amygurumi

One of the things I quickly discovered when making amigurumi is that stuffing them is not as straightforward as you might think. To get the look of professional amigurumi projects, you need to stuff your objects very firmly – much more firmly than I would have imagined. I stuffed my first projects relatively lightly in an attempt to give them the soft, cuddly feel of most commercially available plush toys (the stuffed animals you’d buy at toy stores). The problem was that the stuffing ended up compressing very easily, so the toys looked limp after just a bit of use. The other problem is that the shape of the crochet wasn’t shown off to its best advantage. Stuffing firmly pushes out the crochet fabric which reveals the subtlety of the shaping; small increases and decreases of just a few rounds are much more evident.

For my first projects, I used some cheap fiberfill that I had around the house. Big mistake. It was a clumpy mess. Trying to stuff firmly with cheap fiberfill is an invitation to frustration. The fiberfill bunches up into hard little balls in some spots and leaves open spaces between. Once stuffing bunches, it can’t really be saved. I’ve tried pulling the fibers apart again, but found that they had lost any resilience they may have had.

It’s worth going out and picking up a $5 bag of fiberfill that’s marked for dolls or toys. I’ve bought the same brand (Fairfield Poly-fil) at Michael’s and Jo Ann Fabrics and have had great luck with it. I’m sure any comparable product would perform equally well. It’s worth spending the extra dollar or two to get something intended for stuffed toys rather than the store brand of fiberfill.

The next step is to figure out how much is too much. This is a matter of trial and error, I think. I had to learn to stuff my amigurumi much more firmly than my instinct dictated. Good quality fiberfill compresses without clumping. This compression is the key – you want to create compression in your amigurumi so that the piece will be resilient over time. Try overstuffing. You’ll be able to see the crochet fabric stretch to the point that the natural “holes” in the fabric stretch. This is undesirable aesthetically and can cause stuffing loss through the holes. Back off the stuffing just a bit, and you’ll be right where you need to be.

The most important thing you can do is practice. It took several attempts for me to get to the point where I feel confident stuffing my amigurumi. Just like with crochet itself, you’ll begin to develop a feel for how much stuffing is right for your project.

Have any stuffing tips? Share them here!

This entry was posted Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 6:35 am and is filed under Tutorials. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.