Needle felting poly fill

It's so easy to under or over stuff your amigurumi.. 

I tend to over stuff as I like my toys to be able to hold themselves up .. unless of course they are meant to be floppy ..

Okay even then I have a hard time leaving them without stuffing lol 

However with larger plushie creations it's so easy to over stuff and end up with stressed or "holy" stitches... 

Until recently I haven't made many larger plushies.. so it wasn't a big issue for me..

Then I made this super cute Dino but had so many issues with getting the legs firm enough.. the head was okay..

With the necks I use rolled tied felt to keep the heads from being wobbly..

but the legs ugh.. I ended up having to add some stitching to the stitches to tighten and close holes in a few areas.. and adding more spots over other areas .. 

I came across a video on YouTube after that... it  was for small "display only" types of amigurumi.. 

one of her tips was to needle felt the polyfill firm.. 

She stated that she had been hearing about the technique for some time before trying it herself mostly in Europe I believe.. 

I had to give that a go... 

I was working on a medium size duck that needed it's bill filled firmly..

I shaped the polyfill to size placed it inside the bill 

and worked it firm while still in the piece.. being careful not to go through the yarn.. being very careful to keep my fingers far away from the needle.. 

 it did take a few minutes probably close to a half hour.. 

So if you count your minutes per item this may not be for you.. 

 it does take a bit more polyfill as well ..

    However the results were so worth it as far as I am concerned..

I have no issues putting in a little extra effort and time to get an item that I like better..

The process of creating an item matters to me.. the energy placed in it while making it .. something that you pick up and it feels good.. that is what I want to make.. 

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No stress on the stitches, no holes.. firm shape without anything else added to it... as in wires or other shaping materials.. 

 Easy to get the shape of the piece needed... as long as you keep your fingers out of the way painless too lol 

Next I had to try legs... now this little piggy would have been able to stand without much effort.. but I wanted to so.... 

truthfully I miss needle felting but plushies are much easier to take to market..  and have sold at a better rate for me at least... and I really like making them as well..

           if I can combine the two.. 

I'm so okay with that .. 

       I started with needle felting to do eyes on crochet toys after all lol 

I add a bit of stuffing to stand a little taller than the yarn piece so it stays placed well after stitching on... 

Look at these feet btw... so cute..

and the snout.. and ears.... 

Pattern by CrochetGrove 

The added bonus is how much easier it is to place and stich on the piece.. 

This piggy is designed to have an almost splayed look.. 

which normally would have taken a dozen knitting needles to hold in place while I tried placement over and over.. and probably removed one after stitching lol .. 

I have been seeing these cute little needle felting kits at the dollar tree.. an inexpensive way to get a felting needle to give it a try.. 

 I would like to be able to play with wool sometimes .. mostly not a problem with all the fun and or beautiful non- life threatening yarns out there these days... but then I see a sweet little kit like this ... 

Recent makes

A few of the  plushies I've made prepping.... 

I didn't ask for permission to link to the patterns.. so I am just adding the designers names and platform I got them from.. these are my take on their patterns, I have changed things here and there to make them a bit more to my liking and such.. check out their shops 

Love this adorable moth pattern by ZeroGravityCrochet on Etsy.. perfect for this pair of safety eyes I made with glitter nail polish sealed with uv gell polish.. fun pattern to make 

I like bunnies.. love bunny patterns.. got this free pattern on Instagram by kayascrochet.. I changed the ears up a bit to be longer and a little wider for the middle rounds.. ih and a little face shaping... a fair amount of sewing but worth it 

 

Finally remembered to get a photo of my mini beaded turtles before I sent them out.. 

 

Loaf critters are among my favorite plushies to make.. they are so cute.. TheCozyBuckeye on Etsy has a line of them that are so cute .. this unicorn is no sew.. the way the horn is worked up is brilliant.. used another pair of my safety eyes.. 

 I want to carry a verity of different eye types as well as plushie styles and sizes... this one got embroidered eyes.. pattern on Etsy by CassityAnnDesigns26 ... I will be making more of these .. 

 

This one has standard black safety eyes as they really did work the best with this over the top cute pattern by MjaLisa on Etsy... got the bundle with a few others I have yet to make.. so cute I had to start with this one.. 

 This pattern has been waiting on my desktop for quite some time.. I wanted the eyes to be big and golden... used another pair of my painted eyes.. pattern by SheildMaidenCrochet on Etsy.. quick make .. very cute  

 

While I was making the golden eyes for the chubby owl I made this pair .. not your standard look for snake eyes but i think it works... flat out love this pattern by Crochimal on Etsy 

Eyes

I have been working on making better eyes for my creations for quite some time now...  

I have tried dozens of different types..

Crochet with yarn or thread, embroidery with floss or yarn, felt needle or cut pieces, and of course safety eyes.. black with embroidery details around them, glitter disks and colored .. 

The one kind I have wanted to do and as of yet not been able to play with is making resin ones myself... 

with my allergies and or reactions to most strong smells ..... being shut down for days at a time didn't seem cost affective to me... not to mention I really don't like causing myself more issues than I already deal with on a daily basis... I will never understand why everything including yarn is scented ugh

So here and there over time I have been picking up items to create my own safety eyes that will have a bit of the depth of resin eyes... without the stronger smell.. 

