Make Your Own Long Furby (With "Vegan" Felt Faceplate)

You may have seen these long critters lurking around the internet, and maybe even wanted your own. Well, look no further! This beginner-friendly pattern is an easy (but reasonably time-consuming) way to create a long Furby for yourself, a friend, or maybe even an enemy. In roughly one day, you can have your own long Furby to haunt your home!

This pattern is for a "vegan" long Furby where no regular-sized Furbies are long-ified. If you have a Furby that you would like to long-ify, I suggest you look at Look-I-Made-A-Rat's instructable. (https://www.instructables.com/Longifying-Your-Furby/)

In this tutorial, I will be using terminology for different stitches. If you don't know what it refers to (and don't worry, neither did I originally!), here are some resources:

• Whip stitch vs. blanket stitch: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55416a0ae4b0175cee86edea/1564502557961-KF1WX73ZGUCRYIMWU24O/Whipstitch+versus+Blanket+Stitch+in+Felt+Appliqu%C3%A9
• Whip stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG86hhrDdzQ
• Running stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4nhj8kMpAI
• Blanket stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9zegUYdPmg

Heart (see step 8)

• Red felt or fleece (or any scrap fabric, really) 

Furby face plate (see step 3) 

• Assorted felt (white, black, various colours)
• White thread

Feet

• White, non-fluffy fabric (or colour of your choice, 8 by 8 cm or ~3½ by 3½ inches)

Body

• Main body fabric (roughly 25-30 cm or 10-12 inches by length of fabric)
• Tummy fabric (roughly 15 cm or 5-6 inches by length of fabric)
• Spine (optional — coolant pipes work well)
• Stuffing (and lots of it!)

Sewing materials

• Needle(s) (if done by hand)
• Sewing machine & machine accessories (if done by machine)
• Thread (feel free to match it to the Furby’s colours)
• Needle threader (optional: can be helpful in threading needles)
• Scissors (sharp, preferably fabric scissors)

Furby sewing pattern

Furby birth certificate (optional)

For the Furby in this instructable, I am using:

Face plate

• White felt
• Black felt
• Yellow felt
• Red felt
• Blue felt
• Blue embroidery thread
• Black embroidery thread
• White thread
• Stuffing

Heart

• Scrap red fleece
• Red thread

Feet

• White cotton-y fabric
• White thread
• Stuffing

Body

• Black fluffy/fuzzy chenille fabric
• White animal pattern fleece 
• Coolant-pipe spine
• Stuffing

Choose a theme you would like to build your Furby around. The Furby in this demonstration is inspired by penguins. This is where you can be as creative as you would like: your Furby is yours to make unique!

I have made several different themes, pictures of which you can find above. I would suggest when shopping for fabrics, you try to put the pieces together and match them to your liking.  

Once you have gathered all your fabrics, you can cut out the pieces. I like cutting the pieces as I go, but do what you prefer. If you cut out the pieces in advance, make sure you don’t mix them up. 

When cutting out pieces, I usually go a bit larger than the actual paper piece (1-2 cm larger or ¼ inch-ish)

You will need to cut out: 

• 1 Furby face plate
• 1 Furby face base from white felt
• 2 eyes from white felt
• 2 irises from a colour of felt of your choice
• 2 pupils from black felt
• 2 eyelashes from black felt (cut so that the eyelashes are separated)
• 1 clover-like shape from black felt
• 2 eyelids from white felt (or colour of your choice)
• 4 foot pieces from the white fabric
• 2 heart pieces from red fleece, felt, or scrap fabric of your choice
• 2 ear pieces from body fabric (black fluffy, in this example)
• 2 ear pieces from tummy fabric (white fleece, in this example)
• 1 Furby body piece 
• 1 Furby face panel from body fabric
• 1 tummy piece from tummy fabric
• 1 circle (bottom of Furby) from body fabric

Procure a Furby faceplate or make your own. You can find some 3D printed (free) files online (Ex: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3385650/comments) or buy them off of websites like Etsy. You can also make your own out of felt, which is what I do. Not as “authentic” as using a real Furby face, but I find it works just as effectively without having to find a Furby.

I have not skinned a Furby, so if you are interested in doing so, you should check out other tutorials online. 

If you plan to get a Furby faceplate by other means, skip to step 8. 

1. Take the Furby face base and place all other pieces on top in order to visualize how it will come together.
2. Sew the pupil to the iris using black thread. This can be done with a whip stitch. Repeat with other iris.
3. Using the coloured embroidery thread, whip stitch the iris-pupil piece to the eye piece. Repeat with other eye.
4. Using a whip stitch again, attach the eye to the face base using white thread. Leave a little space to stuff some stuffing in to give the eye some 3D pop to it, then sew that last bit closed.

1. Attach the eyelashes to the eyelid using a running stitch and white thread.
2. Using a whip stitch, attach the eyelid-eyelash on top of the eyeball to the face base.

