Begin: Tubey Pattern

I began my Tubey-making by drawing a pattern. I hand-drew Tubey based on the buttons/thingees from the Glarkware TWoP store (http://www.glarkware.com/). To scale up the Tubey to the right size pattern, I did an old trick from art class: using a ruler, draw an even grid around the picture. Count the number of squares, and draw a new grid on new paper with the same layout of squares, just scaling up the size (for example, 10x12 squares, 1cm each -> 10x12 squares, 1 inch each, or whatever size you need to increase to). Then, I used the gridlines as a guide to draw a bigger, identical Tubey - noting what grid square his eyes started in, and the corners of his face, and his buttons, etc.

Once I had my Tubey drawing, I traced each element that would need to be a separate piece on another piece of paper: his face, then eyes, tail, horns, antennae, and buttons. I cut out the scaled up Tubey drawing WITHOUT the horns, and this is the pattern for the front and back of the body. Cut out the face, eyes, tail, horns, and buttons, and strips of paper to measure the lengths of his left and right antennae. LABEL your pattern pieces just in case! Finally, I cut a strip of paper in the width that I wanted Tubey's top, bottom, back, and sides to be to make him 3D. I used his body pattern piece to mark on the width strip where each length fell, and labelled the marks for T(op), B(ottom), L(eft), and (Right). This way, I could just cut strips of fabric in that width, then use the markings to cut four lengths of the right sizes from that strip.

Sides: "left" refers to the left side of Tubey when you are looking AT his face (from HIS perspective, this would be his right side). "right", his right when you are looking at his face.

Horns: be sure to mark where the corners of Tubey's head were on his horns, and make the pieces bigger than you need them. (see the "corner" drawn in on the horns in the photo, and how it isn't cut out) You will lose some horn size when you place them on the corners of his head and sew them, so make them a little bigger at the base, and don't cut out the corners until you're ready to put the horns ON. (also if you're making a special Tubey, his horns might have different placement, another reason not to cut out the corners from the start. See: Logical Tubey.)

Photos: Tubey pattern pieces, ready for cutting. The "width" piece for the TBLR, and the markings for their lengths.

Next: cutting out Tubey fabric.