Mimikyu - Gijinka #3

THE PONCHO

the finished poncho

I started by drafting the patterns, 1/4 of the poncho (or half a pattern, almost the same, front & back). First, I measured the length, hip length, and cut the paper using that length. I determined the collar opening, both front and back, there is no need to make two patterns where the only difference is the collar, and the shoulder width. Starting at the shoulder point, I traced a line at a 45º angle. As the paper isn't very wide, I had to add a patch to the side. I continued tracing the 45º line, until the bottom of the paper. Then I roughly calculated where both the centre line and the 45º line met, to determine the 45º line length. I roughly hand traced the curved bottom line, and measured it. To have 5 points on each side, 10 in total, I divided the hem length in 4, made a template for the points, and traced them to the pattern. As they turned out a bit shallow, if I have enough fabric, I'll add a few centimeters to them. Then I calculated where the eye holes would be, made a template out of a paper scrap, marked their placement and traced the eye.

the patterns

For the hood, I started with Miss Piggy's hood pattern. As I never manipulated a genuine kigurumi, and wanted to make my hood like that, I scavenged the internet for pictures or patterns, and I think I understood it. It's made of three or four pieces, I opted for three pieces, two for the back, and a rectangle across, for the front. It's a larger hood, but so is Miss Piggy's, so, size-wise, they're the same. I put Miss Piggy's hood on, and determined where the front rectangle piece, which sandwiches the ears with the back hood pieces, would end, and traced the back pieces from Piggy's pattern, subtracting the front part. I didn't make a pattern for the front piece, as it will be a 37x30cm rectangle, folded in half (or two 37x15 rectangles, depending on the fabric). Then I eyeballed the ear length, and started designing them. First, I was very literal to the artwork, by drafting two crooked ears, but then I scrapped them, and drafted normal Pikachu ears, that I will manipulate later.

tracing the face to a piece of cotton, on the light board

In Affinity Designer, I vector traced the face design, for the hood, and the sparkly eyes shape, from the original artwork. I then had it printed, and traced the "face", mirrored, to a piece of white cotton fabric, a scrap I had around, using my new LED tracing board.

two small black fleece blankets and one large cream fleece blanket

The fabric, a cream fleece blanket I ordered from AliExpress (it was cheaper than buying the fabric by the meter), is very soft and a bit stretchy, so I spread it, as evenly as I could, on top of the cutting table and, after determining the pile direction, I traced the pattern (the poncho, the hood parts and the ears) with my thick graphite pencil. I dealt with the poncho first, sewing the side seams. This fabric also sheds a lot, so I zigzagged the seam edges. Then I added a large zigzag stitch on top of the bottom scallop line, and trimmed the excess fabric after.

the poncho pieces

For the eye holes, I traced them to smaller scraps of the fabric, and cut a larger oval seam allowance. I carefully placed them over the poncho, right side to right side, but it was a struggle, the pile would make them budge a lot, so I decided to sew them by hand. I first pinned them in place, as best as I could, using a lot of pins, matching the top and bottom, and then basted them by hand. Then, with a backstitch, I sewed the oval shape. I trimmed the uneven seam allowance, cut the oval out, scoring the curves, turned it inside out, and slip stitched the allowance to the back of the poncho.

the struggle with the eyeholes

Meanwhile I started embroidering the face. I chose coral and black acrylic yarn for it, and I will be embroidering with a chain stitch, so it looks handmade. First I calculated the centre of both the hood rectangle and the cotton face design, and pinned the cotton to the top centre back of the fleece, and basted it. Or so I thought...

the back of the embroidery on the hoop

I made a first attempt to chain stitch it with double thread, but it turned out too thick, so I changed for single thread. I started with the eyes in black yarn, then the cheeks, in coral yarn, and lastly the mouth. I used simple chain stitch for the eyes and cheeks, but for the mouth I started by embroidering the outline, and then filled it with two rows of chain stitch.

eye spy...

the back of the embroidery

embroidered face

I sewed both back hood pieces together, much like the poncho, but this time I hand basted them first, the fabric was shifting A LOT under the machine's foot, and finished with a hand felled seam, for a neat finish. I trimmed the excess cotton fabric at the back of the embroidery and, when I pinned the face piece to the back of the hood, it was when I realized that the face got shifted for about 3cm to one side... I wasn't going to embroider the face again, it took me about 8 hours, and I also didn't have enough fabric left to cut that piece again... So I pinned and basted it as centered as I could, and cut the excess fabric on one of the rectangle sides. Oh well... "a quick and easy project", I thought...

back of the hood and the face piece

I turned the face rectangle inwards, and whip stitched it on top of the machine seam, to encase the raw edges. Finally, I pinned, hand basted and sewed the hood to the poncho, and hand felled the seam towards the bottom, for a neat finish.

unstuffed ears

The last piece were the ears. I first cut the complete ears in the cream fleece, and the tips in the black fleece. I pinned the tips on top of the cream ears, and slip stitched them, with black thread, on top of the cream, cut the excess cream fabric, and hand sewed them shut, with a backstitch, leaving the bottom open. I stuffed them until fluffy, with polyfill, old left overs from my Mokona, and, with double cream polyester thread, I manipulated them until they were bumpy and crooked.

crooked ears

Instead of machine sewing them, sandwiched between the front and back of the hood, I whip stitched the ears near the seam, but making the base oval, so they tend to stand up better.

here it is again, the finished poncho

While wearing it at the event, it was warm and cosy, and very comfortable. It doesn't tend to twist much, but it's hard to keep it in place, while sitting on the bus, and carrying a bag on my shoulder.

+ It was a (sort of) easy project, and I loooved embroidering the face. I think it turned out really cute.
- Unfortunately, the shifting mistake where the face is, turned the hood smaller than planned, loosing the big head with a broken neck effect I was aiming for.

THE CUNNING PLAN

Finish the skirt, the bobbin ran out of thread while I was sewing the waistband, and I wasn't in the mood to fill a new one and finish it. Lighten the tail a bit and seal it, line the wire with the leftover black fleece, and shape it properly.

If I have enough fabric left, I may add a 3 or 4 cm wide patch between the hood and the poncho, as the hood turned out too small, because of the blunder, and fits too tightly, missing the big head effect I was sort of aiming for.