fabric for the black. Not only was it hard to sew with on my machine, but it was super difficult with the long pile of the fur to see where I was ladder & whip stitching. It feels amazingly snuggly, though.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by drunkill (?) » Fri Nov 17, 2017 11:33 pm

These are great, more pics please.
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by West Filly (?) » Sat Nov 18, 2017 4:55 pm

I know people who make fursuits and I gotta say I know exactly what you mean by fluff EVERYWHERE. Your pokemons look awesome though.
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Nov 20, 2017 2:07 pm

I'm still finding fluff on things that weren't even near the cutting/sewing. I can't fathom the mess that would come from a huge suit...

Here's a Poliwrath that I made for a craft exchange. I was originally going to have my SIL make a vinyl cut out for a more accurate swirl, but it got lost in the mail. So the night before I absolutely had to mail it the NY I went to the craft store & invested in some fabric paint. I couldn't get the right number of rotations, but it looks good, & hopefully won't risk peeling like vinyl sometimes does.
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Oh! That reminds me: Halloween costumes. My daughter likes watching Stampylonghead's Let's Play BOTW games, so she decided to dress as Stampy-Link, with an orange Hylian Hood. I had to mail a few things to my SIL in TX to get the vinyl on, but wish I had looked for someone closer to home. I had to make last-minute costumes for myself & daughter for a party the weekend before.

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Like, seriously last-minute. I was sewing on the ear/fin flap things onto my Zora hat while Durandal was driving us to the event. It's why I didn't realize that I put them on backwards until I took the thing off later that night. & why I don't have white/red face paint.

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Luckily, the real costumes came the morning of Halloween, But that left little time to find the right accessories...

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Durandal (?) » Mon Nov 20, 2017 4:41 pm

I love my tiny Link and big Zelda :allears:

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Tue Nov 21, 2017 6:18 pm

More plush thingies! :black101: Made some of these a while ago, but I haven't got around to photographing them until just now.
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Heart, 3 red blood cells, and the common cold.

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More Poliwraths. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get rid of the fleece draft version.

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Reversible octo-plushies. The shorter legged version turned out better, but it was still a pain to get all the corner connections sewn before I flipped it.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue Nov 21, 2017 6:48 pm

Some real nice plushies :allears:

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Durandal (?) » Tue Nov 21, 2017 8:20 pm

Okay somehow you managed to make that heart and blood cells without me realizing because I saw it and thought it was ToeJam for a second

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Sat Nov 25, 2017 5:26 pm

I made another Umbreon. So, I altered the ears/tail patterns, but that's the only pattern change between the two. You can really see the difference that the fabric types make in the whole shebang.
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New Umbreon uses ultra-cuddle instead of fake fur; I like to think of it as smooth-haired and long-haired versions of the same breed.

Also, my daughter wanted her Mermaid baby to have a brother, so I figured I'd let her choose the colors for everything & then time how long it takes me to make one of these simplified Mer-folk. Allowing for a break midway through the thing, it took me 2hr 45 min. Or, thereabouts.
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Left is Orange Peach, right is Trident.

Next projects include an orca whale with an open mouth full of teeth, as well as stuff for Secret Celestia. Funny, I didn't sign up this year because I thought I wouldn't have time to do anything, but I can't resist helping out Durandal with his santee(s). Maybe I should have jumped in anyway?

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Thu Nov 30, 2017 5:52 pm

Oooh, these are very cute :allears:

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Durandal (?) » Sat Dec 02, 2017 12:27 am

The sleek umbreon is seriously legit and I want to nuzzle it forever

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Dec 03, 2017 2:07 am

Are you planning to take plushie commissions, by any chance?

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Dec 04, 2017 3:52 pm

Ah man, commissions... The short answer is, maybe? But first I've got to finish all of the Christmas sewing projects already on my docket. Plus, I'm not sure what prices to charge for things-- I wrote a huge post on my (personal) FB page, which I may as well copy here. Hidden because it's long.
***TL,DR; I'm going to be giving away some handmade plushies in the coming weeks; watch my wall/art album., or let me know which plushies you'd most like to see. Also, figuring out a fair price for my work is hard and awkward.***

You may have seen me creating a plethora of plushies this past year. It started as a way to enhance playing with my daughter --she loves pretending to be a Pokemon trainer, & there's only so long I can pretend to be a Growlithe and crawl around on the floor... After a while it became fun to see what creature I could design next. Then I made it my goal to make things for birthdays (for my kids' friends) and Christmas (my nieces and nephews). While things often take longer to make than you'd think (cough, turning & stuffing, cough), I've truly loved making everything and seeing how much the kids love to see and play with them. Plus, it's a fun hobby & I love seeing our home fill up with things that I have made.

