Plush Writeup - Dirké the Hrothgar

Dirké's owner, Sei, reached out to me right around the time I was opening my recent round of commissions with a stunning reference for the plush. Since Dirké is a big boy it would require making a more muscular version of my anthro pattern, which I was happy to do as it would be something I could use for more commissions in the future. I'm really happy with how it turned out, with all the fabric variety for this plush, and Sei was amazing to work with!

Dirké is Sei's FFXIV character, and I was commissioned to make his Hrothgar form. I picked this commission because the potential of working with different types of fabrics: long pile minky for his arm and leg fur, faux fur for his chest fur which would be airbrushed to get the spots, faux fur hair, and printed fabric for his jacket interested me. I also liked the idea of having a more muscular version of my pattern available for clients! And how could I not want to take on a commission with such a clear reference?

​Dirké was saved for last as there was no color of Shannon minky similar to his fur, but there was a color from a seller I occasionally use on Ebay from South Korea. Shipping can take a while so I didn't want any further fabric delays to hold up Dirké. Since it's a different brand of minky, I had to pattern it with that type to avoid differences in pattern from the final product (which hopefully won't be too big of an issue if I use this pattern again). We also were going to have his gown made from custom printed fabric from Spoonflower. The last time I ordered from Spoonflower, which was right around the time COVID got bad in the States, it took months to get my fabric! Unfortunately, this situation may not have been able to be helped, as I would need his final pattern to be made before designing the pattern for his gown.

I usually always send swatches of fabric to my clients for OCs to allow them to choose. I prefer to do this, as I typically have an idea in my mind of what I would pick and it's always different! But Sei lives in a different country, so I only sent photos to be more economical. It was very difficult to photograph the fur and matching minky. The bottom yellow appeared to be the better choice in photos, but in real life it was the top fabric.

​Once his time had come, the first task was to edit my digitigrade pattern to be muscular. I wasn't going for a "realistic" muscular look, but something bulkier than my normal pattern. I widened the torso, broadened the shoulders, thickened the arms, and also the legs to balance it all out. I patterned him at 70% of his intended height to save on fabric.

I had some spare fabric of the same brand from when I made Kecleon years ago, so I started with a nice mint green Dirké. The first attempt was alright. The arm was too disjointed from the body, but the thickness was decent. The shoulder area needed to connect more smoothly. 

The next attempt was better, but his arm was too short and needed to be lengthened. I liked the line that his shoulder made to his arm.  His torso was still too slim and needed to be widened.

Massive, Doc from Back to the Future looking head! I like to bounce around on what I'm patterning. Similar to when you write something, I find it's best to come back with fresh eyes the next day to catch things you might have missed previously. So I began to pattern his head, which would be similar to my older pattern used for lions. But it needed to be larger for a Hrothgar.

I dialed back the faux fur hair, because it's basically impossible for me to design hair in fur, even if the final product is going to be fur. So I changed all of his head to minky except for his cheek fluff. And now I started to run out of green fabric, so his actual fabric started to be used (and I'm super glad I bought 2 yards instead of 1). I still felt like his head was too large, even without the fur giving it a bigger appearance.

I frequently print out eyes to place them on my pattern because I am not a good 2D artist. But I didn't care for the way his eyes looked on my pattern, so I decided to draw them on instead.

Despite Dirké's appearance, he is actually a big softie. That's why it's important for me to ask for extra reference images and personality, because it'd be easy to assume otherwise! I drew on larger, taller eyes, which I thought looked super sweet with this style plush. Luckily Sei liked it too!

Despite taking the arms apart for the pattern, it didn't quite work out just the way I wanted. The shoulder connection was still too jarring instead of being a smooth line. This would require adjustments to the dart that runs down the front of the arm. They also still needed to be longer.

One more adjustment, and they were better! A nice slope down the shoulder and longer arms.

Needle sculpting can alter the shape of hands and feet pretty drastically, so I tested them to make sure it still looks okay afterward. I got so many comments about people thinking these were real paws, which was shocking to me! But such a nice compliment! I think it's the perfect blend of pattern and fabric that caused that appearance, lol.

His hands would have 3D claws but his feet would have embroidered "retracted" claws.

Sketching on the placement of where his fur will land, and first attempt at his tail, which came out a bit too small.

Since I needed to make another test head, I went ahead and embroidered the first test run of his face. He also has 3D teeth, which is a nice touch!

I had not made braids before. I didn't even know HOW to braid. Dirké has two braids, so I was excited to try it out. At first, I used minky (on the left) but I was concerned with mixing minky and faux fur. Then I tried faux fur, which had several problems: 1, the pile, despite being long, doesn't get entirely caught in the braid so it comes out messy. You also have to glue two pieces together because it's impossible to turn right side out a piece of faux fur that small. But there is still 1 raw edge even if you fold one wider piece together. So after thinking for a while, I realized I could try wool roving, which is used for needle felting (on the right). I really liked this idea, as it looked kind of similar to faux fur, but was all one piece and not messy. The bottom also looked more realistic to the way real hair rejoins at the bottom of a braid. I ordered some wool roving to match the faux fur as a backup plan, as I was confident we would end up doing this method!

After patterning in minky, I made his hair out of faux fur (with a minky braid as a placeholder). It was messy, but it was just to get the shapes right overall.

I specifically patterned the ponytail to have a "dome" shape, similar to how hair forms a dome when pulled back into a high ponytail. He also has hair hanging down the back of his neck, so this method would keep the bottom of the faux fur in the pattern.

