Never did I dream that I would wind up crafting during my friend K's visit here! But we happened to go to an informal Plushie Workshop with a group of friends, where someone supplied patterns, a ton of felt and fabric, scissors, thread, needles, and pre-made heads featuring an array of different colored button eyes. I saw a Deadpool plushie, an Eleventh Doctor plushie, and many more recognizable characters being created. I've always wanted to make or at least have a plushie.
Unfortunately, the workshop was so popular that materials ran out quickly, so K and I wound up simply taking our heads of choice and an assortment of materials home in ziplock bags. Fortunately, I have a metric ton of felt, floss, needles, and polyfill. "I've got it covered," I assured K.
When we later broke out my materials, a plushie party materialized in front of us.
We were watching episodes of
Glee, so we decided to make our favorite characters, Sam and Kurt. If you've ever seen it, you might recognize them. Or not. But I've included visual aids!
K has never crafted before, and my ability to actually sew is almost nil, so we were extremely proud of ourselves for being able to figure out the patterns and wind up with successfully-fitting clothes -- and then we went bonkers over details. She made Sam (left) and I made Kurt (right). The sneakers K made for Sam have little laces!
Kurt has these adorable fashion fox tails that he clips onto his belt loops. He wears them quite a lot and I always like to spot them. Because they had this green plaid fabric at the workshop, I knew I was going to recreate the shirt, which is studded on the shoulders and cuffs. I used little silver beads and they worked out really well! I also made a little fox tail.
It was really fun to get detail-oriented. It took us a couple of days to get the hang of what we were doing and how the patterns worked, as neither of us are remotely knowledgable, but once we had Sam and Kurt finished we immediately started on two more: Rachel (made by K) and Quinn (made by me).
This time, we pretty much just designed our own little outfits for them based on their typical style, but I did ambitiously recreate actual
shoes and a
belt to the best of my ability (I also gave Quinn a bit of pink hair, as her character briefly had pink hair). I had the most fun with this belt, figuring out how to miniaturize it! By the time I was down to her boots I felt like I was a cobbler making little sturdy shoes for an elf, like the reverse of
The Elves and The Shoemaker. I felt like those babies could be worn by actual babies and hold up. I also made Quinn a pink cardigan, but it turned out big and thick enough to look like a winter coat. Trial and error, I guess!
Anyway, we crafted for quite a few days before K had to leave. I kept Sam and Quinn, the blondes, and she took Kurt and Rachel home with her. I'm glad she picked up some skills, because she's continuing to make plushies now that she's home again. I love seeing pictures of them! Her skills are improving with each doll! But I also am sad that I can't snuggle them in person.
I think the fact that they're a little wonky and crooked makes them have charm!
