UPDATED 4/5: Ashes to Ashes: Passerine's Phoenix Plush Journal - With Progress Shots!

[Passerine]

This is the most current section.

Ever since seeing the Phoenix's sneak preview images here on WI and the amazing plushes made by other WI members, I've had the itch to make a Phoenix of my own. After a couple weeks of dithering, now I'm finally starting. I always want to know how other people do their projects, so I thought it might be neat to keep a record of my progress for anyone interested. I hope that writing about my process will give other plush makers ideas for things to do and not to do, and feedback from other crafters can improve my own techniques.

In the weeks to come I'll be updating this thread with progess shots and commentary. Entries will be in spoilers to save space, and updated sections will be in purple. My goal is to make a Phoenix plush that comes as close to what Ganz might produce as possible. Any suggestions or ideas you might have would be very much appreciated. Let me know what I can do better!

UPDATE 4/5: Rearranged sections slightly and added some update-tracking features. Made second tail (red/orange) using revised tail pattern and updated material costs list. Hit my image limit, so see you in the next post next update!

Material Costs

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Costs listed are for materials at my local stores, sans sales tax. Jo-Ann's sends out weekly flyers in our mail with coupons, and I signed up for their e-mail list for more coupons, so I'm actually spending less than what's posted here. I'll tally and compare total costs once the project is finished.

12 mm solid black eyes, 6 pack (Darice) $0.99
polyester pellets, 2 lbs (Poly-fil) $6.99 - smallest pack I could find! Used 50% off coupon.
red felt, 'cardinal' color $0.29

59" anti-pill fleece, 'daffodil' color, 1/3th yd. $3.00 ($8.99/yd.) - on sale for $5.00/yd.
59" blizzard fleece, pale yellow, 1/6th yd. $1.50 ($7.99/yd.) - on sale for $4.00/yd.
59" anti-pill fleece, red, 1/2 yd. $4.50 ($8.99/yd.) - used 40% off coupon.
59" blizzard fleece, tangerine, 1/2 yd. $3.99 ($7.99/yd.) - bought as remnant, $1.00.
Note: Some of these yardages will be adjusted when I look back and figure out how much fabric was actually necessary as opposed to how much I bought.

yellow thread, 'daffodil' color (Gutermann) $1.75 - used 50% off coupon.
red thread, 'geranium' color (Gutermann) $1.75 - used 20% off coupon.
Running Total: $24.76 ($13.04)

Already On Hand
polyester fiber-fill stuffing (Poly-fil) - runs about $2.50 for a package the size of a bed pillow
muslin - $0.99/yd. - $1.99/yd. at most fabric stores
pattern tracing fabric - $1.99 - $3.99 at most fabric stores

Step One: Analysis (March 21)

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I've never made a plush toy before (apart from a very bloblike owl in fourth grade.) It helps that I have a lot of bird plushies to use as models. But which parts, from which bird? Here's a comparison chart I made for my own reference, using images from Webkinz Newz. Grey lines indicate which existing Webkinz bird I'll base each part off of, and blue arrows point at details. Most everything's from the Eagle, but the Parakeet's wings are much more sweeping and graceful, so I'm using those. A huge thank-you to EXOTERIC for permission to use her wonderful Phoenix images for reference.

Extra Notes
Body - Gradient dip-dyeing, or individually pieced fabric sections for that cream-to-blue? I'm giving my Phoenix legs, since the Eagle has them, and I'll need to alter the body a bit so the Parakeet-style wings can attach.
Head - Looks like there's two parts - the upper red 'flames' and the lower cream 'ruff.' I want to use a long, furry fabric for the ruff, and if I can manage it, get some really long-haired craft fur and trim it to make the flame tufts. There's also a second layer of 'fringe' under the ruff to watch out for, and a 'ridge' above the eyes. The beak is just like the Eagle's, but slightly smaller and with different nostril placement. I thought about shiny fabric for that, but it might be a bit much..
Eyes - I thought the eyes were grey, but then I zoomed in, and they're black, compared to the Eagle's, which have a gold ring! I'll make the charcoal grey and red outer rings from felt or similar.
Tail - It's easier to see in back shots, but the Phoenix has FOUR tail layers! The upper blue/red/yellow fan, the lower yellow/light yellow fan, the red 's' shapes, and the smoky blue 's' shapes. Wuh-boy.

Step Two: Scouting Out Materials (March 22)

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Took a trip to the local fabrics stores (Jo-Ann's and Hancock Fabrics) just to see what's in stock. Looks like they have just about everything I need - I found all the colors I need in polar fleece (thanks to pathetictastic for that great fabric idea) as well as some long cream mohair for the ruff. No long red craft fur though - looks like I'll have to try something else for the flames. Maybe I can 'sculpt' them out of regular fleece.. There wasn't charcoal grey felt, so that's a problem, but I found a nice red that might suit, and there's blue and yellow organza that looks awesome when layered (for the 'smoky s' tails.)

I'm going to do individual piecing for the cream-blue gradient - no other Webkinz plush has gradient fabric that I know of, and it'll be less messy.

