THANK YOU SO MUCH!! this is just the best tutorial i've EVER read! and i don't say that because i love your work or because this is something i've been wanting to try for years (i used to sew a lot with my grandmother as a kid, but i haven't seen her for more than 10 years) or anything, it's just the truth!

it's clear, a photo and the text written without the use of complicated words only english people understand, and it's incredibly detailed! you've got very precise close-ups, you talk about what COULD happen and how to resolve the problems, even i understood everything! i don't have any question to ask after reading it, i just want to jump on some scissors and create one as well

of course because of that the size of the file is pretty big, but if you don't use windows image viewer which is use terrible to look at huge files, it shouldn't be a problem at all!


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:: Vincent Batignole ♦ VINCENTBATIGNOLE.COM [link] ♦ TWITTER [link] ♦ FLICKR [link] ::

great! i'm glad you liked it

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pants are optional.

Hi =]. So I downloaded your tutorial to check out how you suggest attaching seperate pieces, as i've been struggling to get my arms/legs to not be floppy. I saw taht you suggested sewing further from the seem when attaching the head to the body, to get it to not be floppy, which i will try using on legs, but I wondered if you ahd any other tips or suggestions on how to improve the quality of my arms/legs on my plushies? I use a whipstitch like you did but it just looks really bad. Part of that I now realize is because i didn't sew up the arms/legs, i just left them open.

But yeah, I was just wondering if you would be willing to look at my stuff and offer suggestions or tips. I appreciate it! =]

Hello! I took a look at your dolls, and you want arms that stick straight out yes?
If you want to make the arms not floppy, but separate from the body, I would first suggest tighter stuffing, and using a hidden stitch rather than a whip stitch. Using a thread color that is similar to the limbs and turning under raw edges also helps improve the visual quality of a plushie.
Another way is too sew the separate limbs inside the body. There is a tutorial/walkthrough/pattern in a downloadable pdf here---> [link] that shows how to do that. I us the aforementioned method usually for legs only, as long limbs and a short body don't usually sew up too easily. >>

I hope that helps!

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pants are optional.

Thanks for your response. I didn't mean necessarily that I want my arms to be stuck straight out, I would like them to be somewhat movable, but just not floppy/weak at the joints. Later today I'm going to try making a new plushie and will sew up the ends of the arms and legs before i attach them to the body, as well as try your idea about sewing farther away from the bodys seems, and see how much that improves the joints. maybe that'll be enough to make them strong enough to satisfy me.

Thanks for the link though - I started following that blog as well as some of the blogs that she had links to on her site that are stuffed animal makers or other crafty people. =]

You're welcome!

If you want really really solid moveable joints, I would suggest trying button joints if you are making dolls that you don't intend to give to young children. Here's a few links:
[link]
[link]
[link] <---lots of different joint types included.

Cheers!

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pants are optional.

thanks so much! the links are very helpful! =]

I wanna try this myself but could you give me the sheet with the separate body parts to print out? it would help me alot thanks ^^

they're here: [link]

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pants are optional.