Puppy Plush From an Old Bath Robe

This puppy plush is adorable, soft and homemade from an old bath robe! I made the pattern from looking at my son's other stuffed animal & taking lots of measurements to make something similar. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be! To make a super cute stuffed animal - it takes a few extra pattern pieces and a little bit of time. It is worth it though!

You can download all of the pattern pieces here in PDF form. Please note that the main body pieces are so large that they required four pieces of paper. Once you print them out, you'll need to lay them down and tape them together before cutting them out. Most of the other pieces are smaller and won't require anything but cutting and laying on your fabric. *In the photos, the puppy made was the white one! The brown one is the puppy I used to help make the pattern!

What You Will Need:

• Fabric (an old robe or some other plush type of material would be ideal)
• Stuffing or filling
• Thread, Scissors, Pins & Sewing Machine
• I recommend some type of black furry material for the nose - or you can embroider one on or use black felt - anything you choose - I used black fur
• Eyes ( I used black buttons)

The first step is for you to cut out the pattern pieces. Then, lay out your fabric, pin the pattern pieces down or make an outline of them on the fabric, and cut all the pieces necessary. Pay attention to the fabric - if one side has a different texture or effect than the other side, just be aware of that so you cut the pieces out so the fabric is the same. The pattern piece for the tummy area needs to be cut out with one side on the fold of the fabric.

After cutting all the pieces out, then you need to take the two main side body pieces. Pin them together along the top (see image) where the top of the back will connect. Before you begin, take note of where the tail should be located. Leave this area alone - do not sew there. Skip that small tail area, and finish sewing until the back is sewn together.

Now, sew the tail pieces together leaving an opening at the end. Stuff it (don't over-stuff it though) and then sew it into the opening along the back.

Now, take out the underside of the stomach piece, or the tummy piece. You will need to sew the darts onto it. This is one of the most important steps in making your stuffed animal look the way it should and be able to sit as well.

You will need to locate the first spot where a dart is needed. Then, fold that over and pin it. Then sew your dart. See graphics below for detailed explanation. Sew all darts onto the underside or tummy piece. Then, take the main body pieces and you'll see that the pattern piece has markings on it for two darts per side. The darts are small and should be sewn after you have done the underside of the stomach darts.

This step looks trickier than it is! Now you will need to take one of the main body pieces, and the tummy piece. As you can see in the graphic below, you will need to stitch along the body to sew the pieces together, and along one side of each leg (only the area you see with the red dashes) - leaving one side and the seam for the paw, untouched. Once you've done this, then you will need to take the round circles for the paws. You will need to carefully sew the circle onto the bottom of the legs. You have one side of the legs left without a seam, to make sewing your circle on, much easier. You'll need to guide the fabric, sew a little, stop, turn the material and repeat many times around the circle. But, once you've made it around and it's on - then you can sew the final seam on that leg. Repeat this with all legs. Now your main body is done!

Now it's time to sew the head pieces together. Sew the main head piece -A- to one of the pieces of -B-. See pattern piece for extra instructions on how to do this properly. Once that is done, it will look sort of like a cap. Now take out your ear pieces. Before sewing the two pieces together per ear, take one piece from each set of two and fold it in half in the middle. Sew a small 1/4 inch dart down that ear. Doing this step, will make the puppy have really cute ears which are slightly turned down. If you don't do this, they may actually stick right out in an unnatural way. Then, put the pieces wrong-side together, sew along the seams and put it right-side out. Put a little stuffing in it and sew the top seam under. Then, sew it onto the head. Repeat with other ear. Then sew the eye on - you can embroider one on or use a store-bought doll eye or a button of some kind. Lastly, there is a small area at the base of the head on piece -B- which needs to be sewn together - it's only about an inch and it is part of the neck.

Once done with that, then turn the two mouth pieces wrong-side together and sew them together. Then put them right-side out and you'll need to sew the nose on at this time. I cut a round piece of fake fur out, and hand sewn it on. I then had sewed on a smile with embroidery thread.

Now, sew this part of the face onto the main head piece which you made in the earlier step. It will be tricky - just take your time to sew around the curved pieces. You're almost done!

Before you do the last and final step - look over your cute puppy plush and see if there are any changes you would like to make. I personally wanted the face to have a little more shape - and I use a piece of thread and went into the head area above the nose and snout - I took my needle and thread and went into the inside area of the head. I wanted the area between the eyes to be pushed down a little, an indentation rather than a big curve for the whole head. So, I took the thread and put it through the material without it showing on the top, and pulled it down and secured it on another area on the inside of the head, and tied a knot. I did the same with the area right next to it - so it  would look the same. If you don't know what I mean, it is difficult to explain but you can take a look at the closeup of the puppy here to see where it indents a bit on the head before the big curve. That is what I did to create that effect.

I recommend stuffing the head so you know how it looks before you plan on sewing it onto the body. But, when sewing it onto the body, it is much easier to take the stuffing out before sewing it together.

So, take the main head piece and line it up with the body piece. I started at the outside top of the neck and began sewing around (wrong-side out so no seam would be visible) and I did this as far as I could maneuver it around. I went back around the other side and stopped where I had an opening at the bottom of the neck. The opening was the area I used to stuff the entire plush puppy with filling. When you are stuffing it, try to use a little less than you might want to use - because it will give it a really nice effect. Once you do this, you will be left with a hole on the neck. At this time you will need to try to carefully fold the two pieces under and hold them together - then hand sew the last area of the opening. You are done!!! If you have questions, please ask!

Finally - some strange and cute pictures of the puppy plush made from my old bath robe! :) My son loves it! It was fun to make - the most time-consuming part of it was drafting up a pattern! I plan on making more - and using the pattern to alter it and make a cat too!