Have you ever wanted a throw pillow of your favorite waifu/husbando or otokonoko or furry/other, but more than that, in format of a chibi fan-art that you have created?
reference: my Sakura Miku Nendoroid pillow from GoodSmile corp
Well, it's not exactly going to be cheap and will take some DIY know how, but here's the stint.
GS Co's nendo throws are made from photoprint microfiber fleece. The same type of fleece as if you were to buy a "sherpa fleece throw" off of Red Bubble. The Nendo pillows have character on the front, with a pattern print on the back and on the edges it goes 1/2 and 1/2 from Daki side to pattern base color and the pillows are done large border die-cut outline sticker style. So, how to go about making your own:
First, if you are ordering from RedBub specifically on the blankets, you will need to keep it SFW or if flagged as private/mature, keep it to R rating (no pubes, choccy starfishes, spread lower lips or phallus exposed or "skin tight" shorts style). Next you also have to deal with RBs license rights DMCA BS. On licensed media, if your Daki throw is of a famous tyoe character you will have to put your own unjque style spin on it to avoid DMCA flag, notify and tear down deals. Upside though, pixiv sells the same type of blankets through pixiv factory if I remember right, though if outside Japan you may need a proxy shipper service.
So first, the artwork to put on the blanket. Say you can't draw so good, Pixiv's V-Roid Studio will allow you to craft and pose then render a reference PNG of your character in any body style you want to a point. There is also the Magic Poser app, if you woukd prefer just a 3D reference so you can illustrate it yourself, both are free.
How do we go from Blanket to Pillow? Well, you cut the blanket up into a sewing pattern and make a pillow out of it. If using RB, and largest sherpa blanket, [80x eitger 60 or 54 inches] This is roughly enough material to make 3 pillows or maybe 4, per blanket.
In translating the artwork into a pattern, take your PNG Vroid or reference photos into photoshop/gimp/inkscape/adobe illustrator/clip paint studio. Illustrate over them using Vector shapes to be able to artifact free and losslessly scale the finished illustrations up. If using Adobe shoop, you can AI generate fill the pattern fill side if going for a 1 sided throw [although, this will be raster not vector in format].
In terms of "for print" size, since it is chibi you can probably get away with 150 dot/pixel per inch and canvas size of 80x60 inches.
You will want to create a line aroubd where you want the "die cut" edges to be so you can stitch the top of blanket to back liner and cut it out. Do this for both front, back and your side gap fill patterns. Then duplicate the front+back+side pattern as many times and to what scale you want on the blanket. (Nendo pillows varry but are roughly 16-21 inches tall, extremely varried in width [usually between 8-16 inches wide] and are 3 inches thick on the height of the side pannels from back to front. Design your pattern templates accordingly to taste.
On why sherpa vs one sided photoprint fleece, the sherpa lining makes the fabric hold form better due to added thickness and will make it softer but with a firm "skin" of the pillow. Think real daki vs teddy bear or other plush toy. To do this though, the sherpa backing us not quilted to the front so you will need to stitch the back securely to the front before you cut your pattern out.
Next sew by hand, once you have cut out your pattern from the blanket or sew by speed awl or industrial [thick material setting] sewing machine, the peices of the pillow together but do not seal it.
This is the build-a-bear portion where you stuff the pillow with batting. Polyfill will work (is what GS co uses in Nendos) but you can also go with actual daki cotton wadding or even memoryfoam core. Then seal it up, attach laundry instruction abd a signature tag and boom all done.
Expense wise, a custom photo print sherpa lined fleece will range from 60 to 180 bucks plus or minus inflation, shipping, and if pixiv or NSFW order from Japan/Asia +/- proxy ship service, per blanket. Though as said this can bet you 3-4 or if mini sizing the plush even more pillows. The pillows printed on fleece blanket could also be several characters per blanket if you like rather than copies.
Batting is pretty cheap, most craft stores with sewing materials will have many forms of it from cotton wadding to polyfill but polyfill is by far the cheapest and is hypoallergenic and mold/mildew resisting.
On wash instructions, most these fleeces fair through washer just fine, but dryer will cause piling/the fleece to pill. If going with cotton wadding as stuffing, washer will cause wadding to clump but otherwise be fine. If cotton batting, consider a zipper seal so you can unstuff and declump your pillow between washes.
