Finding a perfect plush toy is quite difficult sometimes. The choice depends on many things, like whether the plush toy needs to match your or your kid’s style or character, design, and colour.
It happens many times that you think this plushy could be the perfect match, but when you see it closely, you find many errors and end up with nothing.
So what if you make your own plush toy? Amazing idea, right? Now you think it’s too difficult to make a plushy on your own. Before jumping to any conclusion, let me tell you, that it is very easy and simple to make a plushy.
Making your own plush toy is quite easy, and you can also customize the plushy as per your requirements. That makes it more special. Now if you are thinking of how to make it? Then here is the solution.
In the following article, you will get to know the process of making a plushy on your own. Making something does not need many things; it is just your dedication and hard work that make it beautiful and special for you.
Materials that you need to make a plush toy
Plush toys are special for any kids or adults who love them. It comes in various sizes, shapes, and colours. So if you are determined to create your own plush toy, then you should first gather all the necessary materials for the process.
Here is the list of materials that you require for the process of making your plush toy.
- Stuffing
- Fabric
- Pattern
- Scissors
- Thread
- Needles
- Beads or sequence
- Plastic eyes and nose
- Fabric marker pen
Step-by-step process of making your own plush toy
Find inspiration
Plush toys are very popular among children and adults. They are unique, soft, huggable, and not to mention an all-time companion for anyone. So making your own plush toy is not only a unique idea; it is also a great fun learning experience for anyone.
So before starting the process, the first thing you need to do here is find inspiration. It means, What kind of plush toys do you want for yourself? It can be any cartoon character, game character, or any other object like teddy bears and so on.
You need to choose your inspiration. From there, you get the idea of making it, and then you need to draw the design in a notebook.
You can also take ideas from other plush toys and figure out what you want to make. Now, after selecting a particular design, you need to analyze it closely and then draw all the details you want in your plushy.
If you are not OK with hand drawing, then you can use AI to do your work. Because a clear and precise drawing will make the process faster and smoother.
Choose the colour and fabric
The next thing after choosing what kind of plush toy you want to make is selecting the colour, pattern, and fabric for making the plushy.
There are various kinds of fabric found in the market. Here is the list of fabrics that you can choose from for your plush toy.
Cotton
One of the easiest-to-find fabric materials you can use is cotton. It is skin-friendly and good for kids also. There are lots of patterns, colors, and designs found in cotton. It is also affordable for anyone. Most of the animal plushy is made with cotton fabric.
Flannel
Flannel is also found in different colors and patterns and is an is an easily available fabric. This type of fabric is easy to sew and does not get frayed in edges, unlike other fabrics. But flannel is not that fluffy, so if you want a super fluffy plush toy, then go for the other options.
Felt
Felt is very similar to cotton and affordable. It is also easy to work with fabric material. But if you are using polyester filling, then it does not go well with that. And also remember that this material is not that soft.
Fleece
One of the fluffiest fabrics used for making most of the plush toy is fleece. It is a super soft and easy-to-sew material. It makes your plush toy cute, soft, and huggable. But if you want a furry and hairy buddy, then this material is not recommended.
Faux Fur
If you want a furry and soft plushy, then this faux fur material would be your best choice. This faux fur material gives a store-bought look to your plush toy. This material easily hides all your sewing imperfections gracefully.
But this material is a little hard to work with for beginners. And it is also a little more expensive than the other materials.
Reuse clothes or old shirts.
One of the easiest-to-use and most affordable materials to make a plush toy is to reuse your old clothes or shirts. You do not need to buy anything and easily work with it. You can use any of your old clothes of any design and make it look like a plush toy.
Stitch it
Following that, what you need to do is, according to your sketch, cut out the fabric using a pattern design. Then cut the patterns one by one on a flat surface or a table. Then place all the fabric cutouts as per the design.
Now stitch two pieces at a time and pin the fabric inside out using straight pins. For stitching, you can use an easy-running stitch, or if you want to make any design, then make embroidery or straight stitch. But remember to have some space open, as you need to fill the inside with stuffing.
Stuff the plushy
For stuffing your plush toy, there are various kinds of options available in the market. These are
Dry polyester packing fiber-fill
Cotton fillers
Poly-pellets or bean bag fillers
Polyester fiber-fill
You can use any of the above as fillers for your plush toy. Also, apart from all of this market stuffing, you can use your old clothes as stuffing material.
What you need to do is make small pieces of your old torn clothes and stuff them in your plush toy as a filler. It saved you money. This idea is not as good as market stuffing, but it definitely helps you out for making your own plush toy.
Seal it by sewing
After stuffing your plush toy, now you need to stitch every edge and hole of your plushy. So there is no open space left. Later, you can stitch the different parts, like the eye, nose, and clothing of your plushy.
For the other part, if you do not want to go for stitching, then use hot glue to stick all the small pieces to your plushy.
Doing something for the first time in life is always a memorable thing. I hope these steps are going to help you make your own plush toy on your first attempt.
This is a fun and entertaining way for you, with your kids, to enjoy the process and gift them their first handmade plush toy.
If it does not go well in the first attempt, do not give up; rather, try to do it again and again until it is as perfect as you want.