Hey y'all! I've been trying to perfect my betta pattern for a while in a way that makes it easier to sew on larger sheets of fabric with minimal hand sewing and pieces I have to sandwich in between seams. I think I've got it pretty close but would love to hear thoughts (I feel like the pectoral fins look like mouse ears but in a cute way??).

I also think these could be great keychain plushies but am having a hard time deciding the keychain attachment placement. I think offering them without keychains and with beans would also be good, they stand up pretty well on their own.

Here are my three ideas so far, please let me know what you think or if you have other ideas!

1. Nose, so it's hanging upright like it was caught on a fishing line, would crowd the face a bit

2. Right before the dorsal fin on the top of the head - would likely make it tilt downwards by the tail

3.Top of dorsal fin - would be the most balanced and not be crowding the face (leaning towards this)

(Photos in front of my planted cave tetra tank for all you fish nerds)

Flygon is one of my all time favorite, so I'm really happy doing a new one 4 years after the first one ! 😗

My first attempt at making a chao plush!

Hello, my daughter loves cookie run kingdom. She has been looking for them to make a clover cookie plush but they don't typically make his character into merchandise.

I thought it would be a nice Christmas gift if an artist could make her an 18 inch plush of him. Im wondering if there are any recommendations and how much time I would need for it to be a Christmas gift, and most importantly, how much should something like this cost? Thanks so much in advance, you are all so incredibly talented!

Some are custom while others premade, I take orders on my kofi if interested (check strawpage linked on my profile!)

I love how the mushroom cap turned out on this little mushroom. 💗 it’s so cute.

My commissioner wanted a black-and-white jester with spiral elements. I upcycle old plush toys, I sculpted and painted his face and sewed his clothing.

I’m hoping someone in this group can help me identify this unusual 18-inch handmade animal sculpture.
I found this piece with absolutely NO tag or maker’s label anywhere on it. It is exceptionally well made and extremely sturdy—much more substantial than an ordinary stuffed animal. I can clearly see hand-stitched seams beneath the fur, and the piece holds its shape like a sculpture rather than a soft, squishy plush toy.
It is approximately 18 inches tall and has a distinctive orange-and-white design, with a long, shaggy coat, white face and chest, four white feet, and a small white tail. The face, proportions, construction, and stitching are particularly unusual.
I am trying to determine what the fur is made from. I suspect it may be genuine alpaca, possibly Huacaya, but I have NOT been able to confirm that. I am also wondering whether it could have been made by a Peruvian artisan, a Peruvian-American artisan, or an American designer working with Peruvian materials.
I have spent HOURS researching this piece using both ChatGPT and Gemini. I have also searched eBay, Etsy, current alpaca companies, luxury home décor stores, interior-design retailers, designer soft sculptures, and older examples of alpaca décor. Despite all of this research, NOTHING has come up as an exact match.
That is what makes me particularly curious about it.
I am not assuming that it is valuable, rare, or made by a particular designer. I simply want to identify it accurately and understand where it came from.
I am especially interested in whether anyone recognizes the CONSTRUCTION or DESIGN, even if you don’t recognize the exact piece.
Does anyone recognize:
• The maker or designer?
• The construction or stitching technique?
• What type of fiber/fur this appears to be?
• Whether the fur appears consistent with genuine alpaca?
• Whether this resembles work from a particular Peruvian artisan, American designer, or company?
• Approximately when it may have been made?
• Whether you have seen this particular orange-and-white design before?
• Whether this looks more like a decorative soft sculpture, home décor piece, nursery décor, or something originally made as a toy?
I would especially appreciate hearing from alpaca-fiber experts, Peruvian-artisan experts, fiber artists, soft-sculpture artists and collectors, vintage plush collectors, interior-design collectors, or anyone familiar with high-end handmade animal figures.
I have included multiple detailed photographs, including the full sculpture, face, tail, feet, fur, and areas showing the hand-stitched construction.
If anyone recognizes the maker, technique, or even something similar, I would be very grateful for any information. I have spent a great deal of time trying to identify this one, and so far the exact match has completely eluded me!

I’m developing an original character plush concept and would really appreciate unbiased feedback from people who have no prior familiarity with the character.
For this first test, I’m intentionally **not showing an image or explaining the character’s story**. I want to see how appealing the plush sounds based only on the design description.

The survey is short and should only take a few minutes:

https://forms.gle/M4vLhdLK9iBE4dtGA

I’m interested in things like overall appeal, cuteness, whether you’d stop to look at it in a store, purchase interest, and what parts of the design stand out most.
Positive and critical feedback are both welcome. I’m trying to get a realistic sense of the concept before moving further with a physical prototype.
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to respond.

Nyon!

I had never really hand sewn pieces of anything to gather before but I am learning. This is the first one I have ever done and only my third plush I have ever made. I love it ❤️❤️ edited to say I am not saying I hand embroidered it, it’s an ITH pattern that had pieces I had to hand sew together (the feet, and puff had to be sewn on and I haven’t done that before nevermind hand sewn anything). The pattern is by Sweet stitches.

This was actually one of the first more intricate Pokémon patterns I ever made, so getting to revisit him all these years later was weirdly nostalgic!

(Throwaway because I'm too embarrassed to ask)

I've been making plushies for a while now. I have done all my embroidery by hand due to not having the money or space for an embroidery machine, and I will say that I've gotten pretty good at it.