His eyes were too far apart, but I was happy with the head pattern and the hair shape! The fur could be cleaned up for the final product, but I wasn't going to take the time to do that on a prototype.

​I was confident that I could make the final revisions in one more try, so I moved on to starting the actual plush. I also needed to get my order in to Spoonflower!

Dirké's embroidery and applique took a few days to complete. He is a big boy, so even though his spots were relatively simple in shape, they took forever to stitch out. Sei also requested suede paw pads and claws. While they can't get as puffy as faux fur since the suede color that matched didn't stretch, I really like the realistic look they give! The tiny suede claws were hell to turn right-side out though!​

Dirké's chest would be made out of fur. Since he has crescent-shaped spots on his chest, I decided to airbrush them on. I made a stencil out of cardboard rather than freehand the shapes.

After drying, the spots have to be brushed out. This is because the paint sits on top of the fur, rather than dyeing the fur itself. So if it's not brushed out the fur will clump together where the spots are painted, as shown above. So even though brushing out the designs makes them less defined and a bit lighter, it makes them look more realistic in the end.

Dirké's body partially sewn together.

With his body made, I could now pattern his gown so I could send the design off to Spoonflower to get printed. I patterned it out of muslin. Originally the back had a hole for his tail, but we decided to change it to be a vent instead.

Sei provided detailed references for his gown. Since I wasn't making the designs by hand, they could be more complex, but we still removed and simplified many of the designs to translate them into real life. To get the placement right I printed out the designs and pinned them onto the final gown pattern. Then I  could scan the pattern pieces into my computer, paste Sei's designs directly onto the pattern, and then make one giant file to upload to Spoonflower.

I wrapped up the design and sent it off. Fingers crossed that it wouldn't take forever to print!

With the fabric design at Spoonflower, I could go back to working on the head. I made a cleaner version of the hair, shaving the fur where necessary to make the shapes more defined.

​Sei expressed concerns about the messiness and ability to keep it well styled. While I reassured Sei that even though it looks difficult to style, this hair is sewn into shapes, so you really just need your hand over the hair to smooth it down. It's not like styling a wig. But the hair overall gave off too wispy/fluffy of an appearance (but very Final Fantasy-esc!) that didn't really fit Dirké's style. So we decided to go the minky route.

Sei provided me with another concept, which I was happy to try out as I needed to make another head because the one I made with fur hair came out too large. Due to the nature of the pattern, I could just swap out the minky hair for the faux fur if Sei preferred the faux fur hair after all.

Dirké's final head, appropriately sized, pre-minky hair!

The minky hair spikes took a couple tries to get right, but it was all relatively straightforward. The area around the ears got a little complex for machine-sewing considering the spike, ear, and braid would need to be sewn into the head seam in a relatively small space. But I was still confident I'd be able to sew it in without hand sewing the pieces.

Sei was happy with the minky hair, so that was the route we took!

That meant we were going with minky braids, rather than faux fur or my wool roving idea (which was a good thing in the end, because the wool I ordered was MUCH softer than the one I experimented with and came apart as soon as I attempted to separate it into strands).

The minky braids had very ugly end points since they are 3 separate tubes. So I made a separate piece that fits over the bottom to hide the strands ending.

I finalized Dirké's head pattern and finished up the plush. Onto hand sewing!

Dirké's needle sculpted paws!

Nekkie ​Dirké.

Sei requested that Dirké be poseable as well, so he has plastic armature running through both of his arms! It's a neat feature that I've done in the past. Not sure why I never thought about adding it to my anthro plush!

Dirké's pants are Build-A-Bear, but I hemmed them to be shorter and also removed the elastic from the waist band as they were a little too tight for him otherwise. I made the belt out of faux leather. His tank top was simple to make, and made from a super soft stretchy knit fabric.

Shockingly, my Spoonflower fabric shipped days after I ordered it and arrived to me in less than 2 weeks. It came out beautiful! The patterns printed clearly and the colors were vibrant.

The gown was fully lined, with the patterns printed on the outside and using the plain yellow fabric for the inside.

Admittedly, I was a little scared to make his sandals. I hadn't made shoes before, only altered Build-A-Bear shoes to fit the character. I knew I would use foam to pattern the straps. My initial idea was to use EVA foam for the soles, but the foam I had was too thick and needed to be shortened. This resulted in a sloppy cut that needed to be sanded since I don't have the best tools for cutting thick foam.

Instead, I decided to use leather! I have a lot leftover from various cosplays. I used a thicker one for the soles and a thinner one for the front straps. I engraved a line down the middle of the straps to match the artwork.

The back straps of the shoes were cloth, so I picked a cotton and painted the leather to match. These pieces were finished with a gloss and the edges were sealed with beeswax.

The straps were attached to the soles with rivets for extra security. Hand sewing leather destroys my hands, and glue is unreliable, so rivets were the way to go.

The back straps are cloth, which I did have to hand sew onto the leather. They secure around the leg with straps and have a fake tied ribbon on the side to hide it.

With his shoes all finished, he was done!

Dirké was quite a project but I had a ton of fun! Sei was so wonderful to work with as well. I'm super excited to use my new pattern in the future!

You can watch a timelapse of making him below! It's my first video with my little helper Shifty! I also had a ton of fun editing this one, and tried out some new things.

Check out his full gallery below!