Online video instruction is an ideal way to teach sewing. Watching an expert do the work, and explain how it’s done, is the best way to master a hands-on skill. When you want to learn something as tactile as sewing, nothing is better than being able to actually see someone stitch a seam. Putting that high quality instruction online for a reasonable price so that it’s available to everyone, all the time, from anywhere? Brilliant.
In an effort to serve those of us who love to make dolls and toys I thought I’d compile a list of the online softie classes currently available.
Creativebug:
Textile artist and renowned softie maker, Tamar Mogendordff, has a Woodland Mushroom class on Creativebug. This is a recording of a class Tamar taught at The Makerie last year. Unfortunately there’s no instructor profile video to watch or preview of the class available. Creativebug also offers several classes by Alison Kaplan, owner of Kata Golda. Alison works with wool felt and her toys are all hand sewn. Learn to make a teddy bear, an Easter chick, and a bunny and carrot.
Craftsy:
There are no doll or toy making sewing classes on Craftsy. Director of Category Management for Craftsy, Tricia Waddell, told me that Craftsy had recently conducted a survy of JoAnn’s customers asking them what sorts of online classes they would be likely to sign up for. “The survey came back saying that the primary JoAnn audience are garment sewers. Small projects in general and toys specifically are something that they make, but it didn’t score high as something they wanted classes on.We don’t have enough support from our user surveys to justify doing a class on sewing dolls and toys. We are still garment and home dec focused for our sewing category.” Interestingly there does seem to be sufficient demand in knitting and crochet. Susan B. Anderson offers The (Not So) Itty Bitty Giraffe class on Craftsy and Stacey Trock has two amigurumi classes: woodland animals and design your own monster there.
Skillshare:
Skillshare is another big player in the online video class arena right now, but they also don’t offer any doll or softie classes, although they do have a class on designing vinyl toys.
Art Doll and Artist Teddy Bear Makers:
The art doll community has offered online classes for many years. I would describe them as rather low-tech in comparison to what’s available now on video platforms such as Craftsy, CreativeBug, and SkillShare. Some include DVDs, but most are text and illustration-based and are more like an ebook than an online class per se. Get a sense of them on DollNet and Doll Street Dreamers and on Judy Ward’s site here. I’m not sure if the artist teddy bear community offers something similar, but I’m guessing they do (although I wasn’t able to find a particular online class to link to here).
Do you know of other online classes in softie and doll making? If you do, please comment here or email me the links and I’ll add them.
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The most striking thing to me about this compilation is how sparse it is. Why aren’t there more? Tens of thousands of people are making and selling stuffed animals and dolls (soft dolls, not art dolls) all over the world (maybe more?), but softies are very much an afterthought in the overall sewing world. I can see how these bigger platforms wonder if there’s enough interest to make an online class profitable. I would like to posit that sufficient demand does indeed exist.
There are a number of indie pattern designers making a solid living selling instructions for sewing dolls and toys, myself included. We’re writing pattern books and contributing patterns to magazines. We have thriving blogs that people return to time and again for tips and techniques to help them sew softies. We have a sizable, enthusiastic, and diverse audience made up of people of all ages and all levels of sewing experience.
How can it be that there are enough knitters who want to make giraffes to support a knitted giraffe class, and enough crocheters who want to design monsters to support online amigurumi classes, and enough artists who want to design vinyl toys to support a vinyl toy class, but not enough sewists who want to make softies and dolls to support an online softie sewing class? Based on my earnings numbers and what I estimate other indie softie pattern designers are earning, I beg to differ.
I see a gap in the marketplace here. Do you?
I agree with you! I made a teddy bear years ago for my first grandson just following a pattern and it had no character. It would be really nice to have access to video classes like we do with knit and crochet to be able to have someone help us advance and hone our skills.
I’d love a teddy bear making class, especially one that showed you in detail how to make cotter pin joints and other sorts of more complex joints (not just plastic doll joints) and how to groom and pluck mohair around the muzzle. And feet! I want to know more about teddy bear paws. There are so many amazing artist teddy bear makers out there. Let’s see a well-produced video class on this!
