My Plush Making Hobby

My Early Times of Plush Making

In 2015, I did a hobby called plush making, in which I used plush fabric (a.k.a. minky fabric) to make plushies on a sewing machine. But it wasn't until July 2022, when I got a new embroidery machine, the Brother M280D. However, my experience with the machine was a rocky start, since the thread kept getting tangled up underneath, therefore ruining my embroidery. This unfortunately put me off plush making until the following spring. As I still find this process nerve-racking, I now know that the machine needs to be at a particular tension (e.g. 3-4), so that the thread wouldn't get threaded up, during every process.

A New Start

In March 2023, I installed a program called Inkscape/Inkstitch, which I find a very good program to use for making embroideries. I also decided to improve my plush making skills, by prototyping my plushies, as I admittedly didn't do this process in my early years. This is a big step for me, because it makes the final plushie look a lot tidier, and I wouldn't have to worry about the proportions looking off.

I also started off fresh, by making small plush projects, such as different coloured Kirbys. But now, I'm currently moving on to more complex projects, such as Animal Crossing characters.

The Pros + Cons About my Plush Making Hobby

Pros

There are a few pros with this project. First the minky fabric. It's very soft to use and is probably the best fabric to make plushies. The most common brand I could find is Shannon Fabrics, in which the sell many different colours.

Next, the embroidery. Despite being a stressful process, the results do come out well. As long as I'm creating designs on Inkscape and know where the shapes are going, I wouldn't have to worry about it coming out crooked.

I've never added scents to my amigurumi plushies (not that I ever thought about it), but I can do so to sewn ones. Buying sachet beads and fragrance oils online is very easy, and I can choose almost any scent I want for my plushies.

Cons

I hate to disappoint people, but I'm afraid I'm not accepting requests for making plushies with this project, for a few reasons. As satisfying as it is to use minky fabric, there are quite a lot of cons with plush making.

First of all, getting minky fabric is expensive, not to mention the other materials as well, such as stabilisers and thread.

Another con is that getting the fabric is actually difficult to get in my country the UK. The only way to buy minky fabric is from online stores. This can be frustrating sometimes, especially when I can't find the right coloured fabric I want.

Unlike crocheting plushies, I also need more time and space to sew the plushies and I'm not always able to access the sewing machine. This is why I thought I might start selling these type of plushies ready made in the future.

Making new plushies can take a while too, as prototyping them can take weeks, despite being a benefit in finalising the pattern. Actually, prototyping plushies can be quite difficult, as I need to look for minky fabric which I don't think I'll be using for future projects. If I use the final colours for the prototype, I wouldn't have enough to make the final outcome.

Embroidering on the other hand, is another level. Recently, I learned that my embroidery machine isn't capable of running a hoop that's bigger than a 4 X 4. This can be a problem when designing large embroideries. But just because it can't do so, doesn't mean my projects are in vain. I've also learned to split my design in two on Inkscape, therefore being able to embroider them separately. However, that would mean having to join up the two pieces again on the machine, which can be tricky to do.

When Will I Start Selling These Plushies?

I'm planning to sell them this summer, sometime around June or July. However, I'm only going to sell Kirbys ready made, unlike crocheted plushies that are made to order. Unfortunately, I realised that this project is much more limited than I thought, which is why I won't be selling sewn plushies more complex than my Kirbys. In fact, selling these particular products could even be a one-off. To be honest, I think plush making would be better off as a hobby, rather than a business.

But despite all the flaws, this is a huge step for me, as I don't tend to just sell amigurumi plushies. So please support me, by buying sewn plushies this summer!

Thank you for reading and understanding this blog.