Creating Cadence - Part 1

Hello Dears!

I'm back from my trip to wine country -- Northern California -- and I feel amazing. I have a few news items to get out of the way before I move on to the purpose of the post. As some of you may have noticed, I spruced up the blog with some new graphics! I've also changed my commissions status and am working on providing some better pricing and portfolio examples of past commissions.  You'll also see the new "Buy Me's" section where my commissions and any for-sale items will be.

And now onto the real reason for the post! I decided to do a full progression for one of my plushies. Since Princess Cadence is my "me" pony I thought I'd pick her for my first ever "inside look" at the pony plushie production process (say THAT 3 times fast).  Since this is a rather lengthy process so I'll break the progression up into a series of blog posts.

 I'll be doing this by "session" or the 1 to 3 hours a night I set aside to doing plushies. I'll do 5 sessions per post with progress pictures! Lets get started shall we?

Session 1: Planning, draw and cut out the body bits

This part is pretty simple -- but I have to be careful not to make the body too skinny. I always make sure I cut around the line, leaving about a half-inch of fabric if I can.

Session 2: Sewed/embroidered the horn, ears, face, back, neck and front legs

I improved the pattern slightly by making the horn an inseam. The ears are always done first and then sewn in while I'm stitching the top of the head. Legs are always pretty easy and I could switch to using a sewing machine if I ever learn how to use one without sewing myself together...

 
Session 3: Dat tail...

This was a little tricky. I wasn't sure if I should make the ends of the tail curly embroider the curls later. My sanity thanks me for doing the latter. Its a tad short on the plushie but its perky and cute :) so I'm pleased with how it came out.

Session 4: Finished the legs base, started designing the wings, tail planning

At this point I usually sew on the legs and then the tail. But I opted to do the tops on the "slippers" first but I wanted to see how the plushie was coming together, and correct anything I needed to.

Session 5: Draw eyes on interfacing, sew slipper tops, sew in legs, sew wing, embroider nose and mouth

This took the better part of a Saturday. Slippers, for whatever reason, take me FOR-EVER The eyes were a little too Celestia-like but I was able to correct them and make them less narrow when it came time to embroider them on.

That's all for now dears. I'll see you in Creating Cadence Part 2!

- Ori