Rune

Recently, I read an article on Webcomic Alliance called “10 Questions for Creators to Consider.” Alongside its serious questions is this humorous one: “How long before I make cute little plushes?”

Well, for some reason this got stuck in my head and I had the overwhelming desire to have a Rune plushie. I can’t sew very well, so I looked for pre-made plushie bodies (and found none) and artists who make custom plushies (which are out there, but I would expect to pay over a hundred dollars for a plushie this way). I’m certainly not going to order thousands of plushies for resale, either, so it seemed my only option was to make my own.

Through the magic of Google, I found a generous artist on DeviantArt who shared a free pattern and tutorial for a basic plushie body.

I spent about $20 on supplies at my local craft store and set out on a fun weekend project!

I downloaded the pattern PDF, printed it out, cut it out, traced it on felt, and cut out the pieces. Then I had to take a break because my “assistant” thought they looked like fun toys!

I stitched and stuffed the head and body. The main difficulty (besides my terrible, crooked stitchwork) was turning the body right-side-out because of the big hands and skinny arms. I used a chopstick (which also helps with pushing stuffing into a doll).

(You can see my terrible stitches on the foot. I didn’t even have the sense to buy black thread! Luckily, I had some fabric markers so I colored the threads later).

Following the directions from the tutorial was pretty easy, although there were a few steps I didn’t entirely understand and just did what I thought made sense.

Then I completely “winged it” on adding the face, hair and clothes. After some cutting, glueing, and stitching, I had a plushie Rune!

I think he’s adorable!