Welcome!

This is Tubey:





Tubey is the mascot of www.televisionwithoutpity.com, and I have made him in stuffed form for their charity program, Tubey's Kids. The following blog is a documentation of how I created and sewed the Tubies. Enjoy! And go bid on a Tubey's Kids auction: it's for a good cause. :o) Proceeds go to kids educational charities!


well, since Blogger apparently doesn't have a setting to display my posts in reverse order, you'll just have to read from the bottom up.

Go to the navigational bar on the right and click on the entry titled "Begin..." and go from there.

Disclaimer

Tubey is the property of Television Without Pity (http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com)

You can make your own Tubey to hug and to love, but you can't make Tubey for profit or for evil. I did not profit in any way from the making of this Tubey or this documentary. I just did it for love. :o)

Snark, and love.

Finishing - Add BITS!

Before we finish, a note about stuffing: I forgot to say, don't stuff Tubey TOO full, or he'll be more likely to be rounded and bulgy, and also there's a point where you have too much stuffing and he's just too solid, and not snuggly. Don't understuff and make him saggy, but once you think he's stuffed enough, just pick him up and squeeze him and see if he "feels" right.

Now. Finishing Tubey. First of all, he needs horns. He can't be a demonic television without HORNS.

Refer back to the pattern section where I talk about cutting corners out of his horns. Do this now (unless you're making Logical Tubey). Also, get two small black pom-poms, or cut small circles out of your Tubey fabric, to make his antenna tips. (Note: if you're using a fabric other than felt, like say velvety stuff that's not the same on both sides, you'll need TWO of everything "bits": tail, horns, and antenna. Sew the two layers together so that he has "right" side of fabric on both sides of his tail and horns.)

I place Tubey's horns about 1/2" from his front panel. This is hard to explain and invisible in the photos, but I'll do my best. Starting with Tubey's right horn, place it on the right side of his head, lining up the clipped corner with his actual corner (trim the top seam right there, if you have to). With the horn lying FLAT against his side, make the clipped out part of his horn parallel to the seam between his front and his right side. Leave the top clipped part hanging for now. Whipstitch the clipped edge of the horn to the flat fabric side. His horn will stand up when you pull into place, and it's easier to sew with it lying flat. (photos: Tubey's horn lying flat, whipstitching)

Now, pull the horn out away from his head, position the other side of the clipped corner on the TOP of his head, flatten it out at this new angle (so the clip is again parallel to the appropriate side, in this case the top/front seam) and whipstitch again. (photo: horn half done, halfway "pivoted" to sew other segment; finished horn)

Sew on Tubey's other horn in the same way.

Finally, add pom poms or circles for Tubey's antenna tips, and he's done!

Boy, am I STUFFED! (heh.)

Stuffing!!
What's wrong with this picture...........?

If you said "the one on the right," you're right! DO! keep your stuffing nice and fluffy; stuff it in gently. DON'T ball your stuffing up in tight little wads: This will make Tubey bulgy and lumpy, and not so huggably awesome. Stuff Tubey so that he's filled out nicely, making sure to get in all the corners, and to fill out his bottom, which you'll tend to stretch out a bit as you reach in to stuff the stuffing all the way to the top. Make sure he's nice and smooth and not lumpy by spreading the stuffing out with your fingers once it's inside, especially the layer right under the fabric.

Now, pin closed the stuffing opening, and sew up Tubey's butt! You might have to smush him a bit to get him under the machine. Make sure to catch both layers of fabric so he's really closed. If you can't do this in the machine because the logisitics just aren't working out for you, it's fine to hand-sew him closed. It just takes longer. :o)

Stuffed Tubey!! But don't stick a fork in him yet - he's not QUITE done. And also, that's mean. ;o)

Assembling, part Tres

Next, line up the side edges of the back with the back edges of the sides. You'll have to fold the top panel outward a bit into a triangle to line up the side all the way to the top. Make sure to sew all the way over the corner. This makes his corners a little messy, as they get sewn one way before the other, but you don't want him to have holes in the corners!!

Finally, pin the bottom edge of the back along the back edge of the bottom, again being careful at the corners.

Leave a space about three fingers wide, marked with pins, which you will NOT SEW!!! You'll need this space to stuff Tubey. I like to back-and-forth with the machine on either side of the stuffing-hole, so his bottom seam doesn't start to pop out while I'm stuffing him.

