Cute As A Button

I finally made an elekk plushie with accurate colors and stitching! I named him Danny.

And, as promised, here’s the tutorial:

How to Make an Elekk Plushie

Materials:

-small amounts of white and light blue felt (or another color if you want); you can change the pattern size to make it however large you want or to be able to make it from however much felt you have. For Danny, I used about 9”x8” of blue and 9”x3” of white (Danny, the blue one, is smaller than the pattern below, which if printed on a full sheet of paper will make a plushie the size of Cas, the yellow elekk, approx. 6” long); I wouldn’t try to make it much smaller than that, though.

-small amounts of white thread, and embroidery floss to match the white and blue felt

-2 buttons with 2 holes, either purpley-colored, or you can paint them the right color like I did (acrylic sealer makes them nice and shiny, too)

-fiberfill stuffing

*If you’d like a better visual reference of what the elekk plushie should look like, especially for details like the stitching, there’s a great 3d image of it here on Wowhead, which is what I primarily used to make this pattern and add the right details. (...Also, if you look at the abilities that the elekk plushie has in the game, you’ll get the reference in the title)

Directions:

-Print out or trace this pattern, and cut out the pieces (here's a pdf version).

-Trace your pieces onto your felt, making sure to flip the pattern for the second (and possibly fourth) pieces. The pieces for the horns and tusks should be white, and all the other pieces should be blue. Make sure you leave enough room between the pieces for your seam allowance, as you will be sewing on the lines. I usually use ~1/8” seam allowances for felt. It might be helpful to label trunk pieces 1-3 with their numbers, as once they are cut out, pieces 1 and 2 look extremely similar.

-Cut out your pieces, remembering to leave your seam allowance. I like to wait to cut out the smallest pieces, especially the trunk tip, until right before I need them so that they don’t get lost, but if you’re making a bigger elekk, that wouldn’t be as much of a problem.

-For the holes on the face and cheek pieces where the tusks and horns will be inserted, cut just on the inside of the line, instead of on the outside, as with the other pieces.

Tusks and Horns:

-Pair up your tusk and horn pieces, with the traced sides facing up on both sides.

-For each one, sew along the line with a running stitch, leaving the flat thin end open; then turn them right-side-out. If you’re making a smaller elekk than the full-sized pattern, like me, you’ll have to sew one of the sides with an invisible seam. If you don’t know how to do an invisible seam, there’s a good tutorial here. Even if you don’t need to use it for this step, you will need to know how to use an invisible seam for the last seam.

-Stuff your horns and tusks, and set them aside for a later step.

Trunk:

-Sew the concave edge of trunk piece 1 to the convex edge of trunk piece 2, using a running stitch on the wrong sides (all the seams for the elekk’s body will use running stitch on the wrong sides of the felt).

-Then sew the concave edge of trunk piece 2 to the convex edge of trunk piece 3, in the same manner.

-Fold the trunk piece in half, with the wrong sides facing out, and sew, again in running stitch, just along the folded edge, making sure to sew through both layers of felt, but staying as close to the edge as possible. This will make it look like the front and back of the trunk are two different pieces, but with much less work than actually doing so.

-Next sew along the opposite, open edge of the trunk, this time along your traced line.

-Squish the sides of your trunk together, so that the small opening at the one end is opened, in a sort of diamond shape. Carefully place the trunk tip piece on the opening, matching up the lines as best you can with the edges of felt. The corners that extend slightly farther on the piece should match up to the seams on the edges of the trunk. Sew the trunk tip piece to the rest of the trunk. Then turn it right-side-out and stuff it, setting it aside for a later step.

Head:

-On the face piece, sew together the small sections behind the holes for the horns, so that the forehead becomes slightly curved, as in the picture below.

-Then, carefully insert the open end of one of the horns into the hole, from the right side of the face piece, so that the two edges just meet up on the wrong side of the piece. It should be a tight fit, and you may have to stretch the holes a bit in order to get the horn to fit. Line up the seams of the horn with the points of the hole, and make sure the points of the horns are pointing towards the back of the face piece. Then sew along the edges on the wrong side of the piece (again with running stitch) to secure the horn in place. Do the same for the other horn.

-Insert the tusks into the holes of the cheek pieces in the same way as the horns, but with the points of the tusks pointing away from the curved part of the cheek piece (disregard the direction of the tusks in the next few pictures… I only realized afterwards that the hole in the original cheek piece was wrong, so I later fixed the angle of Danny’s tusks and redid the cheek pattern). Then sew them on in the same manner as with the horns.

-Line up one of the curved edges of the face piece with that of one of the cheek pieces, with the right sides on the inside, as in the picture below. Sew on the line along the edge. Repeat for the other side.

-Take your trunk piece, and line it up with the nose end of the face piece so that the right sides are together and the seams on the edges of the trunk line up with the seams between the face and cheek pieces. Starting at one of these seams, sew along the edge of the face piece and the trunk, taking care to make the other set of seams line up. Then pinch the edges of the cheek pieces together around the rest of the trunk, as shown in the pictures below, so that they meet in the middle at equal lengths. If needed, pin this to keep it in the right position to sew. Continue to sew around the edge of the trunk until you reach your starting point.

-Now sew along the straight edge at the bottom of the cheek pieces. It may be a bit of a tight fit with all the pieces inside. Then turn it right-side-out, and your elekk head is almost complete!

Legs:

-Take one of the rear leg pieces and fold it in half so the two short straight edges match up, with the right sides facing inward. Sew along this edge on the line. Then take one of the rear foot pieces and place it over the flat end of the inside-out leg, so that the longest edge is lined up with the thinner side of the leg, and the seam of the leg lines up with the more angled corner of the foot (make sure it’s the correct one, though, so you can see the line you drew when you place it in the correct orientation). Starting at this more sharply angled corner, sew along the line to connect the two pieces. Keep in mind that the foot is oddly shaped for a reason, as a more rectangular seam will end up more circular when turned inside out. Repeat for the other leg, which will be a mirror image of the first.

