Entry 3: Old new borrowed blue, learning to use a sewing machine and making a plush frog
After sewing Lizard Lounges one and only Wokkel completely by hand, I decided two things. One I want a sewing machine, and two I should learn how to make plushies properly.
I got a sewing machine for Christmas. It's a Singer Promise, It claims to be beginner friendly. So far I'm pretty happy with it, it's way faster and neater than I am by hand. I definitely need more practice with it but I'll get that as I make more plushies.
I have most difficulty with controlling the speed and by virtue making curves. Here you can see my first (quite bad) attempt at sewing a circle, and my better attempt at straight lines and corners.
After I spent some time practising on some scrap fabric I decided to move on to sewing the plushie I was making.
The aforementioned plushie is part of the second decision. In order to actually properly learn how to make plushies, as opposed to just winging it like I had previously, I searched for a proper tutorial. My preference went out to a written format with clear pictures instead of a video format as its easier to go at your own pace, skipping and rereading where necessary. I ended up finding This free PDF from Choly Knight. It has four different levels each one more difficult than the last and two plushies to choose from at each level. I've only done the first level so far but I think the guide gives quite clear explanations and shows you various options and their pros and cons.
For the first level I decided to make the frog instead of the Avocat because it would fit the colours of the fabrics I had left over from Wokkel better.
I cut out the fabric, and chose to go the easy route by using buttons for the eyes. Looking through a collection of misfit buttons whose origins have been long forgotten, I found these nice round white triangle buttons who, based on the HEMA logo on the packaging, are from between 1977 and 1991.
I also decided to use embroidery floss to sew the belly on, hiding the fraying edges of the canvas fabric and giving him some visual intrigue.
I finished the belly and, after drawing the lines with a water soluble fabric marker, used some white fabric paint for the mouth.
The next day, as previously mentioned, I practised with the sewing machine a bit and then bit the bullet and started sewing on the actual frog. I forgot to reinforce the beginning of my seam (and for consistency's sake did the same with the end) but I had more than enough thread left to tie a knot by hand. The only other real mistake was not being able to follow the curve on the right eye, I fixed it by resewing that part by hand.
After stuffing him and sewing his butt shut he was finished!
Meet Zup, the squarish limbless frog.
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