Making Soft Toys 3.

Embroidery.

Following my research into soft toys, I decided that the safest way to add eyes and facial expressions to my toys was to embroider them on, rather than use stud fastenings or buttons.  This also meant that I could draw different expressions and try to re-create them.

I initially talked my project through with a company who provide embroidered badges for school uniforms, and found that I could send them an image in a PNG file that they could embroider and price up for me depending on the stitch count.  I wondered if the college had a similar machine, and found a Tutor in the textiele department to talk to.  She reccomended using a Bernina sewing machine from the Fashion deparment, but doing heavy embroidery for such areas as eyes on separate, stronger fabric and then sewing them onto the toys afterwards.

Toys with different amounts of emboridery and different eye shapes.

The Bernina was brilliant.  I had already tried similar things on my domestic machine with no success, but the Bernina produced a satin-type stitch that I could vary in length, which meant I could produce an embroidered line that tapered.  I had already asked about machine embroidery thread, as I wanted the embroidery to be a texture rather than added colour.  I ended up buying Gutterman’s embroidery thread in the same colour as the cloth I had sourced.  I needed to use interfacing to back the cloth as I embroidered otherwise the cloth falls to bits!

I cut out the toys and marked out what embroidery I needed before coming to college as I knew that would take time, and I could only borrow the sewing machine for a day at a time.  the fashion department was stretched for resources because of their up-and coming show, and I couldn’t guarantee getting a machine more than once, so I had to make the most of it.  I therefore cut out three of each toy and marked different levels of embroidery on the cloth, so that I could compare the finished toys.