I have always been a huge fan of Studio Ghibli so when I decided to make plushies, I wanted one of my first to be from a Studio Ghibli film. This plushie is very easy to make and the materials can be found at your local craft store. I’ll provide links to reference certain sewing terms in case you get lost. Also, feel free to check out my Sewing Guide Masterpost for other tips. Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Hope you enjoy!
Things You’ll Need:
- The pattern, printed and cut out
- 1/4 yards of white fleece (I usually use Blizzard fleece that you can find at most craft stores, especially JoAnn’s)
- A 12″ black felt sheet (also can be found at JoAnn’s. I am using black fleece that I have left over from other projects, but the felt sheets are less expensive and will work fine)
- Thread: white and black that match the fleece and felt you are using
- Poly fiberfill stuffing
- Sewing essentials: Scissors, straight pins, and sewing needles
Cutting Out Fabric
The first thing you are going to want to do is print out the pattern and cut out each of the pieces to look like this:
Once you have that, you are going to want to cut out all the parts on the appropriate fabric. All of the bigger portions of the plushie (the body and head front and back) are going to be cut out in white and the three facial features (two eyes and a mouth) are going to be cut out in black. When cutting out the body, you can double up the material and pin the pattern to the material so that you are cutting out two pieces at the same time. This is shown in this picture:
For the rest of the plushie, you should pin the pattern onto the material the same way except not doubled up.
Body
For this section, you’ll need the two body pieces and you’ll want to pin them together, with the sides of the fabric you like ON THE INSIDE (for fleece, there is sometimes a softer side so if you want to feel that when you hug your little Kodama, have that on the inside) like this:
Now you’ll want to sew using a straight stitch (if you’re not quite sure what that is, here is a video that explain how to do this stitch and also how to thread a needle). You’ll want to sew where the red dotted lines are in this picture:
Once you finish this, you’ll want to tie off your thread (Go here if you are not quite sure how to do this). Then turn the body inside out to look like this:
Once you turned it inside out you’ll want to stuff it using the poly fiberfill and set it aside for now.
The Head
For this part you’ll need the rest of the pieces you cut out:
First, you want to sew the two backs of the head together. To do this, pin the two straight line parts of the back of the head with the good part ON THE INSIDE. Then you’ll want to sew where the red dotted lines are:
Once that is done, put it aside for a bit.
Now, you want to take the head front and place it on your work place with the good side UP (the part of the face where you want to put the eyes and mouth on). Then position the eyes and mouth onto it to your liking:
You’ll want to pin these onto the head and then sew using a blind or invisble stitch following how the red line is showing until the eye or mouth is completely on then end the stitch on the other side of the fabric (here’s a video explaining how to do this).
Once the two eyes and mouth are on, you’ll want to place the head down with the eyes looking up at you. Then you’ll take the two backs of the head that you had sew together before and pin them together with the good side FACING DOWN on top of the face. You’ll want to sew where the red dotted lines are:
Once you finish that, turn the head inside and stuff it with the poly fiberfill to look like this:
You need to close the head now by doing an invisible stitch again like this:
Putting it All Together
Now you have your stuffed body and completely sewed together head.
Now you just need to sew the head to the body! Position and pin the head how you would like it on the body and sew it together the same way you sewed the head closed, starting in the back and going all the way around. (Sew it similarly to how the red line is in the picture but go all the way around the head and body):
Once you end that stitch and tie it off, you finished! Once you clean up the mess you may have made, you can sit back and cuddle with your Kodama and maybe watch some Princess Mononoke.
Here’s my Kodama chilling around my house:
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it all made sense. Thank you for coming along for the ride of making a Kodama. If anything was unclear or if you have any questions, please comment below. Also be sure to leave pictures of your creations!
Sew Your Fandom 