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Hi! I don't know if anyone else here makes plush toys, but I thought I'd post this here anyway for anyone who wants to learn or needs help. Some of these tips can probably be applied to other sewing projects as well.
Anyway, here are some tips I have on plush-making. All of these I've learned from my own experience, my own mistakes, research, and advice. I hope they help you!
Patterns
When making your own pattern, be sure to mark each piece clearly. Add lines where you should start and stop/attach parts when sewing. Add the name of each piece, how many you need to cut out, and (optional) what type and color of fabric you need for it. You might also want to label where certain parts attach with letters of the alphabet.
Whether you add seam allowance at this point or not is up to you. I find it easier to add seam allowance when tracing the pattern pieces onto the fabric.
Tracing/Cutting Pattern Pieces
With fabrics like felt and fleece, you can pin the pattern pieces to the fabric and cut around them; but if you want to be able to mark everything clearly, it may be better to trace them instead. To trace pattern pieces, use a tool (such as a disappearing ink fabric marker) that will show up when you cut and sew but will not show through in the finished product.
First, trace around the actual pattern piece and add the lines indicating where to start and stop/attach parts. Then, trace around the shape you just drew, but make it larger. This is your seam allowance.
Machine Sewing
If you use a sewing machine like me, you'll want to hold pieces in place while you're sewing them. You can use pins to do this, but that didn't work so well for me (though I do use pins for very large pieces of fabric and thin fabric). You can also use basting stitches, which are large stitches meant to hold pieces together while sewing them.
I hand-sew basting stitches all around the area I'm going to sew before sewing them by machine. Then, I sew along the seam line by machine. I find marking the seam line very helpful because when I tried sewing without it, I couldn't see where I should be sewing very well. Using a seam line really helped me make more accurate shapes in my sewing.
After sewing the entire seam, carefully remove the basting stitches using a seam ripper, and then trim the seam allowance.
Basting stitches are especially good for fur fabrics because they hold the pile out of the seams while machine-sewing. The type of thread you use for them doesn't matter much since they are temporary stitches. It's a good idea to use a color that contrasts the fabric and machine stitches, though, so you can see which ones to remove.
When you get to the body and legs, you may be tempted to try to sew each entire side of the body at once. Don't do this, because it not only makes it difficult to sew the legs on properly, it also usually results in holes around the legs.
It's better to sew the body/legs one piece at a time, as I've shown in the above sketch.
Markings/Details
You can sew details like eyes directly on top of the fabric if you like; but I prefer to leave a hole for these pieces and then sew them on at the edges, because it makes the stitching less visible. You can use this same technique for markings that are in the middle of a pattern piece.
I sew these parts, as well as odd-shaped markings like zigzag ones, by hand (I am not sure if you can sew them this way by machine properly).
For plastic eyes/noses, I either leave a very small space between the seams or cut a tiny hole to place them in, depending on whether they're on a seam line or not.
Attaching Parts
I have seen many tutorials where the head, body, and legs are sewn and stuffed separately and then attached by hand. Personally, I prefer to attach parts by machine as much as possible, inside-out, and then stuff the whole thing at once.
When sewing ears, have them right-side out and the head inside-out with holes left to insert them. and place them inside the head. Place them facing the same direction as the head, and leave the bottom edges sticking out on the outside.
Sew the tail on either in a similar way or inside-out, whichever is easier for you. For the head, it's usually easier to baste it to the body inside-out, then push it inside the body and machine-sew it that way.
Stuffing
I usually leave the hole for stuffing in the toy's back because it makes stuffing the legs easier for me.
Something I've learned about stuffing is that it can have an impact on the plush's pose. Most parts can be stuffed firmly with no trouble, but if lots of stuffing appears to cause a problem with yours, it may be better to put less stuffing in the areas affected.
Embroidery
Unless you have an embroidery machine (which I don't), you'll have to add any embroidered details by hand. This is something I'm not very good at, so I can't give very much advice on it.
I will say that it's possible to embroider either from the inside when your plush is in progress or from the outside after the plush is complete and stuffed. I'm not sure which is better myself; choose what works better for you.
If you choose to embroider from the outside, you can hide the beginning knot by placing it anywhere inside where you will be embroidering and then doing the embroidery over it. You can hide the end of the thread by pushing the needle through the toy's head and cutting as close to the fabric as you can. Also, I use three strands of embroidery thread for my embroidery.
Hand-Sewing
If you don't have a sewing machine, you can sew by hand. Even if you do sew by machine, there will still be times when you need to sew by hand.
I actually use blanket stitches for most of my hand-sewing. I like these stitches because they only have to go along the fabric once and don't require much seam allowance, if any. Because they are done on the edge of the fabric, they are great for basting stitches because they are easy to tell apart from the machine stitches. However, they can't be done on fabric that frays.
I only use ladder stitches when sewing up openings on the outside of the plush after it is stuffed.
Resources
Here are a few videos that I found helpful:
Blanket stitch tutorial (for plushes I'd recommend doing the stitches closer to the fabric edge than this shows, though)
Hand-embroidery tutorial (this is similar to how I did the embroidery on my last few projects)
Tutorial on thread-sculpting toes (this one is actually where I learned to thread-sculpt toes, though I do mine a little differently, after the entire toy is complete and stuffed)
That's all I have for now. If you have any questions or feedback on this guide, feel free to ask.
