Plush Thwomp With Sound
Make a plush thwomp that grunts when you drop him!
Supplies
Supplies
- Stuffing for pillow
- Grey felt (2 pieces)
- Black felt (1 piece)
- White felt (1 piece)
- Soft grey material, 1/2 yard ( I used micro fleece, can use any material you want though)
- Digital Recording Module (from Radioshack)
Cut Fabric Pieces for Plush
First start by cutting the fabric pieces for making the plush. The finished plush will have the dimensions 10x8x4 so we will need to cut the pieces with an extra two inches. This is for sewing them together.
You should cut out two each of the following pieces of cloth
- 10x12 in
- 6x12 in
- 6x6 in
Cutting Out Face (black Felt)
Use the black felt to trace the shape of the eyes. You can either draw by hand or print a picture of the thwomp off from google and trace. When cutting them out, I doubled the felt over to get as much symmetry as possible for the two eyes and the mouth.
Cutting Out the Face (white Felt)
Using the mouth and eyes cut from the black felt, trace them and cut out the teeth and the inside whites of the eyes. Lastly, cut out a small black circle for pupils in the eyes.
The spikes on the sides will be 10 in long and will have 5 spikes. Measure 10 inches on the felt with your tape measure. Draw a line at the 1 inch mark and continue drawing lines every 2 inches. These lines will be the tip of the spike. Draw the spikes on the felt evenly. Then cut the spikes out leaving 1 inch from the bottom of the spikes for sewing into the pillow.
The spikes on the top and bottom will be 8 in long and have 4 spikes.
Sewing the Teeth
Mark the felt with chalk or something that will wash off. Draw lines everywhere you want there to be teeth. Use a sewing machine to sew over the lines with black thread. Then pin the teeth to the black felt mouth and sew over the black lines one more time. This will sew the teeth to the mouth while darkening the teeth lines.
Sew the white circles into the center of the eyes with black thread. Sew a small black pupil in the white part of the eye.
Sewing the Back
Start by sewing the side pieces to the back panel. We will sew it inside out so that the seams end up on the inside of the plush. Lay down the back panel so the front side of the fabric is facing you. Now lay down the edge piece so that the back side is facing you. Line up the 10 in edge of the back piece with the 10 in edge of the 10x6 piece. Pin all the fabric in place so is doesn't move while going through the sewing machine. The microfleece is very stretchy so use lots of pins to ensure it stays put. Sew your first seam with white thread 1 inch from the edge of the fabric. Repeat this for the remaining three sides
Once you have all four sides attached to the back, sew the four corners by aligning the edges and sewing 1 in from the edge. You will want to have the back side facing you like before. When your down, you should have a little fabric "box"
Sewing on the Spikes
Lay the second 10x12 piece front side of fabric facing up on the table. On one of the sides that is 10 in long, lay the 8 in spikes so the flat edge lines up with the edge of the fabric (be sure to center it!). Lay the edge of the box that is 10x6 down over top of the spikes, lining the edges of all three pieces up. Be sure to pin this all together so it does not move while sewing!
Sew the pieces together.
Repeat for the two sides that are 12 inches long using the 10 inch long spikes.
You should now have the pillow with one un-sewed side. Be sure to turn the pillow right side out and check that everything is sewn how you want it!
Sewing the Fourth Side
Sew the fourth side the same way as the previous three but this time, don't sew that last 2-4 inches of the edge. This will leave a little hole that we will use to add the stuffing and sound device.
Rice Bag for Weight
Sew a little bag from scrap fabric that is 8x4 inches. Sew all but one corner and fill it with rice and sew the hole shut. This little bag with make sure the plush falls on its bottom and give weight to it to trigger the sound device.
Adding Weight and Recording Device
Use the recording device to record the thwomp sound. You can find this sound effect on youtube or make it yourself! After you have recorded the sound bit you want, you can cut off the microphone and recording button so that you don't accidentally record a new sound after you sew it into the plush.
Add the weighted bag and recording device to the bottom of the plush making sure the device is on the bottom of the bag and plush. I added plastic to the top and bottom of the device to make it more sensitive. Sewing the pieces to the bean bag should also increase the sensitivity. Make sure the device is secured (again, I highly recommend sewing it to the rice bag). Test it and make sure it works exactly the way you want it before moving on!
Sewing Up the Hole
Using white thread, sew up the hole where you stuffed him.
Follow this link for a really nice detailed explanation for how to sew the hole with the hidden stitch
http://www.sew-it-love-it.com/ladder-stitch.html
Sewing on the Face
Last, use black thread to hand sew the face on the front of the pillow. I went all the way around each of the three pieces to ensure it didn't lift up or bend.
Viola! You now have a thwomp that will grunt when you drop him!