This is a squishable meeple the is perfect for cuddling when you need some more Lizard Cult in your life.
Total Project Time: 45 minutes
I decided, after very little thought, that I don’t have enough Lizard Cult related stuff. I mean, I’ve made a shirt and a giant wooden meeple but that doesn’t feel like nearly enough. So, what if I made another giant meeple? But this time, let’s make it soft and fluffy!! A meeple pillow / plushie?
That sounds like complete perfection! This was a simple project except for the lizard face. I am lucky enough to have an embroidering sewing machine, but you can always do normal embroidery as well. That would just cause the project to take a little longer.
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in forever fabrics or more unlimited ideas.
Supplies
For this project, I only needled a few things:
- Yellow Fabric, I chose to use minky fabric as this seemed like the best choice for a plush and was something I had around from a different project…
- Black Thread, for embroidering the face
- Yellow thread, matched to the fabric as best as I could to hide the stitch work
- Polyester Fiberfill, for stuffing
- A Sewing Needle, to close the final hole.
I think the biggest decision I had to make with the supplies was the fabric. While I chose to stick to the classic color and use something soft, there was plenty of other options. Like what about a cotton or polyester fabric? Or what if I went with a wild fabric and just kept the Lizard cult shape? Better yet, what if I did a patchwork fabric Lizard Cult Meeple? That would be awesome!
For the yellow fabric, there were three pieces that were shaped:
- The front and back of the lizard meeple
- A strip of fabric to connect the two pieces.
Process
01
Prepping the Fabric
Before getting started, I wanted to prep the fabric with the facial embroidery. This is effectively going to determine how big my finished meeple is going to be. I wanted to use the sewing machine to do this because I am lazy. But that also meant having a pattern or file to create the stitchwork.
So, I ended up creating my own file for an embroidered Lizard Cult face. I used an image to create .pes type file and if you want to use it, check out the Download Link section below! I would have uploaded the .pes file but my site did not want to cooperate.
After getting the embroider down on two piece of fabric, it’s time to shape the lizard. I also included a file for a lizard cult outline, but this will have to be adjusted depending on the size of embroidery that was chosen.
I discovered that the Lizard face takes up about 84.2% of the meeple. I had my machine set to have the face span the width of 99.6mm which led me to have the width of the total meeple to be 118.3mm.
02
Sewing on the Front
Before and stitching is done, each piece should be roughly cut out leaving some edges as working room. The first step in stitching everything together is attaching one edge of the strip to the fabric to the edge of the front piece. The strip should go all the way around. The good sides of the fabric should be facing each other.
I like to pin all of pieces into place first before sewing because it helps prevent mistakes. Very much under the measure twice cut once philosophy. I kept the two tails of the strip separate because that is the perfect location to build in a hidden stitch.
This proved to be a very difficult step as the curves of a lizard meeple are difficult to do well. I probably should have exaggerated the spikes more.
03
Sewing on the Back
This process is extremely like sewing on the front except we are using the free edges of the fabric strip. This is when the Lizard Meeple Plushie is really going to come together. I lightly trimmed any excess fabric to help keep the edges from getting to lumpy.
The opening along the strip is a what I used to turn the project inside out. Now it’s really looking good! Looks like a meeple to me! Sort of… like a derpy meeple! And The lizards are nothing if not derpy.
04
Filling and Finishing
The last part of the process is filling the plushie with the desired stuffing. I used a Polyester Fiberfill because it is the easiest choice for fill. I know others who use fabric scraps as not to waste any materials as well.
But after filling, there is still a whole in the lizard meeple. To close this hole, I hand sewed a hidden stitch along the line. Using a hidden stitch is convenient when closing projects because it can be hard to tell which was sewing by a machine and which was sewn by hand.
Reflections
So, this project didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted it to. It was a little smaller than I had originally planned but that was just due to the constraints of the embroidery. And I didn’t want to spend the time/find the time to do the embroidery by hand.
I also wish, as I previously said, that I had really exaggerated the spikes to make them more apparent. Right now, they just look like little bumps. But I kind of love how it looks a little derpy. It’s sweet in its own way and very soft to snuggle with. ❤️
Lessons
The Size of the Hole
When turning any project inside out, it’s important to think about how big the opening your leaving. If a lot needs to be pulled or pushed through, leaving a bigger hole can be beneficial so you don’t end up ripping other seams.
If a project needs more space to move, it either won’t or it will create more space. And typically, you’d rather be in control of the project then have the project tear in a unexpected way…
Quick Recipe
Lizard Cult Meeple Plush
Materials
- Yellow Fabric I chose to use minky fabric as this seemed like the best choice for a plush and was something I had around from a different project…
- Black Thread
- Yellow thread matched to the fabric as best as I could to hide the stitch work
- Polyester Fiberfill
- Sewing Needle
Instructions
- Embroider the face onto two pieces of fabric. The embroider faces should be an inverse of one another.
- Cut out the fabric to the desired size(keep in mind the sizing of the embroidery!), leaving excess fabric around the edge.
- Cut out a strip of fabric long enough to cover the circumference of the front and back pieces plus a little extra. The width of the strip should correlate to the size of the front and back.
- Sew one edge of the strip around the edge of the front piece. The good sides of the fabric should be facing each other.
- Sew the other edge of the strip to the edge of the back piece. The good sides of the fabric should be facing each other.
- Through the hole where the strip should come together, turn the project inside out.
- Fill meeple plushie with Polyester Fiberfill or stuffing of choice.
- Use a hidden stitch to connect the two tails of the strip.