Foil bits and nail poilish with glitter are good starting points.. gell polish should hold up better... still a fairly strong smell but nail polish is one of the smells I had gotten myself more able to deal with starting at a fairly young age.. for decades starting at around 9 years old, you would never find me without my nails freshly done lol 

who knew it would turn out to be such a helpful crafting tool over the years ... 

Although cost affective.. not so much in the last few years polish prices have skyrocketed .. 

 the art of the nail trade has really been amazing to watch .. from the big bulky acrylic ones of the 80s when I was a teen, to the gell master pieces of today.. incredible 

Over the last few years when trends would change I would pick up clearance items or dollar store finds stashing them away for "some day" .. 

With the clearancing of uv gells and lights I think I have a pretty good stock to start with ..

The latest find was just the other day... Chrome nail powder... it's gorgeous 

I took some of my Amazon safety eyes .. a pair of sinker that were ment to be used with glitter disks and a pair of the paint added on colored ones..

I removed the paint from a rough looking pair so it wasn't a loss if it didn't work out.... and added glitter nail polish .. a layer of foil and more polish then the chrome powder..

Still need to add the clear gell coat after the final background color.. 

 not the best shots and over all kind of hard to see as they are small... 10 and 12 mm .. not to mention the lighting was horrible.. but even at that clear potential can be seen...

 a couple more test runs with a few of the pairs I wouldn't have used otherwise and I'll go for the better larger sized eyes that I picked up on a really good deal awhile back... 

Definitely just the beginning... I'll get better shots when completed 

Been too long

This year has been so much worse than normal for taking photos... 

With luck I will be able to find a bit more free time to actually take some shots of the items I have been working on.. knock knock knock 

I do have a few so I will try and get those posted

Been playing with bulky yarn... 

Actually this one is worsted weight .. but it's cute so I'm posting it too...

 

Recent finds

A few random things I have picked up over the last couple of months.. 

Dollar tree circular knitting needles... 

I have only seen one size.. size 9 .. 

If you're looking for a set that won't let the yarn slide off the needle this is it... I found knitting in the round almost impossible however straight knitting went well enough that keeping them in the car for a side project like a straight stitch scarf is okay... If you already brought a set   ... I wouldn't run out to get another 

also from  Dollar tree 

The photo color didn't come out well.. I took them apart before I realized that lol... these are gold and silver they had red and blue ones as well... the sequins are so beautiful, they would have been fun decorations as is true, those sequins are just too pretty to not want to play with them lol.. I am replacing them with yarn ...

 the sequins are lightly glued to a string and that to a foam base with glitter on top part.. removing the sequins was very easy.. expect glitter to fly while doing so 

Speaking of sequin harvesting... Found these at a thrift store.. 

The sequins were easy to remove from the shamrocks, they had a surprising amount of stuffing... at the point of the photo I had already removed the headband piece from the fabric... that was the easy part as far as the headband was concerned.. hot glue was not spared in the making of these.. will take more effort to get the sequins off..  Ugh 

This roll of sequins was so tightly stuffed in a baggie there was no way to tell what it was for sure... 

The clerk asked if I even knew what it was.. when I told him no, he decided to cut the prices in half and gave me a discount on top of that.. 😊

I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a yards long strip of elastic fabric sequin trim... 

Picked up some cookie cutters... 

The box was beat up a little bit all of the cutters are fine.. lots of random shapes but no Christmas ones.. not really a surprise as these are the regular stock went back yesterday and found these mini ones

Perfect for making needle felt ornaments for mini Christmas trees.. 

 

Needle felt scrap heart

After weaving in the ends of a scrapy bag I decided to used them to make a needle felt heart.. 

brushed them out

Just stuffed them in without worrying about color placement 

I am planning on making it a charm so heavily felted it,

 flipping from side to side..

Using multiple sizes of needles..38 to start, 40 for the vast majority of it, finishing with a 42 for some smoothing or the edges 

I picked up the heart cut out from the Dollar Tree.. 

Going to use this side as the front.. will finish off with embroidery highlights.. maybe a few other emblements.. will try to update when it's done 

Sequin dress harvest from thrift store

Okay this is going to take a minute... or two to "harvest" the sequins from... should get a bit of fabric from it as well..  it is small however it was on sale at the thrift store for just over $7. with tax.. I couldn't pass it up..

Sequin fringe hanging from the most of the dress ... thinking they are sturdy enough to reuse as a stitched down or even glued line of sequins .. there are so many.. the dress is probably closer to  extra small so they aren't long enough to use again as fringe.. unless maybe a doll dress or on a needle felt item... could work... either way I plan on leaving them intact at least for now..

The fabric is a glittery kind of mesh look over solid green satin with sequins stitched on 

The zipper is unbelievably sturdy.. heavy metal definitely going to be able to repurpose it.. 

Tag doesn't show any where, nor does the rest of it.. actually glad it's not any bigger.. it's going to be a big enough job as it is lol