I've toyed with the idea of selling these things for a while now. I looked at what would need to be done for Etsy stuff, tried to develop my own patterns (especially for non-copyrighted characters/animals), and even started to time how long it takes to do things when I'm not being 'helped' by my kids. I even make at least 2 of any decent subject so that I can keep one for myself (this helps me to know how/where to attach things should I ever need to make another one). Through it all I've learned a few things, not least of which is why I got a degree in Economics, not Business/Finance. I freeze up whenever people ask me how much they cost because it's really hard to put a price on art. Well, it could be as simple as {Price = Fixed Cost (ie, fabric, fluff, thread, felt, etc) + k*(hours labor)}, where "k" is some pre-determined hourly wage rate. So, yeah, it's the k that throws me. Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25/hr, but I live in WA, where minimum wage is $11/hr. Going by those two numbers, the price for one of my adult mermaid plushies (using how long it took me to make the Moana mermaid) could range anywhere from ($47.13 ->$71.5) + cost of materials. When I donated a few Pokemon plushies to be used in an auction/fundraiser for a local Young Women's group, I remember putting down a "market retail" price for one of them as about $65, & a friend's tween said something to the effect of how I must be making bank on Etsy. No kid, that's just minimum wage for one creation. I should have listed the price as 8-10 hours of my life, over the course of a couple of days. I've also heard that another rule of thumb for pricing handmade items is to take the factory-made price and multiply it by 3-4. So, going back to the mermaid plushies, that would put an estimated price around $60-80. Then I look at a company that you can commision plushies from -Budsies: prices there range from $99 for a look-a-like person doll to $149 for a Specialty Commission of your OC.

But it feels strange to try to convey all of this to people whenever I get asked about selling my stuff. I mean, I would have baulked at the typical price of a decent, custom, handmade plush before I started trying to make this stuff on my own. That's why I usually respond with craft/goods exchange instead of an actual price when people ask me. "I'll trade you my handmade plushie for your lip gloss & color set" sounds better than "$60 for this Pikachu", for some reason. But that's enough about my thoughts on prices.

What I really wanted to say is that over the course of the year I've made a ton of plushies. I'm almost done with my Christmas Plush list (still need to design & then sew an orca w/open mouth full of teeth, but hopefully I can get that done by the end of this week)! Often, when I first make a new pattern, I'll do a practice run using normal fleece to see if it'll turn out well. After I determine it's good I'll make another for the intended recipient, or two more if I need to use nicer, more expensive, fabric (like Minky or ultra-cuddle fleece). That means I've got some extras lying around the house, & I thought that Christmas would be a great time to send those extras out to the world. Right now I've got a baby Mermaid (or Mer-prince) up for grabs. A brand new one, I should say, so you could pick your own colors/gender. As for other plushies I'm planning on giving away before Christmas: a fleece Poliwrath, boy & girl fleece Pikachus (I recently altered my pattern, so these are ones I made back in March), maybe an Eevee, possibly a happy/sad octopus, and (if I get around to it) some new bunnies/bears. New things will depend on how much time I have after I finish up the last of the Christmas sewing. Depending on reactions, I might do the giveaways here on my Facebook page, or I might put some in a Buy Nothing group, or (for newer ones only) donate some to Seattle Children's Hospital (since my MIL works there as a nurse).
A lot of that was aimed at an audience that I figure doesn't have much experience with the high prices usually associated with custom plush, which is probably not much of the case here. I've since given away both old Pikachus & a new baby mermaid.

Anyway, here's my orca plushies:
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The new skill here was creating a pocket-mouth. So far these have eaten hands, feet, blind bag ponies, and Cheerios.

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Here's my 'draft' guitar. There's only 4 strings (instead of 6) because this is child sized and it would have looked too crowded with more strings. These strings are made with white fabric paint, but the next one I make (a red guitar for my nephew) will use grey embroidery thread. The trick to making large, flat plushies is to sew quilt batting to both pieces, & have multiple turning/stuffing openings (just makes both easier, even though everything will go through the same hole in the end).

