The Making of... Kero-chan

_{Note: Kero-chan was my first attempt at actually making a plushie. Though I've made simple stuffed animals in the past this has been a step up from my usual work, and I'm hoping to also continue with this little project of mine. There are loads more plushies that I intend to make in my free time and I'm hoping to also upload them here to elftown as part of a series similar in design to this wiki.}

Kero-chan's cake:


The single most important thing in any sewing project is of course a pattern. Please note that the long, squiggly piece you would really only need if you intended to do a double layer cake. Also; always make the pattern a little bigger than you intend for the finished product to be as a seam allowance.

Here's what you need using this pattern:
1 circle (a second one if you decide to do a double layer cake)
1 squiggly circle (this is the icing, choose your color, match it with the squiggly rectangle)
1 rectangular piece (cake base, choose your color, match it with the circle)
1 rectangular squiggly piece (if you decide to do a double layer cake)
2 of the star looking pieces in 2 different greens (these are the leaves)
3 of the oval-esque pieces (red for strawberry)


Here I've got all the pieces for the cake cut out and ready to go. The first thing you're going to want to do is get the base put together which would be the two pieces that are the same color. This part is a little bit difficult as pinning it together really won't be able to help you. Working on the wrong side of the material put the edges together and work your way around the seam.


Here is what the completed base should look like when turned right-side out.


This step is a little bit more difficult as you've got three pieces to work with... Working again with the wrong side of the fabric take the first two pieces and place them together. Work on the seam of one side, once you've got the first side done put the third piece of the strawberry against the open side and sew it to the other two pieces- leaving an opening at one of the tips so that you can turn the strawberry right side out, and when you sew the leaves on it'll hide that seam.


Really I just posed the strawberry on top of the 'icing' after I finished it. Once you have the strawberry finished you then place it on the icing and stitch it on through the base- there is no real need to sew straight up through the entire strawberry to attach it.


Once you have the strawberry attached to the icing you get ready to attach it to the cake. You have two options at this point: you can stuff the cake prior to sewing on the icing (it makes things a little easier to have the edges able to hold themselves up while you sew). The seam is actually going to be on the outside of the cake, so trying to match the thread to the icing is key. Try to get it so that the edges of the icing stay attached to the cake and aren't sticking out.

Now... another thing I did was add velcro to the backside of this cake so that it can attach to Kero-chan's hand freely, you have the option of just sewing it on his hand if you'd prefer though.


Now comes the fun of working on Kero-chan himself.

Here's what you need using the pattern:

2 full body (don't worry about how in mine he's got a face and the dashed lines in his ears, just do the whole outline using a yellow-gold fabric) try to round out the face a little better than I did though...

2 of the longer pieces that are the tail (also in yellow-gold)

2 of the smaller inner ear pieces (in a lighter yellow than the body)

2 of the tail pieces (in white, you can do a simpler design with only three furry spikes, its what I would up doing...)

4 of the wings (in the same white as the tail pieces, I used a fuzzy material... Anyway, be sure to flip the wing pattern for 2 otherwise you'll either have two pairs of wings facing the same direction or one'll end up inside out...)


Now Kero-chan's pieces need to be pinned- inside out to be worked with. Keep in mind while you sew to always leave an opening to turn your project inside-right again.


Here is a picture of one of the wings finished. Now, what I did with the wings was used the opening I'd left on the inside (the short, straightish portion) was put one of the wing pieces inside the other so that they'd stay together. You don't have to do this, though it effectively hides that edge and makes it easier to attach the wings to Kero-chan's body.


Here I've got Kero-chan's body (still inside out) posed with his wings to see how well I did and how well they'll fit against his body.


the tail is a pretty simple project, you can sew the entire length of it together leaving an opening to turn it inside-right. The white piece at the end of the tail is simple as well- leave the bottom open to turn it inside right, then simply sew it to the tail portion. Now if you'd like you can lightly stuff the tail to give it shape, I chose not to.


Next up is the face. This is another time you've got a few options. First, if you don't feel like playing around with it you can just draw it on with permanent marker. Otherwise you can sew on black eyes and a nose and from there sew on a fabric mouth, or, you can take the time to actually sew the eyes, nose, and mouth. I went with the third option and it was a little tougher, in the end the face wound up being a little lopsided...



This is just a progress photo showing the wings and tail against the body...

From there you're going to attach the wings and tail to the back. What I did probably wasn't the best option, but it kept it looking decently neat: I pinned the end of the tail to the back of the wings and sewed it on that way.

Once you've got those attached you take the time to stuff him- leaving a little less stuffing between the joints to give him a little more mobility (which I did) or you can pack it in there pretty good. from there you sew the opening you left on him and get around to adding the yellow portions for the inner ears. For those you simply attach them, then sew the base of the ears to the head so that it leaves them looking more like Kero-chan's ears...

Honestly I didn't add the yellow inner ears, and I didn't sew the ears against his head. I did, however, add the velcro to his hand so that the cake can attach to him.


The finished product, I can't say I'm completely happy with how he turned out, but as a first Kero-chan didn't turn out too poorly.

<sub>End note: If you take your time with this and do the seams properly Kero-chan won't turn out as rough as mine did. Also, should you choose to sew his face by hand make sure to draw it on first before you pin him together, having that to go on will keep you from giving him a lopsided face...

Basically this was just a fun little project made from an old yellow-gold hoodie, white fuzzy fabric that I bought at a thrift store, little shreds of scrap fabric for the strawberry on the cake and other scraps of fabric that I had lying around...

Also, please note that though I detailed most of what you've got to do this was not actually created to be a how-to project. I thought it'd be fun to show and explain what I did and from there anyone can feel free to interpret and put Kero-chan together however they so choose.</sub>