Oh, I have a whole series on my blog just on that!
http://www.the-littlest-thistle.com/p/anatomy-of-bear.html
I find that strange on two points – 1. if Joanns customers are primarily garment sewists, why does their garment fabric selection stink 2. Is the Joanns customer base really the Craftsy customer base?
Anyways, I personally don’t find specific project classes appealing (how to sew a stuffed cow) but I do find technique classes compelling (how to give a stuffed toy professional finishing). I’m surprised they wouldn’t just try a class to see its success! But I guess I don’t know how much it costs to produce one.
I do wonder if the Joann customer base is the Craftsy customer base. I don’t know. Craftsy is a savvy business and I’m guessing that they feel that working with Joann’s is the best way to figure out what classes average American sewists will pay for. I still think that those sewists who are techie enough to sign up for and take an online class are a self-selected group who may not be the average American sewist (whom I’m also guessing is satisfied with a fairly low quality selection of garment fabrics). Let me see if I can find out more about how much it costs to produce a Craftsy class. I know that it costs book publishers about $25,000 (ballpark) to create a craft book.
I agree about the differing groups. Interested to see what you find out about Craftsy!
yes there is a gap, two years ago when I started making dolls I had a hard time finding current information on doll making (my local library offered a book that was printed in 1973) so I started to design my own. since then I have found more resources things are slowly changing. I guess the next step is online classes
Well now I’ve fallen down a youtube stuffed animal making hole…
Will you share a few good links here? I didn’t search YouTube for this post.
Here are a few I found:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfHbMB2wGIDe9nsw_JeKslg
Since you mentioned specifically a jointed teddy bear tutorial, here’s a 14 video series: https://www.youtube.com/user/BettyTampaBay/videos
This one was interesting because I never would have thought about doing a blanket stitch on the inside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgu-Pg9kcLc
Abby, you are the perfect person to teach one of these classes. I would definitely signup for that!
And I would love to teach a design-based class. I also think there are many talented and qualified softie makers who would teach excellent classes and attract a sizable audience to an online video classroom. Let’s hope that as that sort of mode of adult learning grows and becomes more ubiquitous there will be new opportunities for classes on softies and dolls.
Abby – I can definitely see a gap in the marketplace. I think you would be an ideal person to teach an online softie making course – or softie design class – and I think it would be very popular. I have enjoyed the amigurumi woodland animals course on Craftsy with Stacey Trock. I would love to see something of that quality but with softie toys!
Thank you, Jody. I love Stacey’s class, too (I just got it recently!). I’m hoping that there will be enough demand down the road that online video class platforms will see softies and dolls as a good investment.
Absolutely there is a gap in the market. When I wanted to know about *how* toys are constructed, All searches came back to you and your very helpful blog. Apart from helping with toys which is a secondary rather than primary interest for me, but one I really really wanted to know about, knowing about how things are constructed, generally helps with thinking about other things too. You plugged the gap with your book too. Not sure why there is seen to be limited interest. I started off making clothes years ago and was pretty proficient yet I have little interest now. I like to have new challenges and interests. I agree with Stephanie as I like general techniques that I can utilise in my own way.
I’m a huge fan of the “why.” I always want to know why! That definitely drives me as a learner and a teacher and I think a soft toy or doll design class would be very interesting.
I post tutorials on DeviantArt and run a group that features patterns & how-tos, and yes, there really are a lot of people who want to learn the basics! Young people especially who are very active participants in fandoms, and who write fanfic, draw fan art, cosplay and engage in other kinds of active involvement with their favorite shows and games – making plushes is another form of that. Even “merchendise-driven” properties will never make enough toys, and there’s that sense of pride and community showing off something you’ve made yourself.
I’ve peeked at the DeviantArt groups and you’re totally right. There’s a huge demand for instructions on making your own characters based on graphic novels, comics, movies, etc. I think the price point would have to be reasonable enough that people who are working on a hobby would be happy to pay for a class to develop their skills further, right?
