Plush Writeup - Biv the Cat

My friend Jade commented that she was interested in a plush of her cat OC, Biv, when I posted the original Shifty nuiMO. Since I wanted to do one more iteration of the chubby nuiMO pattern before I opened it for commissions, I was happy to make this adorable character!

Since Biv's color transitions are easy, besides the one on her eye and back, I decided to do color blocking for most of the color transitions rather than sublimation. It would also be a good example for commissions. For the face and back I would do sublimation and goal seek a color as close to the fabrics as I could.

I already had a bright green and orange that I'd like to use for her. I ordered some bright purple mochi that I'd been eyeballing for a while because it's such a beautiful color.

For her base color I was between ivory from Joann's (left) and color #20 from Hopen Textiles which is a more saturated cream color. I took out the pin I had of Biv and thought that #20 was a better option compared to it, but Jade uses ivory to make her Biv plushies. But we both decided to go with the creamier #20!

Once again it took me a few hours to find the right colors to match the mochi I was using. They weren't spot on, but they were very close, especially considering that the sublimation will not be right next to the color I'm trying to match so the differences won't be obvious. I used my preferred sublimation settings (above), but I turned the saturation all the way up to the max of 25.

While I typically use 375F to get the dye deep into the fibers of the fabric, I decided to use 325F for a few reasons:

1. I can get brighter colors with a lower temperature
   
2. Since the sublimated fabric would not be over a seam, I didn't have to worry about the base showing through more than with a higher temperature
3. The lower temperature would result in the designs being more defined/less blurry around the edges. Since her face would be made with sublimation, this was appealing to me.

Biv's beans - omg! They are some of the cutest things I've ever made! And those colors really got me in the Halloween mood too!!

The only pattern pieces that needed sublimation were her face and back. I based her face off of Shifty's but changed the mouth a bit and simply guesstimated where the eye spot and whiskers should land.

Somehow, I ended up printing the head and back pattern pieces too small. I don't know how I managed that - I guess maybe my paper settings were off? I had to redo those pieces entirely. So as usual, I have to remake the head at least once for every project :)

Since I was color blocking most of the details, Biv's ears are separate pieces sewn into the head, unlike what I did for Shifty and Taro.

​I decided to spray paint the safety eyes purple. I found a really nice glossy purple that matched the color scheme well. I spray painted them, let them dry overnight, and placed them on my work table the next morning. A little bit later I found one of the eyes on the floor and the other was gone. My cats had stolen one of her eyes and took it somewhere to play with, and I still haven't found it to this day! My husband and I looked for it for a long time and we could not find it! I'm sure I will find it one day and I can't wait to see where it ended up XD

Biv's head is attached with a hardboard joint. Rather than use the cotter pins that come with it, I use a technique taught to me by planetplush. Using two of the hardboard disks, I thread a bolt through the disc that goes into the neck and glue it in place. This bolt sticks outside of a hole in the neck part of the plush. The head also has a hole where the neck meets. The bolt is put through this hole, and another hardboard disc is placed on top as well. This disc is fastened with a hex nut and a locknut.  

I had to hand-baste the feet bottoms on because they are so small. 

Biv's arms were jointed with plastic joints, but they gave me some trouble and I ended up having to replace them after I locked them in place. I bought these joints because they were the smallest I could find, but I could not lock them in place by hand. They were WAY too tight. I used my heat gun to heat up the locking piece so I could slide it in place. However, I think this made the locking mechanism too loose, so her arms were very loose as well, and had trouble holding poses. I had to remove the locks with a pair of plyers which was a LOT of hard work, and replace them with some 20mm joints that I had that I could lock myself. (that seller is sold out of them, otherwise I would link the ones I like).

Her legs and tail have a skeleton of plastic-coated electrical wire. Since the wire is too thick to wrap around itself and stay put, I glue the pieces into place on the spine.

Biv is just so cheerful and cute!

Finally, she has a little pouch with a magnet in her butt so she can ride on her owner!
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Specs

• Pattern used:
  • Chubby nuiMO inspired pattern
• Mochi used:
  • #20 cream mochi from Hopen Textiles​
  • #24 bright purple from Hopen Textiles
  • #184 bright orange from Hopen Textiles
  • #92 lime green from Hopen Textiles
• Stuffed with Hopen Textiles mochi stuffing
• Wired with plastic coated electrical wire
• Approximately 6" tall without ears