PHOTOS OF DETAILS:

Fayt standing, full body view - [link]

Fayt back view - [link]

Albel, full body front view and gauntlet detail - [link]

Albel back view - [link]

Fayt and Albel, full body angle shot - [link]

Fayt and Albel, overhead angle - [link]


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CHARACTERS: Fayt Leingod (aka. Mr Commando) and Albel Nox (aka. El Fatso)

OWNER: Tri-Ace. If they’d only made an Albel figurine this would never have happened!

PIC STATUS: Fan art comic (fan source: “Star Ocean: till the end of time”) and plushie craft project.

MEDIUMS: Oh man, here we go…

Fayt:

• Skin – white cotton jersey painted with teabag water. (Both plushies now smell like English Blend!!)

• Hair – blue felt.

• Turtleneck – black stretchy wool (cut from a beanie I own).

• Vest – white sock fabric.

• Vest lining – black foam cut from one of those weird surfer type pencil cases. Randomly found it in the house. Eh, no one will miss it.

• Zip – bought from a craft store, end bit sawed off and replaced with the circular part of a key ring. Somehow I also managed to break the entire zipper just by sawing that dangling rectangular bit off. I’m so destructive.

• Belt – a discarded watch strap. (“Seiko”, if you look closely!) Had to cut another hole. The strap itself is held in place by stretchy string at the back, threaded through the holes where the watch face used to be attached.

• Decorative waist flaps – white sock fabric, black foam lining, brown felt for the middle bit.

• Second belt – blue knotted rope from a stopwatch tied in a knot, silver cardboard rectangle stuck on top of the knot with superglue.

• Loin cloth – blue cotton fabric lined with grey felt, yellow felt dots in middle cut out with a paper hole puncher.

• Pants – blue fabric.

• Eyes – drawn on ordinary white paper with waterproof Sakura Micron pens and waterproof Prismacolour markers. Stuck on with craft glue.

Albel:

• Skin – white cotton jersey painted with teabag water (more diluted than the water I used for Fayt, since Albel looks paler.)

• Hair – dark brown and beige felt.

• Collar – 3/4 metal nut bought from a hardware store. Chain also bought from the same store. That nut weighs 100000000 tons O__o. Trying to attach Albel’s head with that thing dangling around his neck is an experience I’d rather not repeat… >__>;;

• Tank top, arm and leg sleeves, skirt – purple bemsilk fabric.

• Gauntlet – silver cardboard, red cardboard for the lining. Attached to arm via Velcro patches so the gauntlet is removable. The arm underneath is wrapped in medical bandages.

• Skirt top lining – yellow sponge covered with a layer of yellow felt.

• Skirt hem – beige felt.

• Inner skirt - lined with beige polyester stretch fabric.

• Thong - purple bemsilk. ONLY THE BEST FOR TEH ALBELLY KNICKERS.

• Sash – red taffeta ribbon.

• Hair ties – white cord bought from the craft store. Hair tips made of beige felt.

• Rear skirt decoration – Silver cardboard as a base, red cardboard on top. The yellow bit is made out of yellow paper stuck on a cardboard base for added stiffness. The circles on the tips are yellow and red cardboard cut out with the hole puncher.

• Eyes - drawn on ordinary white paper with waterproof Sakura Micron pens and waterproof Prismacolour markers. Stuck on with craft glue.

- Both plushies stuffed with Siliconised Fiberfill.

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LIFESAVING DOLL TUTORIAL: [link]

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ARTIST THOUGHTS: I’ve never sewed a thing in my life. X___X USEFUL things anyway – I don’t count the crappy buttons I had to attach with thread to makeshift sock puppets I used in a class presentation. Hence when I got the itch to make Albel and Fayt plushies (damn you Contagious comic!!!! ) I had no idea what was going to happen and just started to wing it. O__o Dragged my long suffering friends around a Lincraft store as I gathered fabric and props, got a quick sewing demo at a friend’s house, dragged the shopping bag home and commenced fangirl plotting while my parents gave me funny looks. (“What are you DOING?”)

I also owe much to the tutorials on the page I linked above, since the basis of those tutorials are what helped make my life one hell of a lot easier! The site provides doll patterns as well, but I didn’t wind up using them because I had a different look in mind. I made up two quick patterns for the plushie bodies and heads and went with those instead, based off the general look of the Albel and Fayt chibis I drew in “Contagious.” Hence the reason why Albel and Fayt look rather pudgy but hey, there’s more of them to squish that way!

This is SO not going to be a regular occurrence though. X____X I just spent four days and nights of my life hunched at a desk threading needles and inhaling craft glue and cutting endless miles of fabric and slicing poor sponges and tangling with super glue, so quite frankly I have no idea how seamstresses out there survive! O___o I may get the urge later to make a 3P costume Albel since that’s my favourite Albel costume of all time, but for now I’m sticking with good old paper and pencil and putting those darn needles away… I poked myself so many times!! T_____T *Weeps*

The next best thing I can do is tell you guys how to make plushies in case you want to make some of your own – I won’t make a tutorial since the site I linked to explains things fairly well, but I’m open to any questions you might have. Anyway I’m off to make Albel and Fayt sit all cosy next to each other! (I made Albel’s right arm longer for a reason…)