Need stuffing!!!!

Assembling Tubey, part Deux

[continued...]

Now, match up the short ends of Tubey's top, sides, and bottom where the corners will be. Sew the corners like you did the long seam - very close to the edge.
















Here's Tubey with his corners done: He should rather resemble a box with no lid.

Now for the hard part: the back panel. First, line up the top edge of the back, with the back edge of the top. Pin, and sew.

Don't catch Tubey's antennae in his back seam, like I did here. *blush* Be similarly careful with the back and his right side, because of his tail!

Assembling Tubey

First a note about how these Tubeys are put together:

Tubey doesn't have any seam allowances - I don't put him together inside out, sew 5/8" or 1/2" from the edge of the fabric, and then turn him right side out. I put him together RIGHT SIDE OUT, and sew his seams 4-5mm from the fabric edges. This keeps his edges crisp, and ensures that he is nice and square, with nice sharp corners, rather than rounded and bulgy. Sometimes his edges or seams are uneven this way, but I think it makes his overall shape nicer. If you want to sew him inside out and turn him around, you need to change your pattern to include seam allowances.

So. First, pin Tubey's top, wrong sides together (if you're using felt, there really is no "wrong" side), to the top of his face. You really have to pin since the seam has to be precise. Don't let the fabric layers slip around or you'll have a lopsided Tubey! Pin his bottom to the bottom of his front:
















Now carefully sew just the top and bottom straight edges.

Next, match up the left and right sides by length (Tubey's right side, on the right when you're looking at his face, is slightly longer than his left side). Pin, and sew. Make sure to hold the top and bottom up out of the way while you sew! Don't sew the sides to the top or bottom yet, you'll match up the corners once the long seams are sewn.

Before you sew the corners together, pin Tubey's antennae to the top panel. They should be touching each other, and their ends should be about 1/2" from his front panel. Sew back and forth repeatedly over the antenna ends. If they're double thick felt, they'll stand up just fine once he's stuffed. You'll have to "pose" them, but once you do they'll stay.

Similarly, sew Tubey's tail to his right side (your right). The bottom of his tail is placed just below the bottom corner of his face. Refer to a picture or your original drawing. You can stitch over the first "corner between tail segments" beneath his pointy tail tip - placing one stitch so that when he is upright, his tail will stay at his side and not droop. You can do this carefully on the machine (I do, for speed) but if you're not an experienced sewer I recommend doing this by hand, with needle and thread, after Tubey construction is finished. Sew back and forth over the end of Tubey's tail to anchor it to his side. (sorry... you can hardly see the tail in the picture. I should've demonstrated with a different color fabric!!)

Ready to Sew!!

Now we have all our Tubey parts cut out, it's time to SEW!!
Tubey Parts:
















Pin Tubey's face and buttons to his front. Use your original pattern piece to check the placement.
With WHITE thread in your machine (or by hand with a needle and white thread, though that takes longer), sew around the edges of Tubey's face. I use a nice, tight straight stictch, but you can use a zigzag stitch if you want, just make sure not to go outside the white face fabric and stitch white all over the black body fabric.


Now sew on Tubey's buttons. I find it's best to go very slowly to sew around the tiny round buttons.
Tadaa! Completed face & buttons:

Now change to BLACK thread, and sew on Tubey's eyes. It's very important, if you're machine sewing, to make sure your bobbin is black thread too, otherwise you'll have ugly white seams all over Tubey when you put him together!

Now that Tubey's face is ready, we can assemble him.

Cut!

Next use your pattern pieces to cut out Tubey Parts!

These instructions work for my size Tubey pattern - he's about 6" tall and under 5" wide.

Fold a regular felt sheet (~8"x12" or so) in half along the long side, cut out Tubey's body out of 2 layers (so you have a front and a back). See above.

Fold a second sheet in half and cut two strips using the "width" pattern piece, then from those strips and with the same pattern piece use the length markings to cut out Tubey's sides, top, and bottom.

From the scraps of those two felt sheets, cut out Tubey's eyes, horns, tail, and antennae (I always cut 4 antennae - two of each. They stand up better if they're double thick felt). From white felt, cut out Tubey's face and buttons. (below)



EYES:

HORNS:

TAIL:

Antennae:

Face & buttons:

Now you're ready to sew!

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.

Coming Soon!

A photo documentary of how cute little stuffed Tubeys are born.


Sometime this week. Stay tuned.