#that pattern took forever

[sea-salted-wolverine]

I'm violently obsessed with the salmon plushie, is there absolutely any way we could get even a very rough pattern? Like rough ideas of shapes/sizes/placements? It wouldn't have to be super detailed, or even complete, I'm mostly interested in how you did the head/jaw and fins. I would be willing to pay you for it. You are the BEST auntie ever!!!! 🐟💗

@benevolentbirdgal you asked something similar i just haven't got around to answering

I have had people in real life ask for a pattern of how I did this and unfortunately I don't even know how to read/follow a pattern much less write/arrange/format one. If you scroll back through my blog a bit you can find all the progress pictures, they should all be tagged with both #plushie and #neice creature.

I suppose if you wanted a write up of the process it would go something like this.

Step one, become intimately acquainted with fish. Be born in a place where a large chunk of the state charter is about fishing rights. Go to kindergarten in a place where they not only teach kids about every phase of the life cycle but also raise salmon fry in classroom aquariums. Catch and clean alot of fish, like alot, like get up into the thousands. Become so quick and efficient at cleaning fish that tourists stop to watch you and people ask for lessons and knife sharpening.

Step two, now that you have the anatomy of a salmon ingrained into the fibers of your soul, just, draw one in its entirety on the inside of a pair of jeans that never fit. Make it half size, for baby hands, about the size of a trout. I literally never put a ruler anywhere near this thing, but like, 12-14 inches tip to tail.

Step three, make the pectoral, pelvic, anal, and dorsal fins as well as the caudal fin(tail). Make vague plans about the adipose fin and then give up and ignore it because no one cares about the adipose fin, including the fish themselves. Turn all the fins right-side out and stitch their rays on, giving them a little bit of structure and shape. Get to the tail fin and realize you are not stitching 20 fin rays on there and find a happy medium between accuracy and ease.

Step four. Fuck. Fish are hollow. The whole point of cleaning a fish is to cut it into lots of little pieces, some of which you eat and some of which you discard, which is not something you want of a child's toy. You could. But you don't want whoever is cleaning up after this toddler to run around picking up lil fishy organs. Rethink the way you filet a fish. Cringe at the thought that the most efficient way to make this plush is the least efficient way to filet a fish.

The filets themselves are easy, or at least, they're easy if you've done step one. It's an oblong shape with the belly color stitched directly to the denim, about the width of a hand. The meat is a safety orange tee-shirt that is now a crop top (insert long rant about the correct color of sockeye salmon meat here. It should not be fucking pink. Do not let anyone tell you it should be pink.) Stitch everything inside out and turn the seams in, then stuff them with shredded tee-shirt scraps because batting and stuffing is for people who can plan projects before they do them.

Step five, carcass. The dorsal fin gets seamed between a pair of denim strips to make the back. The adipose fin is a useful reference point for the locations of everything else but I couldn't figure out how to get the seams to work the way I wanted them so I ignored the adipose fin. Rip. The meat color gets seamed to the back and then the belly color to make a funky looking tube shape with fins sticking out. There was some finagling to make the fins sit in the places I wanted them to but everything sits in a seam except the anal fin which was easy enough to shove in a dart.

Step six, fishheads. Uhh, okay, there's how I did it and then there's how I would do it again. What I did was make a head out of a single piece of denim with some darts to make it the shape I wanted. Then I made the gills a sort of half moon shaped pocket with a redish pink color and seamed the pectoral fins in where the red met the orange. The jaw was a stuffed tongue of material attached to the belly and inside of the mouth, which is when realized I forgot to stuff the body. I do like how I stuffed the body because I took 6 layers of tee-shirt material tacked together in the vague shape of a fish and crammed it inside so it laid flat. It held more structural shape without being rigid or puffy. If I could have remembered to do that before I stitched everything close it would have been ideal.

If I was gonna do it over I would have made the head hollow and lined it with the red gill color and made the jaw a continuation of the belly so there would be an opening all the way through. I would also add some gill frills and fill them with rigid plastic to maintain the structure. I would also rearrange the pectoral fins to seam them in right behind the gills rather than below them.

Eyeballs this time around were buttons and finding sew on eyeballs is harder than I thought it would be but thats the obvious upgrade.

Guts were just a simple blob hand-sewn on, but with a bit more planning, I could actually do a digestive tract gas bladder, liver and roe sac. If I was gonna get that in depth I would rearrange the piecing order to have correctly fileted belly, so it would better explain how to harvest roe and belly meat. Plus as long as I was planning things rather than just slapping things together I would do some quick machine embroidery for muscle separations and a midline on the scales, mostly to make it pretty but also as a reference and indication of musculature.

Oh. Step six, the damn Velcro. Every craft store in Alaska is out of Velcro at the moment. Okay, maybe not every single one but all of them in between Fairbanks and Anchorage. And Home Depot. I found the stuff to stick on walls at Lowes which did not work nearly as well as I hoped it would. I had to force the needle through by bracing it against the floor and forcing the plush down on top of it. Forget a thimble, I was considering pliers. I was rushing (and also finishing it at my moms house) by the time I got to this part but I would get more creative and cut it into a shape more reminiscent of a spine next time.

