Fleece Fish to Sushi Plushie - with reluctance to becoming Sushi

This is another attempt at the Fish to Sushi Plushie posted by Cat Morely at Cut Out and Keep. On this attempt, I used fleece for the main body and the fins but still used felt for the bottom and ring for the top of the sushi, the same black and green fabric that I used on the last one and I made this one bigger and used extra large googly eyes on it. It looks ok but not gift worthy. Also, I did most of the sewing by machine instead of hand sewing and it did go faster, but is was harder to control stitching on the curves at the mouth of the fish and I wish I had used fleece instead of felt on the white parts and not cut the whole in the center as wide as I did. I also overstuffed the tail and when I tried stuffing the fish to make the sushi part it looks sort of wonky and although with it being large it was easier to work with when sewing, it just doesn't look right when it is turned into sushi.

I did prefer the fleece to felt as it has more give an stretch and the end result looks much more crisp and clean than the felt. http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/fish_to_sushi_plushie

FISH TO SUSHI PLUSHIE

This project is based on the following tutorial and pattern by Cat Morely at Cut And Keep. http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/fish_to_sushi_plushie

I love the concept and he turned out ok, but I will have to classify this as a practice run as I plan to make one for my co-worker that is a sushi addict and one for my son. The fish took longer to make than I thought it would with all of the hand sewing - about an hour.

This is a good project to use of scraps and project recommended using felt and that might have worked out better as I used scraps from my stash and although the gold colored woven fabric is great for the fish, the fabric frays easily and I would not use it again.

I do think felt is best to use for the bottom and top circle and the fins. I also think I will try to machine sew as much of it as I can instead of hand-sewing the entire thing to save time.

The tutorial recommends gluing on googly eyes but I used regular googly eyes and pricked two holes in the back and then sewed them on with white thread so they will be more durable when transitioning the fish to sushi and back.

I would recommend using some sort of knit for the body as it would make the transition from fish to sushi much easier. I really had to struggle to switch it back and forth and I know my son would never have the patience to flip it back and forth unless it easy.

I will probably also blow up the pattern and make it bigger for the one I make for my son, but for my co-worker the size it is would be perfect for her to sit on top of her computer.