Silver Seams
A tiny plush dragon. Its eye and nostril are machine embroidered, albeit just a basic test shape, and its underside is appliqued iridescent fabric.

Dragon embroidery

Wed, 21 Aug 2024

Early in development of the standing plush dragon, I wanted to embroider eyes on it like I did for the beanie dragons:

Beanie dragons with applique green sparkle eyes

but it would require calibrating the gusset and two sides of the dragon in ways I hadn't mastered yet. Well, I've learned some tricks over the years. I didn't offer it for the Baby Standing Dragon because would change it to two full hoopings rather than just a tiny second hooping for the head only (often combined with the legs, depending on your hoop shape).

But.

If there are two full hoopings for the body sides, it does mean I can put markings on the dragon side. So I tried that out today, with some mixed results. The applique means it's really hard to turn the head at the 5x7 size, but cutting out the under-layer will help. The calibration is almost there. The first trial came out great on one side, but the other one... welllll...

A face-on view of the dragon. The eye on the other side is halfway down the head, entirely asymmetrical.

(Note to self: just because you've perfectly aligned the eyes with the gusset seam doesn't mean the chin seam doesn't need as much alignment...)

I really love the usual eyes on these dragons - DiamonDuo or GemDuo, or the Mini version for tinier ones - but they need the minky pile to keep them from being bug-eyed, and I have a lot of neat non-pile fabrics I like to use. So adding embroidered or applique eyes will be an improvement, even if I lose the pretty iridescent glass.

"Plush" dragon made from spandex, with glass eyes that stand above the fabric surface

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