Making Soft Toys 1.

Sourcing Fabric

Velour is a difficult fabric to track down.  I found very few sites that sold it on the internet, and when I did, the colours were too dull to be attractive to a small child.  As it is a stretchy (Knitted) fabric, it is difficult to sew on domestic machines, so I couldn’t find any in Fabric retailers in Plymouth.  I am assuming that it is the sort of fabric that is produced in bulk, in pre-ordered colours and goes straight to manufacturers.

I therefore compromised by using Fleece fabric, which is more readily available for domestic use, and comes in a wider range of bright colours.  There are sites available that sell fleece fabric, but for cost and speed, I bought the fabric from Plymouth market, as I could buy small amounts and not pay postage (which doubled the price of the fleece being sold on the net).  These toys were only supposed to be proto-types as I couldn’t reproduce the actual  factory finish.

Fleece fabric is warm to the touch, like velour and is soft.  It has no definite grain, but I found it to be stretchier across the fabric than along the selvedge.  It would not be suitable for a finished toy as it is not hardwearing enough and can’t take much in the way of embroidery.