Thanks for looking, and happy sewing!
Anyway, here are some tips I have on plush-making. All of these I've learned from my own experience, my own mistakes, research, and advice. I hope they help you!
Patterns
When making your own pattern, be sure to mark each piece clearly. Add lines where you should start and stop/attach parts when sewing. Add the name of each piece, how many you need to cut out, and (optional) what type and color of fabric you need for it. You might also want to label where certain parts attach with letters of the alphabet.
Whether you add seam allowance at this point or not is up to you. I find it easier to add seam allowance when tracing the pattern pieces onto the fabric.
Tracing/Cutting Pattern Pieces
With fabrics like felt and fleece, you can pin the pattern pieces to the fabric and cut around them; but if you want to be able to mark everything clearly, it may be better to trace them instead. To trace pattern pieces, use a tool (such as a disappearing ink fabric marker) that will show up when you cut and sew but will not show through in the finished product.
First, trace around the actual pattern piece and add the lines indicating where to start and stop/attach parts. Then, trace around the shape you just drew, but make it larger. This is your seam allowance.
Machine Sewing
If you use a sewing machine like me, you'll want to hold pieces in place while you're sewing them. You can use pins to do this, but that didn't work so well for me (though I do use pins for very large pieces of fabric and thin fabric). You can also use basting stitches, which are large stitches meant to hold pieces together while sewing them.
I hand-sew basting stitches all around the area I'm going to sew before sewing them by machine. Then, I sew along the seam line by machine. I find marking the seam line very helpful because when I tried sewing without it, I couldn't see where I should be sewing very well. Using a seam line really helped me make more accurate shapes in my sewing.
After sewing the entire seam, carefully remove the basting stitches using a seam ripper, and then trim the seam allowance.
Basting stitches are especially good for fur fabrics because they hold the pile out of the seams while machine-sewing. The type of thread you use for them doesn't matter much since they are temporary stitches. It's a good idea to use a color that contrasts the fabric and machine stitches, though, so you can see which ones to remove.
When you get to the body and legs, you may be tempted to try to sew each entire side of the body at once. Don't do this, because it not only makes it difficult to sew the legs on properly, it also usually results in holes around the legs.
It's better to sew the body/legs one piece at a time, as I've shown in the above sketch.
Markings/Details
You can sew details like eyes directly on top of the fabric if you like; but I prefer to leave a hole for these pieces and then sew them on at the edges, because it makes the stitching less visible. You can use this same technique for markings that are in the middle of a pattern piece.
I sew these parts, as well as odd-shaped markings like zigzag ones, by hand (I am not sure if you can sew them this way by machine properly).
For plastic eyes/noses, I either leave a very small space between the seams or cut a tiny hole to place them in, depending on whether they're on a seam line or not.
Attaching Parts
I have seen many tutorials where the head, body, and legs are sewn and stuffed separately and then attached by hand. Personally, I prefer to attach parts by machine as much as possible, inside-out, and then stuff the whole thing at once.
When sewing ears, have them right-side out and the head inside-out with holes left to insert them. and place them inside the head. Place them facing the same direction as the head, and leave the bottom edges sticking out on the outside.
Sew the tail on either in a similar way or inside-out, whichever is easier for you. For the head, it's usually easier to baste it to the body inside-out, then push it inside the body and machine-sew it that way.
Stuffing
I usually leave the hole for stuffing in the toy's back because it makes stuffing the legs easier for me.
Something I've learned about stuffing is that it can have an impact on the plush's pose. Most parts can be stuffed firmly with no trouble, but if lots of stuffing appears to cause a problem with yours, it may be better to put less stuffing in the areas affected.
Embroidery
Unless you have an embroidery machine (which I don't), you'll have to add any embroidered details by hand. This is something I'm not very good at, so I can't give very much advice on it.
I will say that it's possible to embroider either from the inside when your plush is in progress or from the outside after the plush is complete and stuffed. I'm not sure which is better myself; choose what works better for you.
If you choose to embroider from the outside, you can hide the beginning knot by placing it anywhere inside where you will be embroidering and then doing the embroidery over it. You can hide the end of the thread by pushing the needle through the toy's head and cutting as close to the fabric as you can. Also, I use three strands of embroidery thread for my embroidery.
Hand-Sewing
If you don't have a sewing machine, you can sew by hand. Even if you do sew by machine, there will still be times when you need to sew by hand.
I actually use blanket stitches for most of my hand-sewing. I like these stitches because they only have to go along the fabric once and don't require much seam allowance, if any. Because they are done on the edge of the fabric, they are great for basting stitches because they are easy to tell apart from the machine stitches. However, they can't be done on fabric that frays.
I only use ladder stitches when sewing up openings on the outside of the plush after it is stuffed.
Resources
Here are a few videos that I found helpful:
Blanket stitch tutorial (for plushes I'd recommend doing the stitches closer to the fabric edge than this shows, though)
Hand-embroidery tutorial (this is similar to how I did the embroidery on my last few projects)
Tutorial on thread-sculpting toes (this one is actually where I learned to thread-sculpt toes, though I do mine a little differently, after the entire toy is complete and stuffed)
That's all I have for now. If you have any questions or feedback on this guide, feel free to ask.
Thanks for looking, and happy sewing!
