Plushies and crafts

Vanguard plush from Demon’s Souls

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Demon's Souls Vanguard plush

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. I want to go back and replay Bloodborne (I did finish it in the end) but remember the struggle and that’s just not my kind of thing. I need to relax with gaming. That’s why I gave up raiding in Final Fantasy XIV. I don’t have the time any more to be that frustrated. To celebrate the PS5 Demon’s Souls remake I was commissioned to produce a plush toy of Vanguard. At the time there was barely any resource on … Vanguard plush from Demon’s Souls

Rot plush from Kena: Bridge of Spirits

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Kena plush

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 standard rot with a few little mushroom spores and leaves. Apparently you can customise your rot with hats, etc in game. Mine is eu natural. The black embroidery on black fabric didn’t really work on this one an he’s a little … plain I guess? So I decided to make Hero Rot, who sits on Kena’s shoulder With faux fur, little antlers and many more leaves and flowers, this one turned out so much cooler!

Demon Lord Ninetails plush (Okami)

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okami ninetails plush

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 or something – and I had to start again as all the outlines ended up wrong. Each tail was almost a plush on its own with an individually embroidered mask recreated from some blurry screenshots from the game, detail in cotton and various faux furs and painted and varnished prayer beads. The tails are all wired so they can stand up (they can be a little unruly though). Of course the demon fox has little beanies too. I was so … Demon Lord Ninetails plush (Okami)

Mixed media Spriggan plush – Final Fantasy XIV

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Spriggan plush

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 shop reopens after lockdown.

Dress-up Amaurotine moogle

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Emet moogle plush

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

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cactuar coat hook

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 to a few years of practise, but the new embroidery machine really did help a lot with the finish too. If you’d like to know the template I can post it up, but it really does depend on the hooks you can get your hands on. It’s been so long since I bought these I can’t find the product page for them any more!

Amaro plush – Final Fantasy XIV

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Amaro plush FFXIV

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 so you can see the detail. Wire runs through the legs so it can stand up on such tiny feet. There’s wire in the wings too so they can be lifted up. Amaro is up for sale at https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/752238831/amaro-plush-final-fantasy-xiv-ooak-faux. It’s OOAK, I’m afraid I wont be making any more faux fur amaros in the future, but may make some minky ones closer to the original idea at some point next year.

A small herd of Concrete Genie plushies!

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Concrete genie plush

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. At one point I was making ten of a plush in a short timeframe. I’m sure for a lot of plushie makers this is nothing – but I’ve never made more than two of anything at once so this was a big deal for me. I also used a lot of materials I wasn’t used to. I’ve used pretty much exclusively minky and fur in the past. I got to work with cotton, linen, knitted cloth, making items out of … A small herd of Concrete Genie plushies!

The Great Serpent of Ronka plush template

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Great serpent of ronka plush toy

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 fleece/felt, fabric glue, and a steady hand) 1 pair of black plastic safety eyes – 10mm Polyfibre stuffing. Old pillowcase stuffing will do if you don’t have this already. Sewing needle, beige thread, ideally pins to keep everything in place while you sew (optional) Have an embroidery machine? DragonsGarden has kindly shared the embroidery files for their alteration of this pattern. Download the embroidery files and additional instructions here. Ignore the plastic eyes, pink minky and white felt if you … The Great Serpent of Ronka plush template

The Great Serpent of Ronka plush

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SCREE!! *wiggle* (As The Great Serpent of Ronka is VERY easy to make, I will post up a sewing template you you can try for yourselves. Give me a few weeks to get it into a presentable format :]) (EDIT: The sewing template for The Great Serpent of Ronka is here!)