Pikachu Plush

Tadaa! I stitched a Pikachu doll, made from a mix of both terry cloth (chopped up yellow and black flannels!) and felt. I'm especially proud of the fact that for the first time, I worked from a pattern I drew up myself!

I was just walking around a shop one day, until the bright yellow flannels on display caught my eye. I thought to myself: "This colour absolutely SCREAMS Pikachu." Thus, I was inspired to buy an armful of them and get sewing pretty much straight away. As you can imagine, not the easiest fabric to work with. The instant you cut into it, it sheds everywhere. In a similar vein to fur, really, so I guess it looks fairly realistic in that respect.

And don't get me started on turning everything the right way out. The fabric barely stretched at all, so a lot of seam ripping and butchering with scissors went on that day. I'm traumatised at the mere memory! Despite the whole process shaving a good few years off my life, I am proud to have got there eventually. The shape of his tail was especially troublesome, but again, glad I persevered!

The tail marking, eyes, cheeks, nose and mouth are all felt pieces stitched on by hand. I'd initially planned to go for a satin stitched mouth, but after two disastrous attempts, I thought I'd err on the side of caution.

Finally, I've taken a little artistic license with his limbs (or lack thereof!) After some discussion with family and friends, we unanimously agreed that adding arms and legs on him might make him look too bulky, spoiling the overall effect. So I guess you could say that this little guy is minimalist in style. Fine by me!

Constructing him was quite the experience, but I ultimately really enjoyed the whole thing. I do like a bit of a challenge! That said, I think I'll probably steer clear of terry cloth for a while... XD

Hope you guys like this (especially fellow Pokémon fans)!