oh god there's another one (plushie number 2)

posted on 10.07.25

yes, you read that right. i made another one of them.

after i published my last blogpost, i found myself wanting to improve on what i had made, a common refrain among fellow artists. there were a lot of things that i liked, but also a lot of things i wished were different.

i started by sketching out the body shapes i wanted to cut out, and started prototyping head shapes. i REALLY wish i'd spent more time on the prototypes than i did, even if i was getting impatient.

a brown plaid dogthing head with ears as part of the cut pieces rather than being sewn in afterward, posed next to the cutout i did for the top of its head

another photo of the same description, but it's of the side of the head and the cutout i did for it

one such experiment was this: what if i incorporated the ears into the rest of the head pieces, instead of attaching them separately? this was, unfortunately, a wash. the shape was too small and shallow and didn't have a distinct enough shape, at least not while i'm hand-sewing it.

i decided to put it off to the side while i did the parts i felt more confident in - the rest of the fucking ~~owl~~ dogthing.

a white tail pattern with a black tailtip, before being sewn and flipped inside-out. the black pattern is sewn on each side of the tail... which is to say, one on each of the two sides... sorry, that makes it more confusing. it's TWO PIECES!!!!

one of the tail halves flipped over to show the somewhat-roughly-cut edge between the white and black bits.

i was nervous about the shape of the tailtip; on dogthing version 1, the pointed ends were way too shallow, so the tail ended up just looking weirdly lumpy. thankfully, i seemed to do a good enough job on both the shape of the sketch and the short distance between stitches that it looks pretty close to what i was hoping for, so that's a win.

the tail, now sewn and flipped inside-out. there's some wear near the seams between the tailtip and the rest of the tail, but otherwise the form is nice.

next, i did four legs - each used two halves, totalling eight pieces altogether.

a single limb, sewn but not turned inside-out yet. it looks kind of like an elongated teardrop with a squared end at the top

the leg flipped inside out with a pair of scissors inside of it, implying that it was used to turn it out.

four flipped-out legs in a row, resembling tempura shrimp if it were fluffy and white.

finishing all four limbs wasn't actually that hard... however.... i had two problems....

problem number one: oh my god. i forgot to trim the seam allowance so it was easier to stuff.

problem number two: i was set on adding rice to the paws for squishability. i was using long-grain rice and, even with a funnel, the fact that i forgot number one here made it WAY MORE GRUELING. if i had just used shorter-grain rice and trimmed that allowance, it would still have been a bit difficult, but not nearly as much as it was. i used chopsticks to push the rice down in the end.

the four legs assembled on a white background weezer-style, with little toe lines added as well as stuffing filled in.

i added the toe lines by hiding the knot inside via a seam and then pulling it downwards from above and diagonally from inside. hard to describe, not too difficult to do. the rice added a nice firmness to the paws...

one leg folded inwards on one half of the body, with the other half flipped to show the seam lines

if there's one thing i wish i'd thought to do, it's checking whether i could fit all four stuffed legs into the body shape before cutting the body shape itself. it was quite the squeeze, and in the end, i sewed three of the four limbs - plus the tail - from the inside, and then attached the fourth with a ladder stitch.

i tried a little harder to make the legs symmetrical, but tbh, i could have done with more attention to that. i eyeballed the adjacency a little too much. at least it's passable from whatever given angles when finished.

the plush turned inside out, with all limbs and tail attached. it is headless.

the body ended up pretty alright. i decided to stuff it from the side, rather than the back or similar, but i think i could have just ladder-stitched the tail. it ended up being sewn kind of sideways, so the seam is on the sides rather than through the middle from above. i think i can improve on that.

my light-skinned hand holding the dogthing head like a skull in a shakespearian play

a somewhat out-of-focus photo of the first head attached to the body. the visible ear is folded in a weird way.

the first head i made was GOING to be final, but two things led me to tear it apart and try again:

the headshape was so close, but the bottom was too lumpy, and made it difficult to ladder-stitch to the body;
the ears were asymmetrical, both in placement and length (one longer than the other);

thus began my descent into madness. i was having the worst time drafting a new head shape. i wasted a decent amount of white fur in my attempt to remedy it.

the dogthing plushie being shaken violently

this damn thing. anyway. after some fumbling, and then some corrective stitching for what i mis-stitched, i ended with a final dogthing i was at least mostly pleased with.

the dogthing plushie, white-furred and sitting politely on a white towel along a windowsill.

the dogthing plushie again, but rotated to look outside, towards the left.

the dogthing a third time, but this time rotated away from the window

and here are some comparison shots between version 1 (dubbed "vermillion") and version 2 (dubbed "foxglove"):

the two plushies again in the same location, flopped upside down. the first one has pawpads sewn roughly on, while the other doesn't. the second one has better-defined legs and flops out in a silly way

the two plushies lying on the carpet one more time, but photographed from above. you can see the lumps in version one's tail a lot more.

honestly, i think aside from some modifications, the new one is a lot nicer. i really enjoy the sensory feeling of squishing its feets. it can even sit up properly and doesn't fall over because of the weighted paws!

as a retrospective, here are some things i'd probably change next time i try reusing this pattern:

test the head shape once more (i think i have a better idea on how i'd put the head together now)
use embroidery thread for the eyes instead of regular thread (or attempt to shave the fur slightly to make the eyes stand out better through the fluff)
more accurately and symmetrically measure where the legs attach to the body, and leave the stuffing-hole open in the back where the tail goes, instead of stuffing from the side
make the ears a bit shorter (theyre too long for the head here imo)
perhaps put something in the ears to make them stand a little easier? (maybe not)
add pawpads
add head/cheek tufts?
use pins more liberally
use a lighter pen when marking for cuts (so it doesn't seep through the fur, though it isn't too visible in photos)
cut the white bits of the tailtip more cleanly BEFORE sewing them together
USE SHORT-GRAIN RICE AND TRIM THE EXCESS SEAM ALLOWANCE BEFORE STUFFING

i'll probably upload the plushie pattern once i've REALLY got it down. next up (whenever i get more fur) is toby plush. until then - i hope you enjoyed this post!


	listening to: vylet pony - i've still got something to teach you
	playing: pokemon heartgold
	feeling: accomplished
	outside it is: sunny

tags... log dogthing

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