Whale and Eggplant

Whale and Eggplant, inspired by my closest friends

Sometimes your closest friends in life just happen to be a whale and an eggplant.

I typically do not take commissions, but I made a special exception this one time, to continue to not take commissions. I had a bit of a resting period after finishing my Star Guardian Lux and starting my next cosplay project. So, in an attempt to fill my craft void, I tried something new: asking my two closest friends for inspiration.

Both crafts turned out to be a bit of a challenge since they were a little out of my comfort zone (that, and also it’s been a while since I designed my last plush). One thing I knew for certain before starting though: they had to be large. Large, and huggable.

Whale

As with most projects, the whale started off with a paper model and a lot of imagination to try to “plump” it out.

After finalizing the pattern, I started piecing the whale together – starting with the fins!

The body was assembled by attaching the “sides” to the “stomach”, and carefully sandwiching the fins between them.

Whale_Prep_3 — Becoming slightly more whale-like. The underside of the tail looked a little bunched up, but tight curves have never been something I’ve been that great at :/

The “top” part was attached to complete the whale, and the eyepatches sewn on. Optimal plumpness was achieved.

Positioning the eyepatches and doing a first pass at the plumpening!

I ended up using the mouth area for turning the whale as it seemed to be the easiest and straightest seam to use. It also made for a cute derpy smile mid-stuffing, before I finished up the seam.

I guess I could have left it like this if we didn't care about the stuffing getting everywhere :| — I guess I could have left it like this if we didn’t care about the stuffing getting everywhere :|

And, the whale was finished!

Eggplant

I originally intended for the eggplant to be made of 4 panels for more rotundness, however I opted for a 2 panel look similar to how my Makar was made.

The only difference was that I used an actual pattern for Makar and I guessed the one here for eggplant. Turns out I may have gotten my proportions wrong for the curvature and the dart, leading to a more blob-like body…

Maybe a little too flat? Guess we’ll figure it out as we go along.

But! I kept going with it, hoping that it would turn out alright in the end. I created yet another paper pattern for the leaf “hat”, guessing and cutting until something looked reasonable.

Of course I needed to add a derpy face to the eggplant.

The main body of the eggplant was finished, but I was not! The recipient of this eggplant happened to be an Eagles fan, and his original request was anything to do with the Eagles. Naturally, I had a plan: the eggplant needed to be a fan.

Sizing his jersey! Eggplant only looked slightly uncomfortable :|

A jersey was made by sewing a little fleece tube (with the closest Eagles colors I had in my fleece drawer) and attaching an Eagles patch to the front. I may have made a mistake in jersey assembly (some, failed planning on trying to mask the final stitch in the jersey) so the jersey had to be sewed on to the eggplant. No worries though, the eggplant will just have to be an Eagles fan forever.

And with that, the eggplant was completed!

Julia Len

Whale and Eggplant