Reversible Mood Septopus Plush

This reversible mood septopus is so cute and expressive. It is a little tricky, so it is probably not a project for a beginner, but if you follow these steps you can try your hand and make one too! There are different ways to achieve this septopus so don't feel like you need the machines I have to make one. You can do this all by hand with just scissors, a sewing needle and thread. AND if you are more careful than I was, you may just end up with an octopus with 8 legs instead of a septopus with just 7! More on that later...

To make a reversible plush, you will need:

Supplies needed:

1/4 yard gray minky fabric

1/4 yard blue minky fabric

black glitter heat transfer (I used Siser brand)

Needle

Thread

Stuffing

Pins

Pattern

Optional Tools:

Cricut Maker machine

Cricut Maker fine point blade

Cricut Maker rotary blade

Pink Cricut Fabric Cutting Mat

Sewing Machine

Bonus joke from my (then) 6 year old: how many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? (answer at the end!)

If you've never worked with minky fabric before, let me warn you in advance! Minky is to sewing what glitter is to paper crafting! Minky is a soft, stretchy fabric and it SHEDS like it's nobody's business when cut. Be prepared to get fluff everywhere, no matter your cutting technique. I'm still finding fluff from this project.

To start, upload the pattern into Cricut Design Space. I saved the pattern in two separate files, one has the face and head pieces and one has the tentacle pieces. Upload both files into Design Space and make sure the red squares are the same size in both files. I sized my square to be 1 inch so the largest pieces of the design fit on the 1/4 yard of fabric.

Smooth the first color minky onto the pink Cricut fabric mat and load it into the Cricut Maker machine. Load the rotary blade into the tool holder and select "Cotton fabric" from the materials list in Cricut Design Space. Send the pattern to cut and cut the head pieces twice for each color and the tentacles once for each color. You will need to unload the mat and trim the fabric and reload between cuts.

Once the Cricut cuts the minky, carefully peel the pieces off the cutting mat. You might have little connective pieces holding the cuts together since minky has a high amount of stretch, if this happens, use a pair of scissors to separate the pieces of the fabric. Cut both colors then we can move onto the faces in the next step.

No die cutting machine? No worries, print the pattern and pin to your fabric. You can then cut with scissors.

Next, we are going to cut the faces out of glitter iron on heat transfer material. Heat transfer is heat activated and sticks to your fabric when heat and pressure are applied. It comes on a clear carrier sheet that helps you move the heat transfer from the carrier sheet to your project surface.

Smooth the heat transfer material onto the cutting mat, shiny side down. Load the mat into the Cricut Maker machine and install the fine point blade. Select glitter iron on from the materials list in Cricut Design Space then send the design to the machine to cut.

Note: You would normally reverse the design when using heat transfer since you are cutting the design upside down but in this case, the design doesn't change enough to warrant flipping the design. If you would prefer, you can mirror it if desired.

Once the machine cuts the faces, weed the design by removing the excess material leaving behind just the faces.

No die cutting machine? Cut the faces out of fabric and sew them on or stitch the designs out using embroidery thread.

Now that we have all our pieces cut and ready, let's assemble the octopus (octopi?)

Always sew "right" sides together. Right sides are the fluffy minky side to the fabric. To start, sew two of the head pieces together along one side. I used a sewing machine but feel free to use a needle and thread if you prefer. I found it easiest to go from the bottom to the tip of the head.

Each head is comprised of 4 pieces. Once you have attached two pieces, open the half and add another piece to the left or right and sew to one end. Continue sewing the pieces together until you have all 4 sewn together, then sew the first piece to the last piece making a hat shape and ensuring the top is closed. Complete steps for both colors.

Next add the faces to the heads. Align the design about halfway up the head and use an iron or heat press to transfer the material to the fabric. I found sticking a pressing pillow inside the head helped when using the heat press. Remove the carrier sheet and fluff the fabric up again. Complete for both heads.

Recommendation: Transfer the faces to one of the head pieces before sewing the pieces together to save yourself some potential trouble. Sticking the pressing pillow inside was helpful but perhaps an unnecessary hurdle that could have been skipped had I heat pressed the face on before sewing the head together.

I'll be honest, this step is a little tricky and where my octopus turned into a septopus! I did learn a few things and will share some tips so you can hopefully end up with all 8 legs on your octopus!

Take one set of tentacles and join the open ends together. Sew a line along the open end so the tentacles have the same depth as the others.

Next, sew the tentacles to the coordinating head.

This is where I made a mistake and ended up with one less tentacle than planned! For the blue octopus, I popped the tentacle circle inside the head and sewed the pieces together. This was a little smaller than anticipated and lead to having 1 too many tentacles. The gray octopus, I aligned the tentacles around the outside of the head and sewed together. This left enough space for all 8 tentacles but the damage was already done! I ended up trimming off the "excess" tentacle in the next step to make a septopus instead! (As Bob Ross would say, there are no mistakes, only happy accidents! And today I learned there is such a thing as a septopus, it's a 7 armed octopus! More on that here, if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-arm_octopus)

It is finally time to sew the two octopuses together! Turn one octopus inside out and the other right side out.

Stuff the right side out octopus inside the inside out octopus so the right sides are together. Line up the faces and then sew the tentacles together. For this step, I found it easier to use a needle and a thread than using the sewing machine. Sew all the tentacles using a running stitch. Leave half of the last half tentacle unstitched. Tie off the thread.

Use the half unstitched tentacle as a spot to turn the octopus right side out. Gently tug the fabric through the hole being careful not to break any stitches. Once the heads are through the hole, turn each tentacle right side out.

Stuff the octopus through the hole you used to turn the fabric right side out. Add stuffing to one head (it doesn't matter which one) and then stuff each tentacle. You will have to decide how stuffed you want your octopus to be. Add enough stuffing so the head is full, but not so much that you can't fit the other head inside. Fully stuff each tentacle, stuffing the half open tentacle last and then use a hidden stitch to close that tentacle up.

To finish, stuff the head inside the bottom of the side you want to show.

I hope you were able to follow along with this tutorial! With some patience and thinking through your steps, you should end up with an 8 legged octopus, but, if you end up with a 7 legged octopus, be assured it's going to be cute too!

Finally, the answer to the joke: How many tickles does it take to make an octopus smile?

Answer: Ten tickles (get it, tentacles). Ah, kid jokes ;)