I spent last Saturday afternoon at a plush workshop taught by the famous Jenny Harada!
The workshop was held at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, where Jenny took us through the basics of sketching pattern pieces and putting them together with a sewing machine. My hands were too busy to take any photos during the class, but Jenny let me take a quick photo of her with her mound of plushes afterwards.
Aside from making my own plush toy, I had a lot of fun looking through Jenny’s crazy creations and picking her brain about her design process. It’s funny how there are some similarities with making knitted toys, but sewing is still a little foreign to me. I think I’m gradually getting more comfortable with it, though.
So here is the monster I made! His name is Herman.
Herman’s shape is something I’ve had in mind for a while—I sketched out his body freehand, and I used Jenny’s patterns for his legs and horns. Don’t you love his purply furriness? The fur is great because it conceals less-than-skilled sewing.
Herman’s a lot of trouble, though. As soon as I brought him home, he started trying to eat everything in sight!
He tried to eat John’s stuffed elephant…
Then he went for the Woodins (log and all!)…
Even John wasn’t spared!
So we’ve got our hands full with our new friend. Maybe sometime soon I’ll try sewing something completely on my own!
That is absolutely hilarious!! I love the monster. Great design! I can’t even imagine how fun a monster-making workshop must have been. *envy*
He is so cute! I mean scary. No, I mean cute. Okay, and scary.
He’s Fabulous!
he’s really really nice… well done for your first one
Oh my, too cute! And you know, I can completely relate with softies wrecking havoc and eating you out of house and home..!
I KNOW you’re going to conquer that sewing machine!! Herman is very cute and looks like a great hat for John!
That’s GREAT… He is just awesome!
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I love the furriness of this, and while it can be done with knitting I find those yarns less fun to work with.
Great shape! Love your monster, how omnivorous he is.
I like sewing as a tool to figure out shape of a future knitted or crocheted object. Seeing pattern pieces, once you’ve figured out how they are supposed to fit together, can help you decide where your increases & decreases go.
Also, it is FAST!!
Well done, it’s addictive, watch out.
Oh, hah! How funny — I started reading your blog about a week before I attended Jenny’s workshop, and I had no idea you were the person who wrote Mochimochi! I was the one with pink hair, FYI. Nice to “meet” you on the internet.
herman can chew on my head any day…
and that stuffed elephant is such a sweetie!