And thats a wrap for my 1st tutorial DIY project posting.
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reference: my Sakura Miku Nendoroid pillow from GoodSmile corp
Well, it's not exactly going to be cheap and will take some DIY know how, but here's the stint.
GS Co's nendo throws are made from photoprint microfiber fleece. The same type of fleece as if you were to buy a "sherpa fleece throw" off of Red Bubble. The Nendo pillows have character on the front, with a pattern print on the back and on the edges it goes 1/2 and 1/2 from Daki side to pattern base color and the pillows are done large border die-cut outline sticker style. So, how to go about making your own:
First, if you are ordering from RedBub specifically on the blankets, you will need to keep it SFW or if flagged as private/mature, keep it to R rating (no pubes, choccy starfishes, spread lower lips or phallus exposed or "skin tight" shorts style). Next you also have to deal with RBs license rights DMCA BS. On licensed media, if your Daki throw is of a famous tyoe character you will have to put your own unjque style spin on it to avoid DMCA flag, notify and tear down deals. Upside though, pixiv sells the same type of blankets through pixiv factory if I remember right, though if outside Japan you may need a proxy shipper service.
So first, the artwork to put on the blanket. Say you can't draw so good, Pixiv's V-Roid Studio will allow you to craft and pose then render a reference PNG of your character in any body style you want to a point. There is also the Magic Poser app, if you woukd prefer just a 3D reference so you can illustrate it yourself, both are free.
How do we go from Blanket to Pillow? Well, you cut the blanket up into a sewing pattern and make a pillow out of it. If using RB, and largest sherpa blanket, [80x eitger 60 or 54 inches] This is roughly enough material to make 3 pillows or maybe 4, per blanket.
In translating the artwork into a pattern, take your PNG Vroid or reference photos into photoshop/gimp/inkscape/adobe illustrator/clip paint studio. Illustrate over them using Vector shapes to be able to artifact free and losslessly scale the finished illustrations up. If using Adobe shoop, you can AI generate fill the pattern fill side if going for a 1 sided throw [although, this will be raster not vector in format].
In terms of "for print" size, since it is chibi you can probably get away with 150 dot/pixel per inch and canvas size of 80x60 inches.
You will want to create a line aroubd where you want the "die cut" edges to be so you can stitch the top of blanket to back liner and cut it out. Do this for both front, back and your side gap fill patterns. Then duplicate the front+back+side pattern as many times and to what scale you want on the blanket. (Nendo pillows varry but are roughly 16-21 inches tall, extremely varried in width [usually between 8-16 inches wide] and are 3 inches thick on the height of the side pannels from back to front. Design your pattern templates accordingly to taste.
On why sherpa vs one sided photoprint fleece, the sherpa lining makes the fabric hold form better due to added thickness and will make it softer but with a firm "skin" of the pillow. Think real daki vs teddy bear or other plush toy. To do this though, the sherpa backing us not quilted to the front so you will need to stitch the back securely to the front before you cut your pattern out.
Next sew by hand, once you have cut out your pattern from the blanket or sew by speed awl or industrial [thick material setting] sewing machine, the peices of the pillow together but do not seal it.
This is the build-a-bear portion where you stuff the pillow with batting. Polyfill will work (is what GS co uses in Nendos) but you can also go with actual daki cotton wadding or even memoryfoam core. Then seal it up, attach laundry instruction abd a signature tag and boom all done.
Expense wise, a custom photo print sherpa lined fleece will range from 60 to 180 bucks plus or minus inflation, shipping, and if pixiv or NSFW order from Japan/Asia +/- proxy ship service, per blanket. Though as said this can bet you 3-4 or if mini sizing the plush even more pillows. The pillows printed on fleece blanket could also be several characters per blanket if you like rather than copies.
Batting is pretty cheap, most craft stores with sewing materials will have many forms of it from cotton wadding to polyfill but polyfill is by far the cheapest and is hypoallergenic and mold/mildew resisting.
On wash instructions, most these fleeces fair through washer just fine, but dryer will cause piling/the fleece to pill. If going with cotton wadding as stuffing, washer will cause wadding to clump but otherwise be fine. If cotton batting, consider a zipper seal so you can unstuff and declump your pillow between washes.
And thats a wrap for my 1st tutorial DIY project posting.