I was gonna vacuum pack it before I wrapped it as a present because it would have been hilarious but I was slapping wrapping paper on while getting squawked at about being late, so we can all mourn the joke that never got the chance to land.

In conclusion, winging it gets you some crazy places and wild results but there are trade offs to careening speed, mostly in missed opportunities. But if you have a lot of pre-existing knowledge like general understanding of how seams work and also how fish work, you can pad out a lot of the inevitable fuck ups. If you are just jumping into raw dog a plushy pattern, I recommend starting out with something you are innately familiar with, rather than something that strikes you as cool.

[meraarts]

She offers you a black bubbling potion and tells you to drink wdyd?

[finncakes]

my version of imogen's new outfit !!

[fallenclan]

If I may ask, how do you know when you've gotten a wildcard calico? I've never gotten one in all my time of playing, so I'm curious if it mentions it somewhere in the game when you get one or what?

i check in the game files! i always look at a new cat's information, mostly to see what patterns/colors they have, but especially for kittens since what they look like as potatoes is often different than what they'll look like later in life, and i like to have a good idea of it. for instance, here's Pebblekit's file; it says she has a smoke base and a tabby tail! which is very cool

and here's her sprite :) just for sillies mostly

[miaikonartstudio]

One picture, two different shading styles!

Remember Lythis? Since her last art was from 2019, it was high time for a redesign in my new-and-improved style. I added a LOT of details, especially in her top and staff.

This is her ceremonial outfit, for adventuring, Lythis wears something less ornate (but is still barefoot most of the time).

Mini lore dump:

Lythis was created because of a meme going around at the time, calling Thrall "Orc Jesus". This got me onto the whole concept of Azeroth's Gods having children. I know about Cenarius, but other than that...

Since I'm obsessed with Night Elves, Daughter of Elune it was. So...

Lythis is believed to be a "blessed soul", getting reborn again and again after she dies. In ancient times, this gave her a special role in the Temple. Nowadays, she's "just" a Priestess. The High Priestesses of the past thought it a bad idea to give power to someone whose only qualification is "being born with a moon birthmark" (and other signs, like picking out things a past incarnation owned). Lythis retains some memories of her past lives, this being more intense when she is a child. As she grows, those memories slowly fade into the background, although she can recall them if she needs to. Knowing she'll get reborn makes her reckless at times, and more likely to sacrifice her own life for friends. Lyhtis' current group of companions do their best to dissuade her from this, since they want the Lythis they know to stick around.

On average, past incarnations of Lythis died young. Partly due to the recklessness mentioned, partly due to her being a target at times. Some people do believe her to have a special connection to Elune, and that she is more likely to answer Lythis' prayers. She's traditionally associated with the smaller moon of Azeroth, the Blue Child.

Pose reference by theposearchives

[scolles]

I made a Mew amigurimi, too! I just finished it yesterday, but the weather was too scummy for any fun glamour shots :P

I used the free Mew-inspired pattern by 1UPCrochet.

[boney-t]

spring Lucina and her other bunny friends

[homestar1812]

It’s late at night and the lighting in my house sucks, so I’ll try for better photos tomorrow. In the meantime check out how good they turned out! (Faceplates were made by LovelyAcrylicFinds on Etsy so check them out if your interested). I’m trying to make my own faceplates too with different expressions, BUT LOOK HOW THESE ONES TURNED OUT I’M SO HAPPY!)

Lil 5.5 inch tall train men (cat decided to photobomb the background so you get a little scale lol)

[l0nesimp]

Jane Doe Zentangle!!!

[home-ward]

Sometimes I start projects spontaneously and then just have to muscle through to the end. I began working on this sweater vest while I was traveling in England.

I’ll post the finished product here when I’m done, pattern is by https://www.instagram.com/the.creabea?igsh=MW9oY2NrdXo2ZmxwdA==

[kate-m-art]

A couple people seemed interested and I'm taking it, custom doll I just finished of Maggie TvT

The face is Project Mc2 Camryn (but I swapped the eyes out for McKaylas green ones) on a barbie made-to-move body and then I repainted the face, sculpted her ears, sewed the dress, crafted and attached the wings and did some curls to her hair. Idk I'm super happy with how she turned out this is something I've been wanting to do for a while. Fairy lady beloved TvT

[confusedgoblin]

Boom! Fresh attack!

The freshest of bros!

[vzajemnik]

the more time passes the more i realize i fucked the worst guy on planet earth on monday gonna be honest.

[wigglebox]

Thursday #OOTD 🌈💚

[ootd+fav prompt by @werepires ]

[shaniacsboogara]

no fig, that random footman is not the fairy dragon who called you a dipshit in disguise.

above characters are figgriffin boldeborte ("fig"), my half orc archfey warlock, and sevyn, @aceforwhatevenisthis ' changeling rogue / bard. canonically they're fighting right now, but they're besties in our hearts. both characters are from my online dnd campaign #duckgame.

[nerosdayinanime]

jjk & kny self inserts - icarus is all the way back from feb last year (i made him & aether but then giyuu consumed my soul and i havent touched them Since...) and i just made kuro today