Plush Writeup - Atachi the Jackalope

I really liked this character when the quote request came in - I hadn't made a rabbit yet, liked the idea of the posable tail, and the request also included a beautiful plush-specific reference that is always very helpful. And later I found out that Atachi's owner was friends with Fishbone and Meelo, which was an extra bonus!

​Atachi was relatively straightforward to make and I think she came out super cute!

Having a reference for the character in physical object form is incredibly helpful, since reference forms don't always translate 1:1 to real life, Bonus points if it's specific to a plush, and even more if it's specific to my plush style!

First up was designing some long rabbit feet. I needed to figure out this pattern first since there would be applique on the legs. Most of the shape comes from needle sculpting!

That was all the special patterning needed for the body. So, onto applique!

Her colors are beautiful together! The lighter brown is a color from Hopen Textiles (and the same color used on Meelo - I now refer to the color as "Meelo" instead of the random number of the color from Hopen). She has puffy minky paw pads and a tattoo on one arm.

Atachi has pretty simple shapes overall as well. But it all looks very nice together!

Getting it all sewn together! Her tail was just a straight tube since it would be posable - didn' t want to sew it in to a specific shape to limit the movement.

​Onto the head!

First eye test!

My client provided a beautiful eye design for Atachi that I could easily translate in my embroidery program. I decided to use satin stitches to form the iris rather than fills. I thought it would look really nice with the different colors. I'm really glad I did! It was my first time doing something like that and it looks really nice.

There were spacing issues like usual for first eye tests, and they also came out too wide (overcompensating for fabric pull in the embroidery design). But a good first test!

I decided to do the head applique on the next test, just to make sure everything was lining up.  Her nose markings were too big, but the adjustments to the eye looked good!

I decided to try out a smaller, more kemono-inspired muzzle for Atachi. And I really like how it came out! Very cute. 

My client wanted mohawk style hair for Atachi. We originally thought about doing a terracotta faux fur base all along the hair, with fading to orange. But we decided just to keep the terracotta at the back and omit the fade around the edges.

 First patterning test on the ears!

I wanted to use felt or foam inside the ears to keep them standing on their own without wires. But these were giving me trouble: they were very tall, and the base was thin. There was too much weight up top to keep them standing on their own.

I considered using hand stitching to tack them on to the antlers (which were made out of mochi minky - yay!) so I could avoid using wire. But freestanding ears were desired, even if that meant using wire.

I was planning on doing some topstitching to define the inner/pink part of the ear, but my client requested 3D ear folds, so I patterned that... And lo and behold, it helped the ear stand up on it's own! The extra strength from the folds at the bottom helped.

Now to finalize the head!

Soft bunny nose!

Everything all together!

I was planning on machine sewing the horns into the head, but with the ears sewn into the seams, everything got cramped around that area. So they were inserted into the holes made for them and hand sewn instead (basically the same technique I would have used for machine sewing, but hand sewn instead).

Atachi FLOP!

Atachi's tail is posable with plastic armature, as well as her arms!

She also has magnets in her hands. Magnets+arm armature+tail armature makes for some really cute posing!

The glasses... Oh, the glasses. I have not stressed over a part of a plush this much in a long time.

I tested my own sunglasses on Atachi, and they fit perfectly fine - which meant that we could possibly purchase glasses for her, but we were concerned that the frames would not fit her face appropriately. So... now to make them!

I had made glasses before for Raymond, but they didn't have arms, and the style was supposed to be very thick. I started with the same technique, which is basically an extremely fancy patch.

​I hooped some ultra Solvy which is commonly used in making patches since it can be torn away afterward.

I placed some faux leather down with the right side against the Solvy (but this is actually suede from a later attempt - didn't take pics of the leather attempt 🙈 )

A layer of craft foam is placed on top of that. The purpose is to give the glasses some thickness beyond just a couple layers of fabric.

The lens holes are stitched out, and then I cut away the fabric from the inside.

Clear vinyl is placed on top and stitched down, with the excess trimmed away at the sides (so basically applique).

Wire is inserted between the foam and fabric underneath so the arms can be bent. This was VERY dangerous and I broke several needles because of bad wire placement 😬

More fabric is placed on top, and stitched into place. Then an applique stitch is run around the lenses and the edges that form the glasses. All the excess is trimmed away.

Typically I'd burn away the excess fabric beyond the edges of a satin stitch just like a patch, but I couldn't do that with the faux leather (the point of leather was to get a fabric somewhat in the ballpark of plastic, like glasses).

These glasses were too big. The rims were too thick, and they just looked like goggles to me. If I decreased the area between satin stitches I'd basically have no fabric showing, it'd just be a satin stitch, which meant it really WOULD be like a patch.

So onto my next technique... worbla! Worbla is a heat activated plastic often used to make armor in cosplays. So I had some laying around from various cosplay projects.

I used the standard "sandwich craft foam between two sheets of worbla". The foam is cut smaller than the worbla so the worbla can be pinched together around it. It's a standard technique for making armor. But... I'm not good at armor, so I was terrified. 

I also had clear worbla laying around for an eventual Will Graham cosplay, so I decided to use that for the lenses.

The back layer of worbla is heated up with a heat gun. The foam is placed on top when it becomes sticky.

The clear worbla was heated up and placed on top of the foam.

Then the 2nd layer of worbla is heated up and placed on top.

The edges are warmed and pinched together, blending the two layers and closing the gap between everything. The worbla was heated on the arms to bend them into shape.

The glasses, after blending everything together.

My first attempt had come out too thick, so I had to redo them, and this was the thinner version. I thought they looked fine (but later would realize the color of the worbla was too similar to the minky, so it wasn't showing just how thick they looked).

I went ahead and started sealing the worbla. Worbla has a texture to it that needs to be smoothed out. There are a lot of different ways to do this.

My method was wood glue. The lenses were taped off to prevent them from getting dirty.

The wood glasses after the wood glue dried. It dries hard and smooth.

The glasses were primed and spray painted.

At this point I had already set up my photo booth because all I was waiting on was the paint to dry. Once they were dried, I put them on... and I didn't like them. They were still just too thick. I couldn't get this technique much thinner without risking the foam underneath ripping after it's cut.

I think this technique is valid and could work well for goggles or a thicker frame, but I just didn't like how they looked.

Now I started to panic - I don't operate well in clutter, and my sewing room is always a disaster when I set up my photo booth. But I didn't want to take it down because it's so much work to set it up and she was nearly done. I have issues with hyperfixation, and one of my triggers is when something isn't going right and I can't figure it out. So now I had to attempt to redo the glasses again with my sewing room an absolute mess, which was flaring up my anxiety.

I once again attempted my fancy patch technique, thinning out the frames a bit more and using suede instead of leather. They came out cleaner. My anxiety was calmed, but... eh.

Literally in the middle of the night I woke up out of a deep sleep with another idea on how to make them. I was clearly thinking about this non-stop even in my dreams.

I wanted to try sewing fabric together in the shape of glasses and then essentially doing the same applique technique to insert the lenses. The nose bridge needed to be attached separately since it couldn't be turned right side out.

I needed a fabric that would hold the round shape well after turned right side out and ironed, so I used a wool. It would also contrast well with the minky.

After it's turned right side out the piece is ironed, a wire is inserted in the arm, and clear vinyl the exact size of the rim is inserted into the glasses piece.

I top stitched right around the edge of the glasses, about 0.25" from the edge. The excess fabric was cut away and the edges were satin stitched. It's just applique!

This way I could get the rims much thinner than other techniques.

Glasses are definitely something I want to improve on in the future, but the best I could do for now!