So awhile ago I decided to join ponychan's /merch/ board's secret santa. This was just the excuse I needed to try my hoof at making some sort of toy. For some reason I really wanted to make a plushie so I started my journey toward making it.
First I needed a sewing machine and fabric. It ended up being about black Friday when the idea hit me so I ran over to JoAnn's fabrics to have the longest few hours of my life. I have never really gone black friday shopping except once but it was a small city so it wasn't too bad. This time though I took my ticket at nine and was h9 and they were only on g36 and it ended up being nearly noon by the time I got my fabric cut. So I decided to grab some fabric to make Big Mac, Fluttershy and Applejack. Then I needed a sewing machine. I scoured craigslist for weeks until one finally popped up for about 20 bucks and is a early 80s kenmore that worked out pretty good. Now what to do with all this fabric and sewing equipment. Well I needed a design.
Now most plush makers seem very protective of their designs and finding a free one can be quite difficult so I needed to come up one of my one. Looking around at various plushes I tried to distinguish what I like about each and what I thought could use improvement. After looking at a few I saw basic similarities and figured those similarities are what I should base mine around. Now some plush makers were talking about making a paper mache sculpt beforehand but that would of been just as much work for me as making a prototype plush itself so I grabbed a free blanket and went to work. It took me about four franken ponies later but I finally had a design I liked.
Now I had to worry about actually putting it together using my real fabric. I crossed my fingers and started tracing my pattern. Cutting the pieces out actually took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Tracing and cutting took over four hours without a break. I was probably just too big of a perfectionist but don't go in expecting to get a standard foot high plush done within a day. Next I decided to put embroidery lines along the hair which my machine did not want to do. I nearly had to give up right then and there with my machine refusing to cooperate with me. I had made four franken ponies with it but as soon as I start on the real deal it starts giving me trouble. Thats when I learned you have to reset everything to zero for every adjustment in the type of stitch you are making, every time. Now having spent the last six hours fussing with my machine I managed to get all my hair pieces embroidered and stitched. Yay! By then I was ready for bed. Wanting to finish this plush within three days time to make the mail send out date I slept for five hours before beginning anew. I cruised through putting the legs together and getting the back together but I found that the small details are the death of me. I don't know how people can make plushes any smaller and not go crazy. The next ten hours were left with me creating six different eyes and having more machine trouble. I had no idea how to get a satin stitch out of my machine so I finally started going by hand. Another hour later and it was back to the machine. Well things continued like that for six more days just with different sections of the plush with one day off to prevent my self from going crazy and finally get out of my room which I had locked myself away in. So on the seventh day and three days past the send date I had finally finished my big mac. He looked really good. I started to box him up but then realized I never even got to hold him. So I gave him a first and final snuggle then sent him on his way though not without taking a handful of pictures beforehand though.
Now for my secret santa gift, I got some custom brushables. I got a fluttershy who's hair had been swapped out for a more cottony feely hair that was styled show perfect. Then I got a pony who had been painted like the night sky. I called her starry night after the van gogh painting. I like to think she is a warrior pony standing watch over my collection at night. They are the ones uptop of this post.
Heres the unboxing of it.
There it is. I will be making another big mac soon with just a few changes then follow him up with a fluttershy and applejack. I got enough material that I can do a few more to try and pay for the sewing machine and fabric for the ones I am making for myself so let me know if you like my big mac and would want to add one like him to your collection.
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