1. Take two yellow mouth pieces and either blanket stitch or whip stitch around the curved edges. Leave the back open to add some stuffing
2. Take the one of the remaining yellow pieces and whip stitch the red felt tongue to the yellow. Blanket stitch the yellow-red piece to the last yellow piece, leaving the inner curve separated. 
3. Lightly stuff the top half of the mouth (without the tongue) and attach it to the Furby face. Attach the bottom half of the mouth without adding stuffing. This is because when the tongue is added to the bottom half, the resulting thickness should be a similar thickness to the top half of the mouth.

1. Add the clover-like black felt piece to the top of the Furby face using black thread and a whip stitch.
2. If the space between the eyes seem large, add a rectangle of white felt ("centre face bit") via whip stitch, leaving a bit of it open to shove stuffing into. This is optional, but it makes it the faceplate more similar to that of the 1998 Furby.

1. Cut two heart pieces from your scrap fabric and place the right sides together (ie. put the parts you want to show facing each other on the inside).
2. Using a running stitch, sew around ¾ of the heart. Leave ¼ of the heart unsewn so that you can turn it right-side-out so that the outside ("right side") is facing outwards.
3. Stuff the heart, then stitch up the hole.

1. Take two of the feet pieces and place the right sides together.
2. Using a running stitch, sew around the edges of the foot, leaving the bottom of it open.
3. Invert the foot so the right sides face outwards.
4. Lightly stuff the foot, then stitch the toes using a running stitch to give the segmented look that Furby feet have.
5. Stitch the open end of the foot so that it is closed.
6. Repeat with the other foot.

1. Take one ear piece of each fabric type and pin them together so the right sides are facing inwards.
2. Sew around the edge using a running stitch, leaving the bottom open for turning.
3. Turn it so the correct side is outwards.
4. Optional: lightly stuff the ears to give it some volume.

1. Centre the Furby face plate on the face panel, then pin it down.
2. Whip stitch around the edges of the Furby face to attach it to the face panel.

1. Pin the ears into the corners where the outside panels of the Furby body meet the middle panel.
2. Check that the ears would be facing the correct direction when the Furby is turned right-side-out.
3. Sew in the ears, creating the rounded shape of the Furby head.

1. Pin the face panel to the long body piece.
2. Sew around the edges to attach the face panel and body piece.
3. You can flip it right-side-out to check that everything is in the correct position.

Sew the tummy piece to the rest of the body, making sure you do not leave any gaps here.

This is the most time consuming part of the project, so I would suggest putting on a movie, TV show, or other media to keep you from getting bored.

1. Pin the feet to the tummy piece, roughly 1 cm or ½ inch from the edge of the change between the body and tummy fabric.
2. Sew the bottom of the Furby, leaving roughly ¼ of it unsewn so it can be turned right-side-out and stuffed (in step 17). (Make sure to leave enough of a gap so you can put your arm up the Furby's backside while stuffing!) This gap should preferably be towards the back of the Furby. Make sure the feet are fully sewn into the bottom of the Furby.

1. Take the spine segments and combine them into one long spine.
2. Attach the heart to the spine by sewing through the heart, then across one of the spine segments, repeating a few times.
3. Attach the spine to the inside of the Furby. I do this at the faceplate by attaching a segment to the inside of the Furby where I previously attached the faceplate.
4. The Furby can now be carefully turned right-side-out, so the outside is facing the correct direction.

Carefully stuff the Furby, making sure to distribute the stuffing around the spine. (Do leave some space so the Furby can hold its position easier; the Furby spine works better for poseability when there is less stuffing!) Once you have it stuffed to your liking, sew the opening shut so that no stuffing escapes.

Congratulations! You now have a long Furby! (You will probably have to clean up your space and your Furby. I had to lint roll this Furby two seperate times to get the fluff off... same with vacuuming the floor).

You can print out a Furby birth certificate for your new friend. This is, of course, optional, but allows the details of their birth to be recorded. You can find these Furby birth certificates in the "Supplies" section.

Feel free to modify the Furby to make it yours!

Length:

Change the length of the Furby as you see fit. The Furbies I have made usually average around 4 to 5 feet in length as that is the length of fabric available at my local fabric store. But as long as you have the budget, you can make your long Furby any length you want.

Circumference:

If you want a more body-pillow-like Furby, you will need to adjust the width of the body, which increases the circumference of the Furby. If you make this adjustment, you will also need to use a larger circle for the base of the Furby. (And remember, the Furby spine works better for poseability when there is less stuffing.)

Number of feet:

This may seem like a strange modification, but the yellow Furby shown above has three feet in addition to being body pillow-shaped. This adds a some uniqueness to your Furby, so add as many feet as you desire! (Okay, that phrasing is admittedly rather strange.)

Accessories:

Add accessories to make your Furby yours! Above are Furbies with bow ties, which I think gives them a bit more personality.