CONCEPTION OF EMERY PLUSH

Hello, welcome to the very first NEN extra. This is Hal typing, the one behind the website.

Yesterday I made a plush toy of my comic's protagonist: Emery! This is an article about how I did it.

The first step of making anything big is planning. I wanted him to be very short... accurate to the source. I also planned for him to be made out of hot glue, because I have never sewn before.

I made the head and the body by following this tutorial. The basic idea of the non-sewing approach is to cut out two identical pieces, hot glue them together with an opening, flip it inside out (this is the challenging part), stuff the opening with cotton, and glue it shut. Repeat for every part of the body then glue them all together.

Aw, how cute, cozy in a blanket.

The arms were a challenge, because I originally made them much too girthy. I cut them each in half vertically and glued the incisons shut. This left two noticiable, crusty gashes---but that's no big deal. I decided not to stuff his legs, so they're just plain tubes glued and flipped inside-out. The very, very worst part of this plush was making his hands and feet. I had to make these tiny spheres--only half an inch--and somehow flip them inside out through the little holes. it took about half an hour...

Onto the clothing, I really wanted his coat to be open so you could see his trademark Really Long tie---but I forgotten to buy pink felt. For this reason I had to improvise and make him shirtless. (No one can tell because I glued the coat shut!)

I was able to add some fun details on the trenchcoat, it has the sash-type-thing and the loops on the sleeves. Really ups the fun when you tack on little details.

I wanted to keep detail in the face to a minimum, I pretended I was frosting a cookie.

Now, the last step, hair. First I cut out the back, then cut out the bangs, and created a piece to put in the middle so they'd cover the whole head. Last I stuck in two pieces on the side that cover up his lack of ears.

Ah, how could I forget... the antenna. I cut a thin strip of fabric all the way across horrizontally and glued it on. I kept trimming it until it was a visually pleasing length.

With that, the plush was done.