Charmander Plushies! <$5 gift!

Hi Everyone! 

Long time no see! Do not worry, I have another tutorial for you all :] 

Charmander Plushie!!

I recently got a suggestion to do a Charmander plushie. How could I say no? Charmander's are adorable! I love all starters though.

This is a really cheap craft that would make a great present for all Pokémon lovers alike! Assuming you already have paint, needles, and thread it'll run you about $2, if you're rounding up how much stuffing you will use!

Here's what you'll need!:

• One piece of orange felt, 33¢ at Michael's, 27¢ at Hobby Lobby
• One piece of yellow felt [a scrap would do fine] also 33¢/27¢
• Tiny amount of red felt, 33¢/27¢
• Embroidery floss or thread in any color [I used white]
• Sewing needle
• Stuffing [$5 for a HUGE bag]
• Paint for the face and details

From those supplies, the pieces you need to cut are:

1. Two body pieces of equal size, orange felt
2. One tummy piece, yellow felt
3. Two arm pieces of equal size, orange felt
4. Two feet pieces, orange felt
5. Two little circles for the "pads" of the feet, yellow
6. One tail piece, orange felt
7. One flame piece for the tail, red
8. One smaller flame piece for the tail, yellow

Make a stencil! You can feel free to follow my example or create your own! & cut them all out :]

 Once I had everything cut out I tried a couple things before I started sewing.

 Arms up.

 Arms down.

Having sewed the tummy piece on.

 Sewing the tail on.

 Tail, then red flame, then yellow flame.

 Sewing pads onto the feet.

 Sewed the arms and feet on.

 Blanket stitch the two pieces together.

 Leave enough unsewed to stuff the plush.

Stuff the plush! Make him as fat or as small as you'd like :]

Here's the back after stuffing!

 Then I started practicing the face. Some silly drawings here!

 Mixed an eye color using sea breeze, silver, and metallic ice blue.

All three from different brands.  I wanted them to shine!

 Started with an outline of black using a very small paint brush.

 A little more, pleased with the eye color!

Here's the face before adding the rest of the mouth.  Was tempted to leave him like this! What do you think?

He looks a bit evil! But maybe he's more mischievous.

 Here's Charmander trying to take over the world.

 Another back view.

 His left side.

And right side.

So this plushie actually took me longer than others I have done.  I kind of struggled conceptually. I really like the result though.  

He doesn't stand up on his own, but I didn't want him to.  If you make a Charmander and do want him to stand up, refer to how I made my hijabi dolls stand up here: http://milkpolka.blogspot.com/2013/07/hayah-hijabi-dolls.html

If you make this craft please send me a picture! I'd love to see your take on it. :]

If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, please email me at milkpolka@yahoo.com 

Hope you're having a great day!
♥ Riley  


P.S. Charmander is now available in my Etsy store! I'd love it if you took a look! 
https://www.etsy.com/listing/160573333/cute-hand-sewn-charmander-plush

P.P.S. Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my blog posts!

Rupert: Simple Needle Felted Hedgehog!

I recently went to Michael's and got a needle felting kit to make a cute little hedgehog.  It's originally $10 but I saved $4 with my 40% off coupon.

I've never needle felted before and did not quite know what to expect.  This is my first try and I am obviously no expert!

PLEASE be extremely careful while doing this kit or any other type of felting.  The felting needle is extremely sharp and you will bleed if you stab yourself.  Also, always felt on top of the provided felting mat! You could seriously damage your property or yourself without it.

This is how mine turned out.  I know it's quite different but I love it!

Back of the kit.

Included in the packet: Three colors of felting wool, two colors of embroidery floss, instructions, an embroidery needle, a felting mat, and a felting needle. It literally comes with everything you need to make it!

First thing I did was pull some wool aside for the legs, even though the first step is to make the body.

I ended up making the legs first, two long ones for the front and two shorter stumpier ones for the back.  

To make these legs, you roll the felt you want into a cylinder.  Then take the felting needle and stab where the two come together at the end.  This will keep it secure.  

Keep stabbing around the entire cylinder to make a nice strong leg.  I ended up making mine waaaay too big and had to pull them apart to make them an appropriate size again.  










    Legs, before I shortened them.

Be extremely careful while stabbing.  I stabbed myself twice more after this picture. 

Then felt the body.  My body shape ended up significantly more guinea pig shaped than the original but I like how chubby it makes him look.

Add some brown to the back and start needling it on, starting on the edges and working inward.  This way, you can better control the shape of it.  

The back.  He looks a bit like an eclair!

The ears and nose were a bit troubling for me, as they were so tiny.  For the nose, I rolled the tiniest amount of brown felt in between my fingers and stabbed it on.  The ears were similarly made, except I flattened the circles.  

I could not get the eyes to work like the instructions suggested so instead of tying knots with embroidery floss I rolled up the darker brown felt and stabbed them on.  I think they came out just as cute anyways!

Next, the quills.  The instructions suggested doing this with the provided embroidery floss.  I didn't quite understand what they were describing so I just kind of did my own thing and I think they turned out pretty good. I pulled the floss through the back, up and down the whole way.  Then I pulled it really tight so that extra hung from the entry points.  I cut those and then spread out the quills so you couldn't see the ends.   

A top view.

More of a side view.

Completed cutie!

UPDATE!: Dave has now named him Rupert!