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:00 pm

Merry Plush-mas! These are all the plushies I designed and sewed for my nieces/nephews for Christmas this year. Not pictured are the things I sewed for this forum's Secret Santa thing.
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:57 pm

So much cuddly goodness! You do great with these :allears:
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:27 am

Those mermaids are great :allears:

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Dec 25, 2017 1:09 am

princess spaceship wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:00 pm
Not pictured are the things I sewed for this forum's Secret Santa thing.
Just want to say I LOVE IT :party:

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Max loves it, too.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Dec 25, 2017 10:43 pm

Mr. Big wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 25, 2017 1:09 am
Max loves it, too.
Yay! Kat is cat approved. :-P

So, I had been musing over making a Princess Kat plush as a Christmas present even before Durandal drew your name again for this year's exchange. I even saved a copy of your Princess Kat reference sheet from your old art thread (pre-forums crash) into my "plushie time" folder on my desktop. The face was probably the hardest part because she is never drawn/shown from the front, & it's hard to capture the together-cartoony-ness of big bulging eyes.
Another hard part about making P.K. was finding the right shade of dusty greyish lavender... I'm not great with colors. & I still think that the lavender that I used to make the practice plush is a better color for her than the deluxe fleece I used on the final draft (which is more of an Espeon color-- will make one of those soon!)... Alas, the JoAnn fabric store where I get my supplies doesn't have a huge selection of minky/ultra cuddle/ super soft fabrics. & I'm not sure what online sources would give me the most accurate color selections. There was a lavender minky that could have passed, but it was one of those weird textured things, & it's the fuzzy princess, not the bumpy princess.

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...I'm not sure what to do with my test plush, tbh. I usually make 3 of a thing (if one is meant as a gift), which means one test, one good one for the gift, and one good one for me to keep as a reference. For other patterns I've been doing random giveaways. So, Mr. Big, since this is your intellectual baby, what do you think I should do with the test plush?

Also, I made these Boos for Gloomy's present. It's a modified sphere, with a dart sewn at the tail juncture to help keep its shape. I've started doing this with noses, too (as well as Princess Kat's side hair floofs), & I like the effect it gives. I made the pattern for the bows, too, but Durandal ended up actually making it, as I was probably busy crafting Kat at the time. Hmmm, I think I was supposed to anchor the tip of the upward arm/wing for Lady Bow closer to its mouth, to make it look like she was laughing. Oops.
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Next project: Miraculous Ladybug plushies for my daughter's birthday this Friday. If I can get them all done in time it'll be 5 little plushies. Or maybe four, if I don't have time to piece together her Kwami OC.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Dec 25, 2017 10:53 pm

princess spaceship wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 25, 2017 10:43 pm
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...I'm not sure what to do with my test plush, tbh. I usually make 3 of a thing (if one is meant as a gift), which means one test, one good one for the gift, and one good one for me to keep as a reference. For other patterns I've been doing random giveaways. So, Mr. Big, since this is your intellectual baby, what do you think I should do with the test plush?
Heh, the test plush looks cool, too! As for what to do with it, maybe keep it or give to someone you know?

Funny you mentioned about how I never draw her face from the front. Whenever other artists do draw her, it's usually from the front, meaning that it IS possible. I just never attempted it myself :-I

I thought the eyes came out well, considering it's hard to capture the cartoony-large eyes in 3-D. I'm wondering how you put the black dot pupils on fabric?

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Durandal (?) » Mon Dec 25, 2017 11:26 pm

Mr. Big wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 25, 2017 10:53 pm
I thought the eyes came out well, considering it's hard to capture the cartoony-large eyes in 3-D. I'm wondering how you put the black dot pupils on fabric?
Fabric paint. Works quite well for complex designs

Click for Fullsize


We toyed around with the idea of having pins with large black pinheads as the pupils so you could "re-pose" them as needed, but all the ones we tried were way too tiny.

I also really wanted to sew neodymium magnets to make the tail removable but we didn't have time :ohrarity:

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Tue Dec 26, 2017 2:33 pm

Durandal wrote: ↑
Mon Dec 25, 2017 11:26 pm
I also really wanted to sew neodymium magnets to make the tail removable but we didn't have time :ohrarity:
Too much work-- Plus I'm not sure how secure it would be, seeing as how the tail part at least would have to be hand stitched. & the tail opening was small enough as it is.

How about a Forums giveaway for the test Kat? (I made another of the nice fabric ones to keep, which uses a larger snoot size, or I would just keep it) We could make it like the old gangtag contests, but held in PPPP. I'm not sure what to make people do, though, so I'll need to think on that...

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:40 pm

Daughter's birthday was yesterday, so I made her a bunch of plushies as her present.

We've been watching a bunch of Miraculous Ladybug together, & when I saw the "puppeteer" episode, I knew I was going to have to sew some dolls for my kids. When my daughter came up with her own OC- kwami and all- I knew I'd have to include Wing-Wing in the mix.

