Howdy! I made a cute little Furby bag. This process isn't replicable exactly, because I was working partially from scraps, but should offer a general sense of how this can be done. Months ago I hit the web for a Furby bag that didn't cost hundreds of dollars, and not finding much, I opted to make my own.
The thing is, I'm not an adept sewer. I sew to fix things I already own, but not to make anything new. This project is not an exception. Before ordering any supplies, I took a loom at what my options were. There are a ton of 3D printed Furby face plates for sale on Etsy but the majority are very small, and while they'd fit a Furby wallet or Furby change purse, they'd have looked out of place on most average sized handbags. Finally, I ordered this "Mega" face plate on Etsy, measuring 2.8 x 2.8 inches, and it came with clear glass chips for the eyes. There are bigger faceplates out there but they cost significantly more than I wanted to spend on a single part for this project.
Next up, I needed a bag to be the base. Ideally, I wanted a bag that already had ears, feet, no hands, and a small enough face to cover with the faceplate. I did find some cat-themed purses that had ears, so they would've only needed feet, BUT they were too wide for the face I'd already purchased. And I wasn't sure I could easily attach the face plate to them with glue, since it lacks a means for otherwise attaching. Having just painted a rainbow-cheetah print pumpkin, I hopped online to find a small purse with that pattern. Amazon had the goods for a reasonable price and I ordered it. So now I had the bag and the plain unpainted face, but no feet, nor ears.
For months, the project sat untouched in my art studio. In the back of my mind, I was considering which broken dog toys (within a day of being received, the dogs destroy all of them) could feasibly offer parts for the project. Ultimately, I settled on taking the feet from a bright magenta axolotl, black fuzz from a toy raccoon, rainbow hair from a unicorn, and I don't even know what the star originally went to, as it's been floating loose in their toy boxes for so long.
With the parts picked out, I set to painting the faceplate. I happen to have gold markers so I used those for the outer frame, and acrylic paint for the eyes and mouth. Some doll-makers paint the eye chips directly or attach printed images of the eyes to them. I painted on the frame, hit it with a spray varnish, then glued the eyes to the painted frame. To glue the eye chips on, I went with a clear craft glue but it did leave bubbles which are visible up close. That's fine with me but I know some crafters wouldn't be thrilled about it.
I cut the feet off of the axolotl and the raccoon plushies. Then I sliced the bag in the bottom corners open, hot gluing the feet there. As for the top, the rainbow bag came with a fuzzy ball that matched it pattern. At first, I wasn't sure if that should be the hair or the ears. I decided to go with the ears, because the Furby needed ears more than he needed hair to look right. I cut the fuzz ball in half and hot-glued the raccoon limbs inside, giving black fur interiors to rainbow fur ears. Then I cut holes in the upper corners of the bag and hot glued the ears inside.
At this point, I had this loose star and wasn't sure what to do with it. I played with the idea of having it in the center of the head, instead of hair, or flat over the belly under the faceplate, but that looked awkward. Putting the star aside, I played with the position of the faceplate. There is a slight slope at the top of the bag so the already fuzzy fabric wouldn't lie flat the closer the plate got to the zipper. I figured the plate would have to sit slightly lower than looked best under the already too-small ears.
Not ready to commit to gluing the face on, I dug through my studio for relevant supplies. There wasn't much but I found what may have been a promotional coaster. The material was similar to that of a mouse pad but not smooth. Anyway, the color was perfect so I cut it into a heart, and after double checking the placement, glued that to the bag, and then the faceplate above it.
Now the Furby had a nice belly breaking up the rainbow pattern, but given the big gap between the face and the tiny ears, he really needed some decoration up top. I considered some options, reviewing the vast collection of broken dog toys, the star, and other materials floating around my studio. Ultimately, I was set on using the unicorn's rainbow tail, and so I cut a v-shaped hole over the faceplate, before gluing the fabric holding the rainbow hair together, there.
The bag came with that fur ball key chain but I'd used that for the ears, leaving the chain free. The star seemed perfect so I immediately attached it there, with the help of a nail and some needle nose pliers.
Now the Furby was ~basically~ done. I did go back in and add super glue to any gaps between the hot glue, just in case. While I originally intended to stitch the none-faceplate parts on, seeing as the "fur" was plastic-based, melting the parts together with hot-glue was the easier method. Otherwise I would've had to remove the interior bag, sewed the parts on, and then sewed that interior bag back into place.
The pro's of my new bag? It's cute as hell. The con's? It's so small I can either fit my phone (in its case) OR my wallet. I may add a pocket to the back, and if I do so, that will mean actually sewing the back on.
Funnily enough, Cake Worthy came out with an affordable Furby bag recently. I actually ordered the fanny pack right before I put this bag together. I've had the same fanny pack for 4 years and it's falling apart so it was time for an update.
Anywho, thanks for stopping by! I hope you found any of this helpful. I drop a new blog post every Monday! Toodles!
Update 02/23/2023: The size was bugging me so I ordered a second rainbow cheetah print bag, removed its strap, and attached the bag-part to the back of the Furby bag via chain links. The second bag came with another rainbow pom-pom keychain, which I removed and cut in half. then I attached the pieces to the ears to make them taller. Here's a short video of the finished Furby bag. Now Puck can hold my wallet and my phone, thank goodness!
Newsletter
Howdy! Aside from making a novelty bag this past week, I also knocked out a new woodburning and a watercolor painting.
For my woodburnings, I'm trying to incorporate the rings into the composition. That does limit me to very centered compositions but that makes sense for the shape and medium. I spent a day making mockups so I'm not floundering for subject matter. With this piece, I wanted to bring in color while keeping that wood showing so I limited my palette.
The new watercolor is from a very old digital mockup. I haven't painted in a hot minute so I wanted to ease back into the habit with something loose, and flowers are very forgiving. For this piece, I didn't want a visible outline so I drew the horizontally-flipped image on the bag, and painted the front on a light table. That meant painting is a dark room, occasionally flipping on the light to double check my colors. Hopefully I'll be doing more collage-based watercolors soon. I have been accumulating magazines and cutting them apart for future projects.
I didn't get any writing done, unfortunately, but I'm reading Spare by Prince Harry of Wales. Once I'm finished with that, I'll do a comparison between it, Diana's pseudo-authorized biography, and that Crown show.
Tomorrow is mine and my husband's second wedding anniversary, but it's also a work day, so we'll probably wait until this coming weekend to do something. We're both a little under the weather right now so maybe it's for the best that we wait, right?
Thanks for stopping by! I drop a new newsletter every Monday. Toodles!
Comments