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Hello, this is Goomzilla, and I'm going to show you how to make your own Goomba plush
just like the mini one that you've seen in our videos.
So, the equipment that you will be needing is:
some light brown (or orange) felt, for the head;
cream felt, for the body;
dark brown felt, for the feet;
black and white, for facial features;
and then you'll also want some scissors, and thread, and a ruler.
And you'll also want some stuffing, for later on.
First, we're going to cut out the felt.
Measure about 10 cm from one corner of the felt, then around 7 cm the other way along.
Then cut it out into a nice, curvy Goomba head.
Curve out this corner too.
Next, you'll want to add in a "dart", so that when you sew it together, it will look more 3D.
Cut out a total of four of these shapes - two for the front, and two for the back,
then smooth them out a bit.
Next, we'll make the body, so take your cream felt.
We're going to measure 2 cm along from this corner, and 7 cm along the other way.
Extend this out to here.
Then you'll want 3 cm (at least) roughly diagonally, from each of these two ends.
Try to get a more "V"-shaped Goomba body than mine.
Get another body cutout ready too, and there we have it.
For the feet, we'll get the brown out.
Measure 3 cm from one corner, then decide for yourself roughly how long you think the Goomba's foot should be.
If you aren't sure, make it slightly too long so you can cut it down.
Then, get three more copies of this foot cut-out.
Finally, the face.
Measure at least 3.5 cm from the corner of the white, and then at least 2.5 cm the other way.
These measurements are a bit bigger than you'll actually want them because you can cut parts out.
Get two eyes and really try to make them neat, because these will be on display.
Just don't cut them down so much that they become tiny!
For the pupils, use the black felt,
and again make it bigger so you don't trim off too much.
About 1.5 cm should do.
You could make these circular, like I'm doing, or see how it looks in oval shapes.
Now, this is the hard bit: the eyebrows.
If, like me, you're better at drawing than you are at cutting,
you might want to draw out your eyebrow shape before you try cutting the felt.
Make it about 4 cm wide, or if you really want, give your Goomba giant eyebrows! It's up to you.
Now, use this shape as a template on your black felt,
and get two nice eyebrows.
Our final cut-out is optional:
teeth, so your Goomba will have a mouth.
My mini Goomba has no teeth, and that makes it look rather cute,
but teeth would be a good addition.
You just need two small symmetrical triangles; you decide how big you want them.
And that's the end of the cutting!
Arrange your shapes so you can see everything, and make sure you're happy before moving on.
And now, we can get sewing!
First, take the two pieces that you want to be the front of the Goomba,
and sew them together using brown thread.
You should go around in one spot at least 3 times at the start, to make it stronger.
Check it doesn't pull through before you begin.
I'm doing a "blanket stitch" here, because it's a good strong stitch, but any will do.
We'll turn it inside out so you won't see these stitches anyway.
So join these two pieces along this one edge, and tie off with three loops at the end.
For the darts now, make sure you're sewing on the same side as before.
Just start at the bottom and sew right up to the top of your cut.
It's really important that you tie it on strongly.
Once you've sewn up both darts, do the same sewing on your other two head pieces,
so that you get a front and a back.
This is the important bit:
you now get to arrange the face into whatever expression you want your Goomba to have.
You could put the pupils inwards (like me), put them centrally,
or even one up and one down for a crazy Goomba!
You can also decide how angry you want it to look;
raise, lower and tilt the eyebrows as you wish.
Now make sure you turn the face inside-out before sewing!
We'll start with the whites of the eyes.
Use white thread to go around the spot where the black pupil will go, about 5 times in one loop like this.
This will be enough to hold on the white part.
Then put the pupil on with black thread, in the same way: just one loop.
Do the same for the bottom corner of each eyebrow.
If you're making teeth, fix them on along the small edge with white thread,
before you go along and make the mouth with black thread stitches like this.
Hopefully, your Goomba face will have a bit of character now!
Now we're going to leave the head and focus on the body.
Use white thread to connect one foot piece onto one body piece, along just the edge shown.
Do this with all four foot pieces.
Sew matching feet together using brown thread, with the bad sides facing outwards like this.
Just go along the curved edge so you can turn it inside out later.
When you've done this with both feet, this is what you should see.
Now use white to finish off the body by sewing along these three cream-coloured edges,
then turn it the right way out.
Take the face and press it against the body as centrally as you can.
Use the brown to sew up this edge with the good sides facing inwards,
but don't do the same on the other side because we need that hole to put the stuffing in.
Take the back of the head and put it against the front, with the good sides facing inwards, and the bad sides outwards.
Then go from where you left off, all around the top of the head, until you end up on the side opposite.
Make sure you stop right here.
Now, we turn the whole Goomba the right way out, so we can see our work so far...
...and, we stuff him well.
Get right down into the feet and be generous with the amount of stuffing.
Finally, we sew up this last hole, strongly; the stuffing can sometimes make this difficult to do.
The best stitch for this is a "ladder stitch" because the thread doesn't stand out as much.
And there you have it - your very own Goomba plush!
Looking back, I think I should have made the eyebrows cover the eyes a bit more, so that it would look a bit angrier,
and I also think I could have used bigger, rounder feet like the big Goomba has.
But, I'm still happy overall.
And why stop at goombas?
My mushroom was made just by copying my Toad's head.
There are so many possibilities!