Free Polymer Clay Tutorials

Learn How To Make Your Own Soft-bodied
Polymer Clay Creatures

By Maddy Gwenyth Norval
www.Magweno.com
Maddy on Etsy

[The following series of Free Polymer Clay Tutorials is written by Maddy with edits by Amanda DeVirgilio for SEO.]

Tutorial 4: Sewing the Body

In this section of free polymer clay tutorials you will need:

1. Lovely soft furs
2. Polyester wadding
3. Scalpel
4. Pins and Needles
5. Plain cotton sheet
6. Felt pen
7. Sharp Scissors
8. Nail Scissors
9. Super glue or a hot glue gun
10. Nail brush

Take your wadding and cut a strip following the “grain” of the fluff. In the picture you can see vertical stripes; that is the “grain”. If you can’t find the grain, don’t worry, it just makes peeling a bit easier.

Now, peel the wadding into thin sheets. It should peel fairly easily. Artist Eden Carnes of MammalFeathers .com described it as “like pages in a book” which I think is the perfect way of describing it.

Wrap one of the sheets around the armature tightly.

Wadding can separate easily so don’t be too rough. It won’t take long to get the feel for it. Because you separated the sheets, there will be small fibres sticking out everywhere. These fibres will stick to themselves like Velcro so you won’t need to glue it.

Keep wrapping the wadding around the doll armature. Once you’re done wrapping you have the option of sewing a body stocking onto the doll. You can buy human body stockings or sew one yourself out of stretchy pink fabric; but I find this to be more hassle than it’s worth. It’s your decision.

A quick note: I haven’t been able to find much help on pattern design, so I’ve hashed together my own method. Hopefully you will find the concept useful.

Take your doll and spread out its’ limbs. Lay him on his back onto the cotton sheet. Draw a line with an inch of space all the way around him. Be sure to include his head in case you want to attach fur to his ears or something.

Starting with the neck and tail, pin the cotton in place (my cotton was a bit too short for the tail, but I made a note of this so I wouldn’t forget when I cut the fur to size). Trim to fit around the legs, pinching and pinning as you go.

When pinching the fabric to the limbs you can draw a “trimming line” on either side of the pinch so when it’s unfolded you can just trim along those lines and you know it’ll be the right size. Otherwise you can just pin it and trim.

Free Polymer Clay Tutorials- Sewing the Body Part 2

Go back to:
Free Polymer Clay Tutorials- Hands and Feet Part 2

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