(Because of Danny’s small size, his feet ended up more circular than they should have been. I haven’t tried to make a larger elekk plushie with this pattern, so I don’t know if the curves of the feet would be too much for a larger version. If you are making a 6” plushie, though, trust the pattern)

-The front legs are made in the same manner as the rear legs except that the front feet are more rectangular-shaped, and so do not have to be quite as precisely oriented, and are not specific to a particular leg piece. For the front feet, make sure that the top long edge is lined up with the edge on the side of the seam that is inclined less steeply (there should also be somewhat of a corner farther along that side… it’s hard to describe, so I made a sort of diagram below). As with the rear legs, the two front legs will be mirror images of each other. Turn all four legs right-side-out and set them aside for a later step.

Body:

-Line up the two belly pieces, right sides in, and sew them together along one of the short edges, as in the picture below.

-Next, line up the two side pieces in the same manner, and sew them together along just the main curve.

-Line up one of the free short ends of the combined belly piece with each of the short flat edges on the combined side piece, with the right sides facing in. Sew along each of these edges, then when you turn it right-side-out, it should look like the last 2 pictures below (but for the next part, it will need to be inside-out again)

Attaching the Legs:

-With the body inside-out, place the two rear legs (right-side-out, so that the right sides will be together) inside the little pocket-thing in the back of the body piece, such that the shorter part of the legs are facing the belly, and the seams on the legs line up with the seams between the side pieces and the belly pieces. Beginning at this seam, sew along the edge until you reach the center seam between the two side pieces. Then do the same from the other direction to attach the other leg.

-Sew along the edge that separates the two rear legs from each other. The legs at this point will be somewhat splayed.

-To keep the two legs together, tack them with a few stitches near the feet. Bind it off very tightly.

-Line up one of the front legs with the front curve of the body, with the smooth side (not the side with the corner-y thing) against the side piece it corresponds to. The corner between the top flattish part and this smooth side should match up against the very angled corner of the side piece. Beginning at this corner, sew along the edges of the two, attaching the leg piece to the side piece and then one of the belly pieces, stopping at the center seam. The seam on the side of the leg should match up with the seam connecting the side piece to the belly.

-Attach the other front leg in the same way, but then continue along the curve to sew together the edge between the two legs as well, stopping at the corner where the two flattish edges meet. You may have to fold back part of the body to see what you are doing.

-Tack the front legs together in the same manner as the rear legs.

Adding Buttons and Stitching:

(This is where the 3d reference from Wowhead is really helpful. I recommend using it rather than my own pictures to gauge where to place your stitches and buttons, if you choose to add them, as it will be far more accurate that way)

-Using white embroidery floss (or whatever color matches your elekk’s horns), add the decorative stitches to the horns. I found it easiest to add these stitches after the pieces were already stuffed, and to start at the base on the front part of the horn, add the 5 stitches on the top, then do the 3 on the bottom, working my way back to the horn’s base before tying off the floss. Try to make both horns look as similar as possible.

-Follow the same process for the tusks as with the horns for the 4 top and 4 bottom stitches on each tusk. Note that the stitches on the bottom of the tusks are not centered on the seam as all the other stitches are, but end at the seam, and are also more angled than the other stitches.

-With blue embroidery floss (or whatever color matches your elekk’s body), sew on the button eyes and make 2 decorative stitches, one just behind each tusk. Note that the eyes are sewn on just below the seams connecting the cheeks to the face piece.

-Using the same color of floss as in the previous step, sew on the elekk’s footprints. I found it easiest to start with the back-most stitch, then do the 3 front toes, then cut across to the other foot to do the same. On the front legs, I began with the stitch on the leg’s seam, which is not present on the rear legs, then did the back-most stitch, continued as I had with the rear legs, and ended with the stitch mirroring the one I began with (Only the steps for the rear legs are shown in the pictures).

-Next, I stuffed the legs and body, and went around in a circle beginning with the 2 stitches on the front leg, then the stitch on the belly, the 3 on the rear leg, the stitch between the legs, and the same on the other side in the reverse order. I then went back to do the 6 stitches down the center of the back (I forgot one in the picture, though, and had to go back later to add it).

Attaching the Head and Final Stitching:

-Before attaching the head, make sure you add a little bit of extra fiberfill into both the head and body pieces, so that when you press down firmly, it squishes down just to the edge of the piece. It will puff back up as you sew it, but as long as you keep pushing it back in as you go around, it will be fine. Start by lining up the center seam of the back with the center of the top of the forehead. Start on the inside and sew the head and neck together with a running stitch from the inside as long as you can, then flip the head forward and continue attaching the head using an invisible seam. Make sure the center seam on the bottom of the chin lines up with the center seam between the front legs. Stop just a stitch or two before the point where you began, but do not tie off your thread (a little further than in the last picture below, just after you’ve passed the back of the horn)

-With your blue floss (or whatever color you used as a substitute before), add the decorative stitches around the neck, beginning roughly where you had begun attaching the head, and continuing in the same direction, all the way around (2 stitches behind each horn, 2 behind each eye, and 1 under each cheek). Tie off your floss first, then finish your last few stitches with your thread, tying it off last.

Ta-Da! Hopefully your elekk plushie will end up looking something like this:

I hope this all makes sense… This is the first tutorial I’ve made, so I don’t really know what I’m doing. If any of the steps are unclear or you have any questions, please just leave a comment, and I’ll try my best to answer them.

Also, if you make a plushie using one of my patterns, I’d love to see a picture of how it turns out! :)