Click for Fullsize

Quickly colored in Photoshop from my ink illustration. I couldn't find the normal tool setup, or it would have looked nicer, I swear.

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all the Kwamis together. I stayed up super late Thursday so that Wing-Wing would be a total surprise to my daughter. & then my 20-month-old kept me up even later, which meant all of yesterday I was like AJ in Applebuck Season :bluh:

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Cat Noir & Plagg. Despite this being a birthday present to my daughter, my son has pretty much claimed "Cat O-R" as his own. It's cute.

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Tikki and Ladybug. It took me forever to get the spots on, since that part had to be done by hand. A neat sewing tip that I picked up for that step was to secure the spots in place using a simple glue stick, since that would have been a stab-y nightmare had I used pins.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:16 am

New plush thingies incoming!

Something I realized while sewing Princess Kat last month was that the fabric I used would be perfect for an Espeon.

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Then I figured I'd make a Sylveon (or two) because it is super cute.

Click for Fullsize


These are both just alterations to the Umbreon pattern I made back in November.

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SQUAD time!

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& now I pretty much feel obligated to continue on with the other 5 types.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by West Filly (?) » Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:20 am

That sylveon is amazing :3
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Tue Jan 23, 2018 11:44 pm

I've been meaning to revisit my Pikachu pattern for a while now- not because I'm unhappy with Pikachu 2.0, but because I wanted a smaller model that would be easier and quicker to make (& that I would feel comfortable selling for a more marketable price than my larger plushies). Also, a smaller size means it's easier to ship and carry around (for a kid). Therefore, I present Pika v3: a true pocket sized monster.

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The water bottle is to give you a sense of scale.

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Having one piece of fabric to make up the back of the body means I can machine stitch on the stripes before sewing now. Previously, I had to hand stitch the stripes on after sewing & stuffing, which took forever to do. Also, apparently they share secrets.

I've also been working on a chibi giraffe/alpaca/ pony pattern (change the neck lengths, basically). This guy is cute, but has trouble standing up on his own. Somehow I've got to figure out how to weight the back legs while still keeping it machine washable (so, not rice or beans).
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I think I'll make some fuzzy alpacas with this pattern next, to see if a shorter neck gives it more balance.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:39 pm

Okay, I studied that giraffe plush a little more and discovered that I had accidentally made the front legs too short. Serves me right for not pattern drafting with a ruler or grid of any sort... Basically, when you have a top heavy pattern you can make your front legs slightly longer than the back legs to shift the center of balance and help your plush to stand without heavy additions.


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See how the giraffe is able to stand up when it's standing on a tiny magazine/book? That's how i figured out how much length to add to the front legs. The alpaca and zebra WIP show off the different neck lengths. I got the fabric scraps for those last two from a woman in my neighborhood. For some reason, the long swirly fur fabric didn't feel as obnoxious to work with in pink as that long black umbreon fur was... I think it has something to do with my fear of spiders.

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One more of the adorable alpaca because it is just too fluffy!
I'm thinking of making more of these guys to sell before Easter, but it's hard to know what colors to make (I'd need to buy more fabric)/ who would be interested. I was thinking that somewhere around $30-40 would be enough to make it worthwhile to me (materials/time), but then I see giant Valentines' plush at the grocery store selling for the same amount. :deflated: Perhaps I should remember that handmade plush is to store bought plush as movie is to Broadway play.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Kronos (?) » Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:28 pm

princess spaceship wrote: ↑
Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:39 pm
Okay, I studied that giraffe plush a little more and discovered that I had accidentally made the front legs too short. Serves me right for not pattern drafting with a ruler or grid of any sort... Basically, when you have a top heavy pattern you can make your front legs slightly longer than the back legs to shift the center of balance and help your plush to stand without heavy additions.


Click for Fullsize
They look great! But what is the human-shaped plush in the back? It looks so realistic! :-P
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Sat Feb 03, 2018 6:04 pm

Kronos wrote: ↑
Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:28 pm
They look great! But what is the human-shaped plush in the back? It looks so realistic! :-P
Oh, I made that one back in 2013, but it's been constantly upgrading since then... :-P

Chibi Zebra is done! I love this guy's little smirk, but my daughter thinks he looks too mean. & this punk rocker needs a spiky collar, ideally, but all I had on hand was a miniature flower lei. Still works.
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Wed Feb 07, 2018 6:52 pm

I tried to make a chibi Big Mac, but he ended up a bit beefy...
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This is a more flattering angle, though, so you can't really tell. Eyes and cutie mark were needle felted before I stitched them on. Daughter tells me I need to make her a cute pink pony next.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Mad Surge (?) » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:26 pm

Honestly slightly longer legs would make that Big Mac perfect, he's so chunky and cute :3:
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:17 pm

made a fire dog
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Alas, the legs/body weren't stuffed as tightly as possible... so now flareon has noodly arms. It might also have something to do with the luxe fleece fabric that I used-- it's thicker, more durable stuff than normal fleece, so I couldn't judge the level of stuff as compared to minky and normal fleece...