I did find 12 mm black eyes, though, and polypropylene pellets! Now my Phoenix can have a 'beany bottom' like the other Webkinz.

Wonder if there's a way to get that red-orange gradient on the Phoenix's head..

Step Three: Pattern Drafting - Beginnings and Tail One (March 27-31)

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The Plan
I've found it really helpful to construct a mock-up made from an inexpensive fabric like muslin for an important project. It lets me see where I need to make adjustments, I can draw directly on the fabric with a permanent marker, and I can use the pieces for patterns afterward. I'm going to try to do that here, by making a muslin version and drawing the markings on to know how I need to piece fabric together. Here's a picture of my setup and materials.

In this photo: cutting and measuring board, spare muslin and pattern tracing fabric, sewing shears, water-based markers (did not use,) permanent marker, thread and notions box, needles, tape measure, seam ripper, blue washout pencil, white chalk pencil, graphite pencil, wax-free tracing paper and marking wheel, needles, pins, clean waste basket for scraps, models (Spirit the Eagle and Kiwi the Parakeet,) moral support (Scout the Blue Jay,) and my laptop with WI, reference images and Paramore.
Added later: computer paper, see-through ruler, compass, protractor, and calculator.
Nested spoilers because each section is full of pictures.

Trial and Error (Mostly Error)

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The patterns I've drafted before have been very geometric, so a plush is unknown territory for me. In retrospect, it was a bad idea to start by trying to re-create the most complex part of the Eagle plush: the beak.

The eagle's beak pattern is three pieces - one (cut 2) for the top, one for the underside, and one (cut 2) for the 'lips.' This is my first try, made by squashing Spirit's beak flat as possible and tracing around it, then adding seam allowances. (Apologies, bird.) I learned/was reminded of a few things here:

* The tendency of long basting stitches done by machine to separate about 1/4" at the ends makes a big difference when working in small scale.
* I should include about 1/4" of extra material for 'give' as some of the fabric is taken up by the three-dimensional curve and reduces the width.
* See-through rulers make right angles much easier to draw.

This is the first draft of the wings. The left pieces is the side that faces the body - the circular opening is where it attaches, and the right is the outward-facing side. These were made with the same 'squash-method' as the beak with some editing to extend the wingtips. When I sewed the pieces together, I found that the edit was just what I wanted, but a) the wings were too narrow and b) the circular attachment to the body ******* things up and didn't leave me enough for a seam allowance. So:

* Again, I need to be mindful of 3D space.
* The wing attachment is too complex for me at this point, I think, so instead I'm going to make the wings separately and sew them on by hand.

Starting From the Tail End

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After those two less-than-successful ventures, I decided to look at the simplest piece first - the tail. Flat, no stuffing necessary. Looking at reference photos, the large yellow/light yellow tail is a little longer than the body is tall. Spirit's back seam is about 5" long, so the tail will be 6" and about 2.5" wide where it connects to the body.

Here's where I changed my method a bit, bringing out computer paper and geometry tools. I drew a single feather, 1.5" at the widest part (1.5" per section x 4 sections = 6", so the tail will be about square,) and 6" long. I also drew the curve where I'll piece the light yellow tip to the yellow base. I outlined this in permanent marker, folded the paper, traced it on the other side so I had two feathers side by side, then repeated so I had four. Then I added seam allowances (1/4") and traced it onto pattern tracing fabric.

Here's one base cut from muslin with a tip pinned to it, ready for stitching. The blue lines are made with the wax-free tracing paper and marking wheel. This is a difficult step the way I've done it - I'm fitting a convex curve (the base) to a concave one (the tip.) It might be better to have the tips cut straight across; it's much easier to match up and sew two similarly-shaped edges of fabric together than two that are almost opposites. But I want my phoenix to have curved feather tips, so I'm doing it the hard way and hand-sewing the curves.

Here's the base, wrong side up, with all four tips attached. I clipped little wedges out of the seam allowances so the curves could lay flat, and ironed the seams open so the fabric lies to either side. The hand-sewn tip attachment worked pretty well, but I'll need to be careful of puckering fabric.

This is the finished mock-up tail - both full tail pieces sewn together and turned inside out. I made a big mistake in sewing here - between the four 'feathers' of the tail, I made sharp turns like so: V instead of gentler curves like this: U. Blue arrows point to the result: puckered fabric. I think that's more to do with the sewing than the pattern itself (although the tips are kind of lopsided. Going to work on that.) I feel confident enough with the pattern to try it out on the real fabric.

The Real Thing

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First thing I learned - fleece is a lot different than muslin! It's much thicker and I have to be careful not to damage the fuzz, but it's also got a bit of stretch and is more forgiving; it doesn't gather the way muslin does. I was able to sew the tail tips to the base with the machine.

Here's the finished tail, with Spirit for size reference. It went pretty straightforwardly, with the same construction process as the mock-up. The only different thing I did was to sew the two sides of the tail together at the tips and sides first, then turn it inside out and hand-stitch the notches between closed. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the result; the leftmost feather is all right, but the others are a bit crooked. I may come back to this later and redo it.

