3 drink cozies now available in my shop! Featuring Catwoman, a cyclops, and a lip-smacking monster maw. Made of fleece for insulation. These are mad fun, so expect more designs in weeks to come.

Drink up, y’all!

Guess: Whose head am I wearing right now?

Now that I know Sherlock has reached the Big Apple, I can show him off to the rest of y’all!

Standing at about 13” tall, he is button-jointed for posing.  Sherlock can only stand with the support of a friend, but insisted that he had none - I assured him, he’d be shipped to a good one!  For the purposes of our photoshoot, my skull bank sufficed.

This was also my first time gluing individual ‘hairs’ to a doll’s head.  Admittedly, I used to frown upon glue use in plush-making: ever the skeptic, I assumed it wouldn’t hold and thought it looked messy.  I recognized my thread-purism as pure stubbornness, however, when I finally tried this method: it feels more sculptural, and you can cut out curls to fit the head as you go along.  I researched felt glues online before purchasing Fabri-Tac, but don’t think it’s the best out there: it doesn’t dry transparent, and has the viscosity of cheese on a slice o’ hot pizza as you try to pull the nozzle away from what you just applied.  This made finishing details a little messy, so, I’m back on the hunt for a better glue.  Any suggestions?

Materials used: Hair = wool/rayon felt, head = microsuede, coat = polyester felt, body = blizzard fleece, scarf = anti-pill fleece, stuffing = polyester fiberfill.  Face painted with acrylic.

Here is a tiny plush Lumpy Space Princess in her Christmas sweater, ready to hang from a Yuletide tree!

This design is modeled after LSP’s outfit from the “Holly Jolly Secrets Pt. 2” episode of Adventure Time.

LSP is made of acrylic & recycled plastic felt, and is stuffed with polyfil. She measures 4.5” tall, roughly 2” wide, and has a 2.5” loop of ribbon on top, to accommodate even your biggest branches. 100% hand-sewn with love!

Sold!

IT’S PROTOTYPE SUNDAY!

Character cozies will go up in my shop this week! I’ve been working on drafts for a while, but due to my “figure it out as you go” sewing ethos, I tend to make them too narrow or too wide for your average beer bottle/can…like this one. Catwoman will fit a pint snugly, but might leave your fingers sweaty with condensation (not tall enough). So this kitty will stay in my kitchen.

Stay tuned!

Willow is my favorite playable character in Don’t Starve, a new indie survival game by Klei Entertainment (available in beta on Chrome & Steam). I’ve already maxed out on XP and have unlocked all the other players, but I still think Willow is your best shot at making it through the night. She lights spontaneous fires in the dark! She’ll torch an entire forest and toot “YES! BURN!” while watching it go down (for those who don’t know: DS substitutes wind instruments & subtitles for voice acting—the effect is HIGHLY ADORABLE)! Every other character is susceptible to ambush when left in the dark. This is no good when your HP is dangerously low after a spider battle and you’ve lost your protective Logsuit. Not to mention the precious resources you use up on the other players, who constantly need fresh Torches made. AND she’s got the best hair (Wilson comes in close second). I do love the Librarian for her brain (she enters the world with more knowledge of how to make gadgets), but when it comes to stayin’ alive, I say Willow’s the way to go!

Initially I made her head in 3D, but mucked it up when I tried using this remnant-bin fake fur for her hair, which shed like crazy and was rather inflexible. I also wasn’t 100% pleased with the head pattern itself: Don’t Starve is hand-drawn and mostly 2D, but everything has three views—front, back & side—so I was trying to be faithful to those dimensions. I didn’t feel it looked successful, so in the interests of gettin’ her done, I started over with a two-piece head. I also made her arms too thick, so I intend to revisit my 3D pattern-making skills and make a bigger, better Willow someday soon: I want to give her articulated, wired fingers so she can hold props (axes, matches, ice picks) just like in the game!

Really, I’d love a shelf full of these vacant-eyed puppies. Wendy (the Bereaved) shares Willow’s hollow peepers and has hilarious one-liners like “All things must die” (in response to chopped trees) and “I will take you to the other side!” (her battle cry), so I just might make her next. Wes the Mime is also cute, but woefully inept as a player (he dishes less damage and takes even more). Yet my favorite character design of all belongs to the mysterious Maxwell (the elusive narrator/overseer/we’re not really sure yet, like I said—game’s in beta), so he’s on my Must-Sew List.

Willow’s body, head & boots are made of anti-pill fleece; her hair of something like velour; her skirt from a ripped pair of leggings. Face painted with Tulip fabric paint. Pigtails wired with pipe cleaners for support. Machine & hand sewn with the help of Fabri-Tac glue.

& if you haven’t played Don’t Starve yet…get the demo now, yo!

The usual carnage - featuring Willow, who I haven’t yet properly photographed. (Feel like she needs s’more lines under her eyes first.)

Willow the Firestarter is a playable character from the game Don’t Starve (available in beta on Chrome & Steam), to which I am currently utterly addicted. It’s hand-drawn, adorable, & full of mysteries. Your basic objective is to survive in this wilderness full of bonkers creatures. An Insanity gauge feature was just introduced. It’s all a bit hard to explain in brief…so you should just play it!

SHERLOCK!  Get back in your 221Box!!  You’re going to New York today!  I want no in-flight mischief from you.

Here’s a commission that I turned out wayyy late…Plushaboom fell a little behind in November, what with my trip to North Carolina and brief illness!  I also learned the value of a hard thimble while hand-embroidering Gir’s details; I’ve been bandaging up my fingers like Michael Jackson since!

Gir’s body & limbs are made of anti-pill fleece, while his details are felt & hand-embroidered. His ears are sewn over pipe cleaners for a bit of poseability! He is 10.5” long, and roughly 5” wide.