Dragon Backpack

先日のクジラの次はドラゴンです。それもただのぬいぐるみじゃなくて、ポケット付きで背中にかつげるドラゴンバックパック。

ユキにモデルになってもらいました。（すっごい嫌そうな顔してるけど）

Another minky sewing after the whale is a dragon. I made a dragon backpack.

The pattern is from Choly Knight "Backpack Dragon Plush Sewing Pattern." The pattern comes with two sizes of dragons: large and small. The pattern also comes with options for two eye designs: regular eyes and eyes with eyelashes. You can also choose from four horn shapes, four side fin shapes, and four wing shapes. I made a size small with regular eye, bent horn, and bat wings (basically the gray one shown on the pattern photo below).

The fabric is minky Cuddle 3 from Shannon Fabrics. Compared to the Lux minky I used for the whale, this one is a standard short hair minky and it was much easier to sew, and much less fluffy mess.

The eyes and nostrils are made from felt, and after fusing them with Wonder Under, I satin stitched around them to secure.

My sewing machine was sucking the fabric into the needle hole a lot despite using a brand new needle (I tried both ball point and universal) so I used small pieces of tissue paper for corners to stabilize.

As recommended in the instruction, I used the foam interfacing for the wings. The wings are attached at the center seam only and they flapped too much so I ended up tacking the wings about 1" away from the center seam after it was stuffed.

Looks a bit funny without the horns. Horns are the only piece that's not sewn in the seam. Horns are hand stitched on at the very end when the head is stuffed.

Yes, there is a pocket. The pattern comes with instructions for an additional pocket in the tail but I omitted that.

Completed and stuffed.

The pattern is very well designed and I really like the fact that the dragon's head is turned to one side. The overall proportion is just perfect. I stuffed it pretty well with Poly-Fil since this was for a 4-year-old and did not think he was going to actually use it to carry any personal items.

The pattern instruction is a whopping 45 page long, written with a very beginner sewer in mind. Very detailed instruction at every step. Even though I had some experience with sewing in general, the instruction helped me a lot in terms of sewing a plushy. 

The only problem I had with the pattern instruction is that the instruction texts are written in gray, not black. The instruction is all color so looks good on the computer screen but since I like printing out the instruction and I printed it black and white, the text written in gray is a bit difficult to read (I have bad eye sight). I just wish they were written in black. 

But otherwise, this pattern, with size options, detail options, and detailed instruction, is definitely worth every penny. Very good pattern and I am so happy with the results.