domo-kun eats korean boys

LA LA LA - BIGBANG

sewing a domo-kun toploader out of felt!

so i was just sitting looking at some felt k-pop dolls, and i was thinking i kinda wanted to have a doll, but i don't know who to make... even then, i don't feel confident in making someone's likeness out of felt... so why not sew a creature to eat k-pop idols instead?

i went online to look at domo toploaders which apparently have been made already, but i wanted it to be plushy in a way, not just flat pieces of felt cut using a cricut, so i went to the drawing board...

for this project i honestly did the stupidest longest things ever for no reason. first, i found a video making a domo pattern that gave me ideas for the dimensions. that was great and all, except i cant fucking draw. so i took it to a BLUEPRINT DRAWING WEBSITE to draw some lines.. and turns out, it wasn't to scale AT ALL and i also had to pay money to print out the design. fuck that!

i screenshotted my design and went to canva where i put 1cm gridlines in the background, then took my toploaders to my computer screen to scale it to the photocard. literally so stupid and difficult for no reason. then i drew markings that would show where the bottom of the toploader would sit. 

i printed out the pattern then cut out the paper pieces to trace onto my felt.

i also had to make the teeth while i was at it:

then the next stupid thing happened: i forgot to give extra space below the teeth so they'd have something to grab onto the pink mouth, otherwise how the hell was i gonna glue on the teeth when id cut them too precisely?

i ended up cutting small tabs to adhere to the teeth and body so theyd have something to hold onto. omg it was the second most frustrating thing!!!

 what was the first most frustrating thing you ask? oh yeah. WHERE THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO PUT THE ARMS??

i left NO markings for myself to locate where the arms go. i was actually about to give up because it wa gonna look so dumb if i had to guess. however, thanks to my awesome cutting skills, the paper actually left the shape of the arms connected to the body. im really crying as i type this because it was so dumb.

 using the outline as a guideline, i marked where the arms would be glued on. this time, i did leave ample space on the arms to be able to glue it properly to the body.

 i glued and assembled all the pieces on domo-kun. he was starting to take shape!

 i pinned both sides together and i was ready to begin my blanket stitch.

blanket stitches are so satisfying ~

 it was all fun and games until i noticed how fucking dirty it looked from my pen ink, so right when i started sewing, i went to go wash it with the zote laundry bar.

before...

 

after!

i let it dry for a couple hours then i continued sewing the perimeter of domo.

i went all around the arms, also between the arms (?) and finished up back at the legs.

this is hard to explain but while i was sewing, i'd have to add my stuffing, right? but at the same time, i had to put the toploader in the precise spot where i could have an opening at the slit on the back. while having the toploader inside, id have to stuff the front bits around the mouth without having it slip in front of the toploader thus obstructing its view. but the side bits were so thin that i could hardly fit my fingers to place the stuffing inside. it was a lot of brute force, needle pokes, and hot glue to get this maneuver in. SO STUPID.

 

after expelling all this energy, domo was finally done in the stupid world with his stupid body. the last thing i needed were eyes which yeah big fucking surprise needed to be poked inside but there was no room because i didn't think about that so i cut the screwy parts off the back of the eyes and glued them on his stupid head. hope you enjoy the gift of vision, domo-kun..

and here is key who seems quite underwhelmed to be inside domo-kun's mouth.

it was a fun project with a bit of a learning curve as i had no idea at all how i'd do absolutely anything. but im so happy i made it and now i'll make some more while improving on the silly mistakes i made here.. it's always fun to do the first version of a project!

i'm thinking of turning him into a keychain so he can experience the world, one k-pop boy in his belly at a time..