Being able to embroid is an important skill when you make your own stuffed animals. If you know how to embroider stuffed animals you can add lots of details to the toys with ease.
Happily it is not difficult to embroider stuffed animals. It requires some patience though as it is a thing that you must take your time with. The results can be more than worth it though as you can see your stuffie come to life and look much better with something as simple as adding a few inches of thread here and there.
How to embroider stuffed animals
Usually there is special embroider thread that you should do as it is more durable. If you don’t have such though it is not that big of a problem. Simply use thicker normal thread but bear (no pun intended) in mind that you must take into consideration the detail you will be embroidering. For example a thicker thread might work if you embroid a paw, but not for finer details like eyebrows.
The good thing is that you can basically use any embroider technique you want. There are even special tools like hooks and so on that make it even easier to do it. But you don’t really need to have them.
You can do a simple straight line stich and achieve similar result. The only thing you must decide is how long would each new hole with the needle be. Sometimes it can be easier to make as little fixings as possible, for example if the embroiding is going around the curve of the paw. This will allow you to keep the original shape of the paw, but also add the detail.
For more permanent details like eyebrows or mouth for example, it would be better to do a much more closer seam that will be both durable and well fixed so that your stuffie doesn’t change his or hers appereance as time goes by.
Remember not to pull the threads too tight as it will deform the fabric. You can use chalk to draw the lines you will want to embroid to make it easier on you.
With embroidering you can fill areas too. For example the eyes on this dolphin. They are embroidered. You can do this with a simple straight stitch that goes back and forth along the area. To make it easier, first embroider the outlines and then fill them in.
Also remember to both start and end the thread with little knots to fix it in place and prevent a possible unstitching. This is basically how to embroider stuffed animals. The only challenging part is to be able to match your work as closely as possible on the other side of the toy. This is manageable with practice.