I lengthened the front legs slightly (again) for the GAP pattern, and have started making more... well, giraffes to start with. Then I'll make some more alpacas (in lavender and blue), and then probably some more zebras. My plan is to build up a stock so that I can finally sell things on Etsy. I'm still trying to pin down my shop name, but there's a high likelihood that I'll just call it "Princess Spaceship", if not something like "Strombone Studios" or something else that somehow incorporates AStro in some way (to play off of my actual name). Good names are hard to come by, especially if you're trying to avoid any sort of copyright/trademark conflict (so, 'HufflePlush' is out).
It's strange not knowing if my stuff will even sell, if my price of like, $35 for one of these guys will be seen as too high; or if it'll be too low and I'll run out of everything on opening weekend. Well, I'll never know unless I do it.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2018 6:30 pm

My plans for opening the PrincessSpaceship Etsy shop have been put on hold for the time. I've been able to register as a Small Batch Manufacturer, so that at least is a good start. It means I'm exempt from certain 3rd party testing (which I'm guessing would be quite expensive), but I still need to make sure the stuff that I sew to sell all have labels w/certain info permanently affixed.
Next step: design and order labels. Which also means coming up with a cool shop logo. Since I've already sewn about 8 things for the shop, I'm just going to sew those 8 tags on after the fact & hope I don't get fined by some CPSC police. I mean, um, I'm totally going to gut those creations and include them in the ultra reinforced machine seams. :-I

I was really stressed out/ discouraged when I found out about the stuff (luckily the registry page was only down for the weekend, not FOREVER), but despite these barriers to entry I will still go forth. But in the meantime, I'm going to spend more time drawing and painting.

Here's some sketches I did the other day to get ready for a few projects I have lined up:
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:33 pm

I'm rooting for you a lot. :hug:

Your sketches are great, those cinnamon rolls make me really hungry.
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Sat Mar 17, 2018 8:29 pm

I'm still not satisfied with a proper logo to put on my tags, but it's not like I got a degree in marketing or graphic design or any of the like. Nope, economics and public policy for me.

Anyway, I did a thing for my kid that I think looks pretty cool. Colored pencil first, then larger in watercolor and pastel.

Click for Fullsize


Click for Fullsize

& yes, I did use my own plushies as the models for it. It almost makes me want to start a little comic starring some of my more recent plush creations having adventures in space... like a kind of MLP/star trek TNG crossover. That pink chibi alpaca would be the captain, of course.

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:06 pm

I finally ordered tags for my plushies! Well, I realized a few hours after placing the order that I forgot to put "Ages 3 and Up" on them, which... okay, it's probably not as big of a problem as I initially felt, so if the label-making business person won't use my altered design that I submitted shortly afterwards it won't actually be the end of the world. They're supposed to get to me around April 17th or so, which means I have until then to write an "About Me" for my shop, come up with good product descriptions, and perhaps prep some more plushies. I don't want to fully finish them, since they'll each need a tag in the butt, but I can cut out pieces, finish the heads (since I like to do them separately from bodies anyway), and do lots of other work.

I don't have to affix tags to plushies that are just meant for my kids, though, so I made these two Totoro-themed plushies for Easter.
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I love that little grinning face!

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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by Kronos (?) » Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:18 pm

Those look great!

As an aside, would it be possible for you to do something like No-Face from Spirited Away? His "default" form of course, not that massive multi-armed monstrosity he becomes after eating people.
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Re: My spaceship is full of art

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Fri Apr 06, 2018 2:11 pm

Kronos wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:18 pm
Those look great!

As an aside, would it be possible for you to do something like No-Face from Spirited Away? His "default" form of course, not that massive multi-armed monstrosity he becomes after eating people.
Oh yeah, No Face should be no problem-- he's essentially a black tube with an interesting face mask at one end. Looks like Think Geek already made one (but it's not in stock).

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Another (out of stock) source made a cuter version:
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If you're interested in a commission, send my a PM.

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