May the 'fleece' be with you...

Hello Dears,

I'm zooming along on my Nightmare Moon commission and I'm hoping to get some progression images up tomorrow. I'm also waiting for the second half of 'The Red Thread Tapestry' Thread 8 to be edited by my saintly editor, Angelo the Dark.

In the meantime, plushie/stuffed animal makers: having a tough time deciding on what fabrics to use for your plush projects? I've been experimenting with a few different kinds of material and here are my findings:

Blizzard Fleece - This can be very thick and sturdy. It's great for making plushies that need to stand even with outlandish accents like giant hair, wings, or horns. The one big downside is that, if you do everything by hand like me, embroidering blizzard fleece is a NIGHTMARE. For the Fluttershy plushie I had to pull the 6-thread embroidery thread into sets of 3 in order to get it through the material without breaking my fingers.

Non-Pill Fleece - I really like this middle-of-the-road fabric. It has enough give for a ton of embroidery yet it's thick enough to warrant single stitches. It can get a little difficult, like the blizzard fleece, when you're sewing together multiple pieces on top of each other, but you're good sewing two pieces together.

Broad Cloth - This fabric is a bit of a conundrum. If you're using a machine this fabric is sturdy as all get out, but not so much when you're hand-stitching it. I found it had to go over a lot of stress areas twice or sometimes three times to get it to hold. It is a DREAM for embroidery but if you're not careful the fabric can pull a lot.

Fleece Blends - Be VERY careful when choosing to use a fleece blend. While it might be super soft and cuddly, if the weave is too loose and you're making a plush doll for a child, for example, it may rip or tear more easily than pure fleece. I used a cotton-fleece blend and had it fray and tear rather easily in comparison to the other materials I've worked with.

Felt - Oh, felt...the bane of my existence. While felt is fine and easy to work with, I see it from across the store, think its the exact color I need, and it tricks me into thinking it's fleece. Felt is a crafty fabric, and very tricks-y. It is not to be trusted I tells ya! Felt is great for building prototypes and is very easy to work with but it fuzzes rather quickly and I would not recommend using it on commissions or stuffed animals you hope to sell.

In the end, you need to pick the appropriate fabric for what you're making and how you're making it. Experiment a bit and see what works. I have not worked with 'minky' yet becuase every time I find it in the store in the colors I want, it's always dimpled or starred :(

That's all for now, have a wonderful weekend dears!

-Ori