Kids love secret hiding places. When we were looking for a new house and looking at house kits with prices, our older daughters would always fall in love with the homes we toured that had rooms under the stairs or back halls with mysterious doors. I think all kids (and maybe adults, too) wish for…
Tips for Designing Reversible Toys
Toys are fun! The goal in designing a toy is to make something so appealing that people young and old will want to sit down and play with it. Toys spark our imagination. One of the interesting challenges of being a toy designer is coming up with something that will evoke that emotional response. A…
How Sew Small Softie Parts Together (the Easy Way)
Pip the Pig is making his debut today as the first Abby Glassenberg Design pattern of 2014. Happy New Year and welcome, Pip! In celebration of Pip's pattern release, I want to share an easy way to sew small softie parts together. This is the technique I use to sew Pip's hooves. The pink hoof…
Best Tutorials of 2013
As you may know, I used to be a teacher. I still have a lot of fondness for writing lesson plans and on the blog that translates to creating tutorials. Pictures, instructions, and a neat finished project – what could be better? Here are some of the fun tutorial posts and free patterns I've created…
Playing With Gathered Circles
Most design work begins with basic shapes: a line, a square, a rectangle, a triangle, and a circle. We layer and combine them, stretch and condense them, cut them up and piece then back together again, but really it all begins here with the shapes we learn to draw and identify as toddlers. Today I…
What is a Dart and How Are Darts Used in Sewing Patterns?
I love to create dimension with fabric. What draws me most to fabric as a material is the ability to cut two pieces of flat cloth into shapes that, when sewn together, will bulge and curve outward, or pinch inward, in just the right spots to create the three-dimensional form I have in mind. I…
How to Design Cut-and-Sew Softies and Dolls on Spoonflower
A few weeks ago I got in touch with the folks at Spoonflower, the print on demand fabric company, to see about getting some cut-and-sew softie and doll fabrics to play with. I thrilled when they agreed to send me a few fat quarters and today I’m ready to show you what I’ve…
Elements of Soft Toy Design #16: Baseball Head
Editor's Note: This series of posts became a book! Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction was published by Lark Crafts in 2013. +++++ One good way to create a round head for a softie is to sew pattern pieces that come together like the seams on a baseball. The pieces are simple and create a…
Elements of Soft Toy Design #15: Triangular Darts
Editor's Note: This series of posts became a book! Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction was published by Lark Crafts in 2013. +++++ Right up there with gussets, darts are one of the most important aspects of creating a truly three-dimensional toy. A dart is a fold sewn into the fabric to create a three-dimensional…
Elements of Soft Toy Design #14: An Animal in Motion
Editor's Note: This series of posts became a book! Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction was published by Lark Crafts in 2013. +++++ With just a little extra effort you can take a pattern for a standing animal and transform it into a pattern for a walking, stalking or prowling animal. Motion gives the animal…