How to Sew a Plush "Totoro"

Use thread colors that match the felt used to make your own totoro.

A totoro is a benevolent forest spirit found in Japanese folklore. The Japanese animator and director Hayao Miyazaki helped bring this friendly creature to Western audiences with his film "My Neighbor Totoro". You can make your own plush totoro with different colors of felt and embroidery thread. The sturdy edges of cut felt lets you minimize the sewing needed for this project. You can simply sew elements on top of the totoro's main body without having to worry about more complicated sewing techniques.

Things You'll Need

• Gray felt
• White felt
• Black felt
• Gray embroidery thread
• Black embroidery thread
• Gray sewing thread
• Black sewing thread
• White sewing thread
• Sewing needle
• Scissors
• Polyester stuffing material

Instructions

1. Use your scissors to cut out two matching body shapes from the gray felt. The main body is a round egg shape with two pointed ears at the top.

2. Hold the main body shapes together so that they match up evenly. Sew the shapes together with the needle and gray sewing thread, leaving an opening at the bottom. Turn the sewn body inside out and fill it with the polyester stuffing material. Sew the opening closed.

3. Cut a large circle from the white felt to make your totoro's stomach. Use the gray embroidery thread to sew three upside-down "V" shapes in a row along the top of the stomach. Embroider a row of four "V" shapes directly underneath the first row. Then sew the stomach onto the bottom-middle of the front of the body using the white sewing thread.

4. Cut two small circles from the white felt for the eyes. Then cut two smaller circles from the black felt for the pupils. Sew one black circle onto each white circle with the black sewing thread. Then sew the eyes onto the head portion of the body with the white sewing thread.

5. Embroider a nose in between and slightly beneath the totoro's eyes. The nose should look like a triangle with the top point facing downward.

References

• IMDb: My Neighbor Totoro