How to Make a Plush Dog
Plush animals are a perennial favorite gift, and the possibilities of plush toys are diverse. For the dog enthusiast, a plush pet reflects her love of animals and can be a great decorative touch for her living room or bedroom. Creating your own plush dog is simple and allows your creativity to shine.
Things You'll Need
- Paper
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Couple of yards of felt or fleece
- Sewing and embroidery needles
- Thread and embroidery floss
- Sewing machine
- Batting
- Batting needle
- Buttons or other eyes
Instructions
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Sewing Your Dog
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1
Design your dog. Generally, you will need two pieces of fabric for every body part: four legs, torso, head and ears. Others, such as snout, nose, spots and eyes might be single pieces of fabric attached to the body or head. Once you've decided on a dog to model, create a stencil on sturdy paper that you can pin to your fabric.
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2
Apply your design to your fabric, using a pencil or water-soluble pen to trace around your stencil. Remove and pins. Cut around the design carefully and group your pieces by body part.
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3
Hand or machine sew the pieces of fabric for the body. It will be possible to invert the stitching on larger pieces so you can stuff them later, but you can use a decorative stitch on smaller pieces that you can't flip inside out. In either case, leave an opening through which batting can be inserted. Also leave openings if you intend to sew certain elements into each other (such as legs into the torso or the torso into the end).
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4
Decorate your dog's face. Add a snout with a contrasting color of felt, and embroider in the shape of a mouth. Use contrasting felt pieces or buttons for a nose and eyes; these can also be created with larger embroidery knots. Once you have decorated one of the pieces of fabric with the dog's face, sew it to the back side of the head, leaving an opening so it can be stuffed and added to the torso.
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5
Stuff your dog using batting and a batting needle. Be gentle when pushing batting into the corners of your piece so you don't push the large needle through the fabric. Once the pieces are stuffed, sew holes and affix the pieces to each other.
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Tips & Warnings
Use other toys or your own dog as inspiration. You can use simple fabric to recreate any dog, so be creative. To create a floppy dog, use less batting; for a dog that stands rigid, stuff your pieces well. For a dog that sits up, create a heavy torso and rear limbs that are longer than the forelimbs.
Children should always be supervised while using craft supplies. If the dog is to be given to a small child, make sure to make the facial elements out of embroidery knots instead of small pieces that might detach and become a choking hazard.
