Hoodoo Hearted

jumpin' on the plushy bandwagon...

Posted by Atomic Kudzu

About

We hosted a show called "PLush off" here in OKC and held a workshop as part of it doing demos on making your own plushies. I got a little addicted to how easy it is to make these and even started making a series of cat toys and keychains with same designs which include broken hearts, voodoo dolls and dead fish.

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You Will Need (3 things)

  • Fabric
  • Stuffing
  • Sewing Machine

Steps (7 steps, 40 minutes)

  1. 1

    Not so good at the How to's so this is my first attempt and I will have to add pics later.Anyway supplies needed are felt, scissors, needle, embroidery thread, and stuffins for the guts.

  2. 2

    For the hearts I don't use a pattern but rather use the ol' kindergarden valentine method and take a square cut out of felt and fold it once(since you will need two pieces of heart) and then fold it a second time and holding all of it together tightly carefully cut the half heart shape which since it is folded over makes two full heart shapes.If you aren't particular about symetrical shape you can also just layer two pieces of felt together and cut the shape that way.

  3. 3

    After you have your two heart shapes, make sure they are lined up and cut a zig zag in the middle for your broken look.Be careful to line your cuts up and don't cut over or you could end up with a weird hole where guts could leak out.Also since we have folded the felt your bottom heart may have come out a bit bigger so now is good time to trim excess.

  4. 4

    Okie so now for the hand sewing( which I am not great at and don't even know what the stitches are called so you will just have to bear with my stitch nicknames) I use embroidery thread ( or crossstitch thread to some) and pull it apart in half( so 3 pieces thick)and thread your needle. Now take the piece that will be the front of your heart and stitch a zig zag on one side and then go back and stitch little "stitches" over the zig zag to create the effect of a heart being cut open and therefore sewn back with "stitches".Then do another one on the other side.really you can do as many or as little of these as you want and don't be perfect because this is s zombie heart you are stitching up and perfect doesn't exist in a regenerated world.

  5. 5

    Okay so now we sew the two pieces together. Line em up again and start from bottom doing what I call a "zombie stitch" around the edge.( I think techinically this is kinda like a blanket stitch?) Now once I have one side sewn and have reached the middle of the broken part I go ahead a stuff some of the one side of the heart( you might need a stuffing tool or pen if the whole is too small for finger.If you are adding cat nip this is a good time to sprinkle a little on that side of heart to mix in with stuffin's.

  6. 6

    Now stitch up other side of heart leaving enough room to finish stuffing.Stuff and than stich up last bit.Now how you hide your last stitch and the knot that tes the thread depends on your sewing level. My friend showed me a little trick where you run the needle under your other stitches after you knot and it hide the knot.for me that works about half the time, like I said I am not a great seamstress.

  7. 7

    Okay so there ya go..
    now for the keychain I just add a felt loop at one part of the heart while I am stitching it up and then I salvage an old keyring off old set of keys( or buy ene from hardware store) and connect it to the loop.
    For the hoodoo voodoo enthusiast, many different herbs and scented oils can also be added to your heart as an alternative to catnip or plain stuffin guts.
    okie thanks and enjoy!