Mon, 26 Feb 2024
The Baby Standing Dragon was originally designed to be "how small can I make a dragon plush," but of course the released design comes in sizes for machines up to 6x10 because people with big machines want to make big dragons sometimes. But that poses a little bit of problem with the eyes.
I was pretty excited when Preciosa came out with Mini (3x5) versions of the DiamonDuo and GemDuo (5x7) beads that I'd been using for the original standing dragon, because putting them on the babies led to some kinda bug-eyed dragons (especially in low- or no-pile fabrics). Sadly, they've never come out with larger versions of them. I feel like the diamond-shaped beads give them a lot more personality; round eyes can give a plushie a thousand-yard stare. Or shark eyes, which are fine on sharks but not so much on other things.
For the 8x8 version, in Bubblegum, I went with Potomac Beads 6x8 oval crystals in settings. Oval beads look much bigger than the same-dimensions diamond shape. In the past, I've put framed 5x7 beads on a similar-sized dragon, and wasn't quite as happy with it - the vertical edge of the frame doesn't blend into the minky as well as the beveled bead edge. It's adequate on regular 3mm minky, but neither one is going to do as well in shorter print minkies.
The Halloween Bones reminded me: I completely neglected to suggest cotton-print wing fabric choices in the design instructions, but look! You can use cotton prints for the wings. They don't stand out as well as minky, but at least I did put notes on adding wing wires.
Lastly, DIY eyes. This will become even more important in the adult Standing Dragon, but I've got a little mini-tute on making eyes from flat-back cabochons which will work for the Baby Standing Dragon as well.