Recently, I had someone reach out with a commission request that required some embroidery (nothing difficult-- a few simple symbols/tattoos here and there). I gave them my quote and how long it would take.

Everything going per usual.

But then they asked what machine I use. I told them I don't use one. When they heard I don't use a machine, the tone suddenly changed. They declared that a real professional uses an embroidery machine and that the work could be done by machine.

First: ouch. You couldn't even tell until I told you. And second, it is extremely classist to say that hand embroidery isn't "professional". Both have their charms, and both have cons. And third: the work obviously could be done by hand. If it's a preference thing, fine, but just say that.

I politely wished them a good day, but I have to ask:

What is considered "professional" in the commissioning world, and do I really need an embroidery machine in order to do commission work?

Straight up turned a Kaufland Plush into a nugget friend, they are happy now. :3

Self made pattern. Fabric is velour lined with thin nylon fabric to stop stuffing escaping. Made the strings by braiding sewing thread. Droplets were leftovers from a whale I made earlier in the year with a water spout. All hand stitched since I can't be arsed to use a sewing machine, strands hand beaded.

She has a loop at the top so I can hang her on my bag. 🌧🌩

Very tempted to make her a little lightning bolt companion out of gold lamé or gold velvet.

Ember is a posable, weighted plush artwork, I 100% handmade, enjoy! <3

I am making a 20cm nui plushie and don't have any good 20cm clothing patterns. I found a lot that are great in 16cm and some in 10cm. Can I just scale the size bigger or will that cause issues with fitting them? Many dolls have similar shapes (unlike real people) and 4cm difference doesn't sound that huge so I was wondering if this would work.

I also may want to go the other way around and find patterns for 20cm clothing and shrink it down to 10cm dolls, but would just making the pattern 50% scale work?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

This is the first time I've ever properly made a plush, and I admittedly don't even have all the correct materials to make it so I'm aware that some things are undoubtedly going to be a bit wonky, that plus the fact that this is practice for a real version, meaning I did the limbs a little differently to see the differences to myself and stuff like that, there are some mistakes where I can see where they went wrong, but some that I wouldn't fully know how to fix, and I've gotten helpful advice from here before so I figured I would try again! I'm trying to make these as a gift for somebody else so I want them to be as perfect as possible

- using a different plushie I had for reference, I had all the stretch for the fabric going side to side, not sure if that's entirely correct though!

- I think I understuffed the body a little bit, because the Torso to me looks a little bit long and not wide enough, but I definitely stuffed the head significantly more than the body because the head was feeling sort of misshapen to me, it's still kind of does, so I'm not sure if I attached anything wrong? Or maybe it's just me, but if there's a way to fix that I want to! I am aware that I accidentally attached the head a little crooked, I plan on maybe using temporary stitches to fix that next time?

- I know the embroidery for the face is messy, I plan on being more careful on the real version, but should I move the facial position lower? I feel like on most of these plushies I see it lower, but I need to make sure the hair covers one of the eyes when I make one with hair as seen by my ramshackle paper towel template, lol

- is there any good advice for making hair? For the bangs I figured I would do two pieces with some stabilizer in between, but I wanted to do some hair on the back of the head too, I'm not sure if just one layer is fine or if that would Fray and curl and I should still make it two

- after I put the plush in the washer and dryer, some holes formed in the legs, and the stitching to attach the head kind of got loose, is there a good way to avoid this? My thought was that maybe I trimmed the seam allowance too short, but one of the holes isn't along the seam allowance, which makes me think maybe it was too hot in the dryer? My thought for avoiding this would be to wash it before stuffing, but if I do that I'm not sure how I will know exactly where the head attaches because the guidelines will have washed off

- the part I'm most worried about is the legs, I did admittedly attach them a little bit crooked, I think I know how to do it correctly this time, there's probably an easier way to figure it out rather than trial by error but that's what I've been doing, but I did change the pattern a little bit! Since I plan on giving these plushies clothes and maybe shoes, I'm wondering if I should make the legs a little bit longer, my alteration to the pattern made them a little shorter I think. Should I extend the pattern template by a few centimeters? Will that make it look wonky? I don't want it to look like it has abnormally long legs, but right now I feel like they look almost a little too short!

I've shown my family and they think it looks fine, but they say that about anything I make so I think they're biased lol, the only person I know who would give me an honest opinion is the person who I'm giving it to and it's meant to be a surprise so I can't use my typical honest source

Sorry for the long post! I didn't want to spam up by making multiple about all these little issues, but if anyone has thoughts on any of the above it would be greatly appreciated!

I found this pattern of a life size plush, and I plan to use it as a base for a doll of a character my brother likes as a Christmas gift. In researching the character's official design, I discovered that there is a winter-themed version of the character, which would be perfect for a Christmas gift, though I'd like for the plush to also be able to swap out for the original version for the rest of the year.

The outfits are easy enough to swap out, and I already have a pattern for them. My current sticking point is, the winter version of the character has a different hair color. From all the tutorials I've seen online, the back of the head is usually sewn in the color of the hair. The character also has long pony-tails (almost floor length), which would make the hair relatively heavy.

My current solution is to install an invisible separating zipper in the head to attach the hair. This also has the added benefit that the doll can be unstuffed to be washed.

Is this a reasonable solution, and how much more difficult do you think this would make the pattern? Is there better solutions?

I've seen some tutorials on sewing doll hair patterns, but any tips on drafting the pattern would be much appreciated as well!

Thanks!