Here are some other platforms (not as popular as craftsy and creativebug) that might be open to hosting something for you: http://www.anniescatalog.com/onlineclasses/ – maybe if it was pitched as a tie-in to products they sell? Like how to turn these hats into stuffed animals? http://www.anniescatalog.com/detail.html?prod_id=94513 They have a very small stuffed animal pattern section: http://www.anniescatalog.com/list.html?cat_id=1685
Here are some doll-making classes: https://www.craftcast.com/class-categories/doll-making (can you tell my personality type is researcher?)
http://www.ecraftclasses.com/craftclasses.php?catid=1&pcatid=0
Thanks so much! I’m off to watch.
I just found this post and I must say I’m shocked by the reply you got from Craftsy (and now I can much better understand the other post I was looking for, the one on how softie making is pushed to the side). I very much enjoyed Stacey Trock’s classes, and I would so love to take a class on sewing softies! Something like your book, with a project or two (or three… ;-)) and lots of techniques and background knowledge.
So I just had a look at the indie sewing pattern section on Craftsy.
There are a little more than 10,000 all in all. Of these, 866 are “Animals”. Doll and Doll Clothing: 835 (okay, some of these will be double matches, like “bunny doll”). Searching for “toy” in sewing patterns: 728 results. Add a couple of “game” and “play food” patterns. However way you turn it, that’s definitely more than 10 per cent, maybe even close to 20 per cent. No classes on any of these.
Sewing patterns for bags: 1643, or 15 per cent. Classes on sewing bags: six.
Sewing patterns for dresses: 1499. Classes: nine.
Pillow cases: 156. Classes: two.
And I don’t understand why they don’t do market research for class topics on facebook or on their blog rather than (or in addition to) stores. Online medium, online customers, right? I’d bet the outcome would be different.
BTW, Wikipedia says of Craftsy “The company typically spends upwards of $15,000 producing each video course”. Now I’m not going to do the maths on how many people would have to take the class to reach break-even.
So glad you’re advocating this issue! (BTW, that’s also what I wanted to reply to that other post ;-))
Greetings from Germany (where it’s just past midnight again – I hope my scribbling makes any sense at all ;-))
Andrea
I’d love to teach a video class on one of these platforms and I pitched one where I showed how to make a basic body and a variety of interchangeable “parts” (arms, legs, ears, tails, etc.) with a couple of different head shapes – showing how small changes in the design process result in different shapes and also giving participants a library of parts to mix and match for their own creations. I never heard anything back and now I know why.
Abby I did see a huge gap in the marketplace for learning how to make a teddy bear as well, and decided to fill it! I created Teddy Bear Academy so that I can personally show you how to make collectible teddy bears with video.
I’ve been a professional teddy bear artist for over 14 years and love sharing how I create my bears.
Bear hugz,
Laura Lynn
I find it hard to believe that Joanns customer is just sewing clothing. I shop there about once a month and bring loads of fabric to the cutting table to make clothing, but I have never met another person inline that makes clothing. Most are making pillow, curtains, quilts or no-sew blankets. I would agree there is a market for selling an online course for softies, plushies and dolls. In fact, I filmed my own Kids Sewing videos and have them available on DVD and now on my own website as online classes at KidsSewing.com. After reading this post I thought wouldn’t it be cool to have a course that teaches other how to do the same thing so I got, then we as makers are not at the mercy of being accepted by large online class platform such as Etsy. Also I wanted to note that in 2012 Hancock fabrics (250 store chain) wanted to carry my KidsSewing DVDs next to the Kids Janome Sewing Machine. That deal fell through because of time restraints and not having production of POS (point of sale) displays set up to be produced in China. I also approached Joanns and was rejected because the buyer was an old man that didn’t understand my product. That is when I decided to do it all on my own. Of course I’m still trying to get everything together, but as I learn I know I will be able to help more people like me. Thank for bringing this topic up!
Hi everyone, just putting it out there-any more advanced in the soft toy making classes? I think this is something we need to keep following up! I, for one, am desperate for the visual learning experience, please Abby, can we try to contact Craftsy or Creativebug? You would be perfect!!
Katie.
Thanks, Katie. Craftsy is not interested in classes about how to make things for children. They’ve determined that they aren’t profitable for their market. I don’t know about Creativebug, but I think they’ve come to the same conclusion.