A few weeks ago I decided for my project I’d focus on transforming KEWPIE mayonaisse into a nightlight. This simple mayo packaging always stood out to me as a playful and interesting take on packaged food goods and I wanted to incorporate my love for cooking and design into my plushie project.
The Design & Pattern Making Process
The baby on the KEWPIE bottle is a bit freaky so I wanted to take a different direction in that specifc area of the bottle design.
With that in mind I decided to go with something slightly different from just replicating the original packaging. I decided to take a western spin on it with barbed wire, wild calligraphy, and animalistic iconography.
The Making Process
Parts Used:
- White Cotton Canvas
- Ivory Polyesther Fabric
- Ziploc Bag
- Red Satin Thread
- White LED
- Resister
- Battery Pack
- Copper Wire
- Shrink Tubing
The Journey
Embroidery
In setting out on this project I was especially inspired to learn the embroidery machine, to impose graphics over the plush canvas.
While I expected this to be a technical process, the setup was fairly simple and much of the process became a question of fiddling with a few settings to get the final look I wanted.
A special learning from this experience is that it is sometimes more helpful to import a PNG file than a SVG for single color patterns — This is largely because the program is able to preimpt your design better.
Ziploc
In searching for a plastic membrane for my plushie that would allow the internal bottle to show through I was unable to find any transparent fabric or sewable vinyl at Micheals. The breakthrough to my problem came as I was joking with VFL staff about other food products when it hit me — a Ziploc bag!
I qucikly ripped open a ziploc and sewed it onto a test piece to find it worked quite well. This gave me the confidence to apply it to my final piece.
Circuit Diagram
My Circuit diagram features a single white LED and resistor attached in series to a battery pack.