I want to fall asleep on my own giant Totoro
November 18, 2011 8:41 PM   Subscribe

I would love to buy, or possibly make, a giant Totoro plush pillow, something I could actually sleep on. If it's not big enough for me, I'd like one that would be big enough for a child to sleep on, and that I could rest on. Searching the internet at large turns up nothing, so I turn to y'all. Thanks!
posted by filthy light thief to Shopping (8 answers total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
this sounds like a job for etsy.
posted by elizardbits at 9:23 PM on November 18, 2011


Best answer: Someone seems to have beat you to it. You could always ask her how she did it.

But if that doesn't work, and you go the make route anyway, I'de suggest buying a beanbag chair of the right color, and then add his tummy color, eyes, nose, ears and whiskers, to make him look like this.

But, then again, that's a beanbag and would probably not be comfortable to sleep on. You could try finding a large grey dog bed. They're practically giant pillows, and then add the eyes and ears, etc. This dog pillow already looks like him- grey with cream colored tummy area. You'd have to add a head, though, since the whole cover is cream, so the whole thing would be his tummy, whereas with the other one you'd just have to add cream fabric.

And if you're really, really, dedicated, this website sells giant, and i mean like almost 7ft giant pillows, but they're pricey.
I might be back with more ideas. It was way too much fun researching this.
posted by FirstMateKate at 9:27 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]


About a year ago I found this Totoro sofa chair - so kitsch! It had me at 'recline function.' I'm not totally with the 'squareness' though as I think Totoro should have a softer, rounder cuddliness.
posted by honey-barbara at 10:16 PM on November 18, 2011


Personally I am seconding elizardbits. You can contact an Etsy maker and they can sew this up for you. It makes MASSIVELY more sense for them to ship it to you unstuffed and for you to pour the contents of a beanbag into it once it lands in your home.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:47 AM on November 19, 2011


Best answer: I think FirstMateKate is on the right track. The comments on the post she linked to said the maker stuffed his Totoro with the guts of a bunch of IKEA pillows -- that would have a lot of snuggly give, but I would think it would get lumpy over the long run. It makes sense to me to base the belly around a more substantial (and self-contained) cushion. If a dog bed isn't big enough, what about using a papasan chair cushion as the base? You'd presumably want to make a cover, since they're generally quilted, but it'd give you the shape for the belly, and I've always found them very comfortable for sleeping.

I also think that, for cleaning purposes, it would be better to make Totoro as a cover for a pillow than a pillow himself. While spot-cleaning should work fine in general, for a large spill, it would be good to be able to (relatively easily) get the cover off and into a washing machine. So, I would go for sewing rather than gluing decorations on, since sewing is less likely to fall apart in the wash, and more forgiving if you decide that Totoro's nose would really look better half an inch to the left, or something.

If this is the kind of thing that you think will be a really fun novelty for a little while, but not likely to stick around for long, FirstMateKate's idea about working from a large gray dog bed seems pretty easy. Personally, I would want something more like the handmade pillow she linked. If I was going to do it, I'd make a cover that would go over several separate pillows - big round for the belly, home-made trapezoid and triangles for the head (cheap fabric + a few bags of fiberfill), and standard bed pillows might work for the arms. This will involve large zippers, or rows of buttons, or stretches of velcro to get the cover on and off, and would be a headache to get right. (It would also presumably require a heavy-duty sewing machine.) But it would be amazing.
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:20 AM on November 19, 2011


Kinokuniya's Studio Ghibli character shop has Totoro in XL sizes. It tempts me every time I visit the NYC store.
posted by autopilot at 10:27 AM on November 19, 2011


Best answer: sweet juniper has a nice photo set about the making of their large plush totoro
posted by BundleOfHers at 1:19 PM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]


Try the pillows listed on Amazon and sew on pieces of plush.
posted by KRS at 3:30 PM on November 19, 2011


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