Comments on: How to design a stuffed animal?

Question: How to design a stuffed animal?

apfel — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:06:01 -0800

Sewingfilter: Please show me how to design a stuffed animal for my young niece. She wants a doggie doll, but I've never done anything with a snout before.

I've tried, unsuccessfully, to design a pattern on my own. I've botched several attempts and am running low on scraps. I have a specific idea in mind but I can't seem to transfer it to fabric.

Specifically, I want to design a dog shaped ragdoll. Dog head, human body. Something simple, classy, similar in shape to this but with a long, upturned snout. The 3D aspect is throwing me off. I can't seem to get the crest/top of the snout to match up with the sides of the face. Usually the head comes out too fat and the nose comes out too thin.

Can any crafty design veterans recommend how to approach this project? Or at least good resources online on making your own pattern? None of my searches have brought up much.

I appreciate any help you guys are willing to throw at me.

By: logic vs love

logic vs love — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:20:22 -0800

Browsing the softies group on flickr might be useful for seeing how other people do it. Here's a pattern for a, uh, teddy pig with a kinda similar snout.

By: fish tick

fish tick — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:21:43 -0800

Have you seen this site? Using felt first is a good way to get an idea of the finished product.

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:25:41 -0800

Craftster has a Toys, Dolls and Playthings forum with both in-progress project sections and completed project sections. Look for threads that include the words "free pattern!" which will be either be a self-written pattern or a link to someone else's pattern.

You can also search for "dog softie" or "dog plushie" for example.

God, I love Craftster. This must be like the 4,000 time I've linked to them on AskMe.

By: wsg

wsg — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:46:18 -0800

Use this pattern and elongate the snout a little.

By: web-goddess

web-goddess — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:16:37 -0800

Are you sure you want to sew it from scratch? I made a "sock doggie" based on the Martha Stewart instructions linked here. And this is what he ended up looking like...

By: apfel

apfel — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:47:57 -0800

Well, I've searched Craftster and Etsy long and hard to try to find something to go off of. In the end, I didn't find much that I consider a close enough approximation. I guess I'm very specific. Thanks for your posts so far though. Oddly enough, I never considered looking at a pig base for ideas. Seems pretty good actually.

I just wonder if anyone knows of any hard and fast rules to go by when aligning self designed pieces.

By: cooker girl

cooker girl — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:58:10 -0800

Hillary Lang makes the best softies. Here's a photo of a fox that might help a bit. You could also email her and ask her for advice about aligning pieces.

By: sculpin

sculpin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:49:28 -0800

For about five bucks right now you can get a remaindered copy of Soft Animals A to Z from hamiltonbook.com. It includes a pattern for a little dog; it's more realistic than ragdollish, but I think it would adapt well.

I've played around with paper and tape. Now I think patternmaking is something of a black art.