Step Four: Pattern Drafting - Tails Two and Three (April 1-5)

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In Which I Make Things Slightly More Difficult For Myself
Yay for the weekend! After looking at the close-up back reference shots I decided to make the blue parts of the tail three separate 'tabs' from the same gauzy fabric as the smoky 'S' shapes rather than part of the second red/yellow layer. I also redesigned the tail pattern - instead of cutting the four feathers as one piece and sewing together, then topstitching, I'm cutting each one separately and sewing them together. Hopefully this will get rid of the crooked feather problem from before.


And it did! Sorry the picture's overexposed, but you can see the smooth outline.

The tab pattern didn't go as well when I tried to turn it inside-out. The opening was too small, and the fabric wouldn't turn inside out. I'll stitch it halfway on the machine, turn it inside out, then slipstitch it closed the rest of the way.


The consequence of trying to force too much fabric through too small an opening. If thin muslin won't do it, thick fleece certainly won't. The blunt-end chopstick is for turning corners.


I got a bit carried away with sewing and forgot to take a picture until the last minute. This is the second tail nearly done; the last seam is pinned. I found my new approach worked pretty well, although it required some careful handling of the sewing machine and a bit of hand-stitching to make sure everything met up.

What I did this time was sew both sides of a feather together at the tip, then carefully cut into the seam allowance (1/4") and sew one feather to the next from cut to top. You can see the mark I made for cutting on the pattern piece - it's the horizontal line just below the curve on the larger pattern piece.

You can also see here that I've trimmed the seams to about 1/16" wide. I wouldn't cut so close to the stitching on a woven fabric like muslin, because the stitches could pull out, but that's not a problem with fleece. Trimming the excess fabric away really helps when you turn the piece inside-out, especially on this small scale.


Here's the second tail layer up against the first. I think those tips look much better; how about you?

Next Step: Pattern Drafting: Body

I finish up the blue tabs, smoky 'S' shapes, and start tackling the body pattern.

[EXOTERIC]

Passerine! This is a great start to the Phoenix - I'm so pleased I could help you with the image reference. I will be keeping a close eye on the development. It would be fun if you could keep a Material Cost list. I'm anxious to see the Pattern Drafting. I've rated your thread a 5 of course - I can't wait to see more!

[Passerine]

Originally Posted by EXOTERIC

Passerine! This is a great start to the Phoenix - I'm so pleased I could help you with the image reference. I will be keeping a close eye on the development. It would be fun if you could keep a Material Cost list. I'm anxious to see the Pattern Drafting. I've rated your thread a 5 of course - I can't wait to see more!

Material cost list - great idea! I've added that section. It's back to classes tomorrow for me, so things will slow a bit, but pattern drafting should start once I can clear some space in the living room to drag my sewing storage boxes out.

[Crystal24713]

Thats so cool!!! Its a great idea keeping a journal of making it!!!

[EXOTERIC]

Passerine - I was thinking ...would rice or lentil be a good material to use to weigh down a Hand-Sewn Webbie? It may be cost effective and greener? Just wondering what your thoughts are on it.

[Passerine]

Originally Posted by EXOTERIC

Passerine - I was thinking ...would rice or lentil be a good material to use to weigh down a Hand-Sewn Webbie? It may be cost effective and greener? Just wondering what your thoughts are on it.

Rice or lentil would work really well! I wish I'd thought of that before I went out and bought the pellets - we go through a ton of rice in our house as it is, and it's the same consistency as the pellets. It could be greener, too, since the majority of plastics are synthesized from petroleum, which comes from crude oil. But polypropylene (not polyester; I had another look at the bag) is also recyclable, so there might be plastic pellets available that are made from recycled materials. The bag I bought doesn't say whether it's recycled or not; I think I'll return it and go with your idea instead.

The only thing I'd worry about with lentils or rice would be moisture. If the webbie ever got soaked, its beans would most likely start mildewing or rotting. Spot surface cleaning with a damp cloth would be fine, though.

Another idea is saving the fabric scraps that are too small for other projects, then cutting them into small pieces and mixing them in with the stuffing to help bulk it up rather than just throwing them away.

Thanks for helping me think green!

EDIT: It was pointed out to me that improperly stored grains (that is, not in airtight containers) can attract bugs. With this in mind, I think I'll go with the polypropylene pellets instead. :/

[gReTa]

Wow, I didn't realize exactly how much work it is to make one of these..but I bet you're finished product'll be awesome!

[lilhorselover]

Wow, this is amazing! You have a great start to the phoenix, I have no doubts it will turn out wonderful!

[Lolo12]

Wow! You're off to a great start, I can't wait to see it finished!

[Passerine]

Thanks for your replies!

gReTa, I didn't think it would be this much work either to make a pattern that looks good. (Anyone know some shortcuts or time-savers?) I used to think Webkinz were simple, but I have a lot more respect for the people who design their patterns now.

Planning for an update today or tomorrow; school's slowed and I have a little free time. (Woohoo!)