Rhea’s Plush Night Light 🐶

For my plush night I was inspired by my dog – Coco. I only get to see my dogs during the weekend and it made me think of how humans experience “separation anxiety” of sorts when they’re away from their pets – and vice versa. Although I haven’t come up with an idea with how to deal with it for our pets yet, I wanted to create a plushie that reminded you of the feeling your pet gives you.

Here is Coco!

I created this plush night light for those needing an extra “hug” or comfort when they’re away from their pets. The two LEDS lights I placed were on his nose but I was hoping to create a snore pattern of sorts in the future. Something that mimics not only the way your pet looks but also how it makes you “feel”.

Introducing SnootZzz!!

I was inspired by the way coco looked to create this plushie. It definitely doesn’t look exactly like him (and is missing ears) but I do think it conveys the message.

To create this, I needed –

-Brown fleece

-White fleece

-White fabric

-2 Yellow Leds

-Resistors

-Wires

-Battery Pack

-Digital Embroidery

The digital embroidery and applique was perhaps the hardest part for me because I had never done it before. Understanding how to shape of the dog would be affected by the embroidery, how to scale it etc was also very challenging for me. I tried to leave extra room after the embroidery for shrinkage but it meant not perfecting the rounded face. I also underestimated how much the applique would end up shrinking the material. I noticed once I stitched on the applique, the ears ended up shrinking so much from my pattern! This is something I will keep in mind in the future.

For the LED lights, I chose to use two yellow lights that would light up on his nose. This was also challenging for me as I struggled for it to show up once the embroidery was on because I used cut away fabric underneath it.

My circuit diagram

This is what the plush light looks like with the lights on! I hope to find a way to position the lights better next time.

In the future, I want to understand how to be more mindful of shape when adding applique, embroidery etc and how to navigate these with shrinkage and lights.

Despite the ups and downs though, I really enjoyed creating this plushie because it was about something that meant a lot to me and I hope to continue to learn and create many more 🙂

Please find my presentation on this link!

Thank you 🐶