Owl's Tea Party

Blog

Happy 2021

October 18, 2021

Lesley | October 18, 2021

Oh it’s already October. Oh dear. I’ve been suffering a bit of burn out due to a several month long project that wasn’t hugely successful and a lack of inspiration as to what to make once I had my time back. Combine that with the general fatigue of the pandemic and exhaustion from working full time, I’ve really struggled to continue with crafting and maintaining the website. However I’ve been able to change my hours to work a little less and have found some inspiration in a new resin printing hobby. I’ll definitely go back to my plushies – there’s a few unfinished and a small list of items I still want to make. I’ve invested so much money into […]

Vanguard plush from Demon’s Souls

November 29, 2020

Lesley | November 29, 2020

I’ll admit, my only experience with the Souls games is Bloodborne. I had no idea what I was getting into when I bought it – I’d just heard around the office that it was a really cool game so bought it at launch assuming it would be happy romp through a demon infested city a little like Devil May Cry. At first my partner and I were like … what are we doing wrong? Are we going the wrong way or not using an important feature? Why are we dying all the time? Then we learned. Yes: dying all the time. That is the game. Enjoy. So while I’m intrigued by Demon’s Souls – I really wont be playing it. […]

Rot plush from Kena: Bridge of Spirits

September 25, 2020

Lesley | September 25, 2020

I’ve got my PS5 pre-ordered so I’m allowed to start getting excited about next gen games! One of the games I’m most anticipating is Kena: Bridge of Spirits – the graphics and atmosphere look cute and Ghibli-esque. I was worried initially seeing the first trailer that it was going to be a little like Pikmin due to the rot, but it looks like that isn’t the case (and my only reason for worry is that I’m utterly rubbish at Pikmin). I think Kena: Bridge of Spirits was going to be a launch title, or close enough to count, but has unfortunately been delayed until Q1 2021. To tide me over I’ve made two of the rot. The first is a […]

Demon Lord Ninetails plush (Okami)

September 2, 2020

Lesley | September 2, 2020

Okami is one of my favourite games and I’ve been meaning to make this plush for a long time. Now I have the embroidery machine I could actually make it a reality! However I didn’t expect it to take me over 6 months to complete. Even when making significant progress on something like the tails, the shear amount of work still involved was daunting and stopped me continuing at a couple of points. Underneath all the detail is a very simple sitting fox template. The mask took an hour on its own to embroider and the first attempt I made at it when all skewed at the end where something went wrong with the machine – the gears got jammed […]

Mixed media Spriggan plush – Final Fantasy XIV

May 10, 2020

Lesley | May 10, 2020

If you’re not familiar with this particular type of spriggan, they appear in Final Fantasy XIV and particularly like rocks and other shiny items. A made this pair just before Easter since they always feature in the Easter events. These are made from extremely soft faux fur (it looks like faux rabbit fur – I got it from a remnant bundle from a fashion website) as well as a little minky and whatever ribbon I could find around the house. The mouths are made from air dry clay, acrylic paints and coated in polyurethane gloss varnish so make them super resistant to damage. I’ll be selling one of these (with a piece of rose quartz to keep) when my web […]

Dress-up Amaurotine moogle

April 5, 2020

Lesley | April 5, 2020

This little one is based on the generic moogle template I’ve used before for Mog of War and Kupirate, which was originally based on the moogles from World of Final Fantasy. The moogle is grey and comes with a removable cloak and two different masks so they can dress up as either a regular resident of Amaurot (or Hythlodaeus) or as Hades/Emet-Selch with the additional Ascian mask. Originally the cloak wasn’t going to be removable but he’s so damn adorable without it on I’ve made it so that it can be taken off. It was also potentially going to be two different plush moogles but the cloak was such a faff to make I really didn’t want to make another […]

Cactuar coat hook

January 15, 2020

Lesley | January 15, 2020

This little plushie cactuar has a heavy duty cook running through his body, so it can be screwed to the wall and take a fair weight. I imagined it for coats in the hallway but at the same time I wouldn’t want him getting too worn and dirty from constant use, so might put it up in the bedroom for nice safe dressing gowns. This is actually something I tried to make several years before I first tried out making plush toys. The image below shows my first attempt (2014) compared to now (2020). I was very pleased at the time with my original attempt but it really did lack any detail. I’d love to put all the improvement down […]

Amaro plush – Final Fantasy XIV

November 11, 2019

Lesley | November 11, 2019

This Amaro sat unfinished for a while but I’m very glad to have finally got it complete. The original idea was for a mink plush – maybe proportionally something like the official Monster Hunter Rathalos plush – but once I started out everything took a completely different turn and I’ve ended up with this fluffy little guy. This plush uses up the last of my grey faux fur that made up Trico’s body from a good while back. I’ve got a very big wooden chest far too full of fur and fabric so actually finishing off a piece is a big achievement. There’s also some trims in longer white tipped grey fur and then minky for the horns and feet […]

A small herd of Concrete Genie plushies!

October 20, 2019

Lesley | October 20, 2019

If you own a PS4 and haven’t taken a look at the award-winning Concrete Genie, I strongly recommend you do. The game is a joy to play and the art style is beautiful. I was asked to make plushies based closely on designs provided by the game art team for either a small production run or just to have around the office. There were a lot of first for me here. I got a sewing machine just for this project and will never look back – everything before now was done completely by hand and took forever. I made my first human plush when doing Ash and now I feel more confident in trying a human creation of my own. […]

The Great Serpent of Ronka plush template

August 4, 2019

Lesley | August 4, 2019

Want to make your own version of The Great Serpent of Ronka!? Download + print the template files and follow the instructions below. It’s a very simple plush to make but please comment if something in unclear and I’ll do my best to improve the instructions. I’ve aimed it towards super beginners so if you’ve made a soft toy before you can probably disregard most of it! Template Page 1 – Side Template Page 2 – Front + tail Materials Minky or fleece: Orange (I used Shannon Plush – Mango) Brown/Tan (I used Shannon Plush – Taupe. Cappuccino is very similar) A small amount of pink (I used Shannon Plush – Coral) Self adhesive white felt for teeth (or normal […]