Category: Finished Projects

Yolk is a plush night light in the shape of an fried egg that I made for this project. It is designed for children aged 6-12. For children, fried eggs often appear in pans or on the dining table. They‘ll unfamiliar with fried eggs appearing on the bed. This is my purpose. I hope this toy can inspire children’s creativity and imagination. At the same time, this brave fried egg will protect children in the dark so that they will no longer fear the dark. This egg night light plush toy combines comfort, functionality and creativity, and is a good companion for children.

Materials：

I used white fabric as the egg white and yellow fabric as the yolk. I also used pink and red felt fabric as the tie bow of the fried eggs to make it look more lovely.

Circuits：

Two yellow light bulbs were placed in my circuit. I thought yellow could better represent the color of the yolk than the white light bulb. I placed one light bulb in the tie bow, another light bulb in the ping-pong ball in the yolk to make the light of the yolk look softer, and placed the switch in the egg white.

Process：

The fried egg is made up of two pieces of fabric, front and back. I cut a hole in the front piece of fabric to sew the yolk and egg white together. This way there is a clear line between the yolk and egg white, which looks more realistic.

Here is what my pulsh night light looks like:

Challenges and Improvements:

-When I put the cotton into the fried egg, I couldn’t control the shape of the cotton, which made the fried eggs look not round. I used a small ruler to adjust the position of the cotton so that the cotton was as evenly distributed as possible in the fried egg.
-When placing the light bulb, I initially placed too much cotton above the light bulb, which make light can’t passing through the cotton. Later, I move the cotton that I use, so the light could pass through the cotton and fabric.

If I have time and I am more familiar with sewing and making circuits, I would like to:

-Installing a speaker to play some lullabies or white noise can further enhance the bedtime experience. These gentle melodies can help lull children to sleep and create a peaceful environment.
-Add a timer function to automatically turn off lights and sounds after a set period of time. This ensures that toys are not left on all night, thereby improving energy efficiency.

The completed form of ZZ!

ZZ’s story

He’s a creative little monster who never has insomnia, and every time he has a new idea, the little hat on his head lights up! I’m making this pillow for myself, hoping that it will both guard my sleep and ensure my inspiration never runs dry .

ZZ’s body

There have been some changes. Initially, there were only two LED lights on ZZ’s head. However, when I put the lights inside the doll’s body, I tried one in the heart 🫀 area. I really liked this feeling, as if it had truly come to life. So, I decided to add another glowing part, and that’s how the circuit ended up looking like in the later version.

The creation process was very immersive. I set up a camera to record the entire process, but unfortunately it went out of focus, so I only have a few screenshots. The middle images can be used.

Here comes the Jackalope!

Material list:

-Flax fur fabric 10mm black

-1.5” ribbon(for eyes and bow)

-white paint marker (to draw pattern on black fabric)

-wood board

-flax fabric (to cover the board)

-3D printed parts

-hot glue (to glue the horns)

-blue tape (to wrap up the model and get patterns)

Process images:

3D model

(horns 3D file) https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/character/fantasy-character/horns-60-part-imm-and-vdm-brush

3D prints for pattern

Use blue tape to wrap it and cut open

patterns

Trace pattern onto fabric

Solder LED lights and sewing fabric

Sew lights behind the eyes so that they won’t move

Glue the horn platform underneath the fabric, then glue horns outside (too excited to take a photo)

Add board to make the bunny looks like a taxidermy

Done! (I really like this evil light effect although the photos are not focused)

Outcome:
These are the early evolution stages of the multi layered “birthday love notes” for my nephew. Using red thread on white cotton fabric, I embroidered the messages for his first day on earth, and then for his year.

Me delirious and happy with my connections, after soldering for way longer than I’d like to admit.

Challenges:
Originally I wanted type on velvet fabric, but because my velvet fabric has a stretchy nature to it, it absorbed the ink when printed on the UV printer, and it entangled the thread on the embroidered machine. See examples below (embroidery to the left, uv printing to the right)

Next Steps:
Overall I’m not thrilled about the outcome, but I’m really happy about the process. During the process, I learned for the first time how to connect four led lights, how to sew on the sewing machine, embroidery, and uv printing.

I want to create a solution that will allow me to remove each layers meanwhile keeping the form, light, and all the other layers intact. I also wish to add seven layers and more lights.

Recently, I’ve gotten hooked on playing Mario Odyssey, which is really so much fun! I’ve run into a little problem though – I’m using a projector to play it, and I have to turn off the lights in the room to see the screen clearly. But after playing for a long time, the room was dark and I couldn’t see anything, which still felt a little inconvenient. I needed a little light source, but didn’t want to ruin the gaming experience.

So I had a thought: why not make a nightlight that provides a soft light, but also fits the theme of the game? Thus, Switchie was born! It’s not only meant to solve my nagging problem, but it also hopes to help other gaming enthusiasts, like me, have a cool and functional nightlight.

Making Switchie wasn’t too hard, but it was definitely a bit complicated and time-consuming. I often worked on it while chatting with my friends over the phone, and I got so carried away that I forgot to take many process pictures!

One of the challenges I faced during the process was working with felt—it’s a rather coarse and thick material, making it difficult to sew and tie knots. At one point, I even broke a needle! (Luckily, no one got hurt) Despite the challenges, this turned out to be a really great learning experience. It was my first time doing any sewing, and I found the whole process surprisingly enjoyable.

The materials I used include: various colors of felt, fiber cloth, black yarn, thread and needle, transparent plastic sheets, a dual LED circuit, and some stuffing.

All in all, I’m very happy with how Switchie turned out. Not only does it solve my lighting problem while gaming, but it also adds a unique touch to my room decor. I’m quite satisfied with this project.

My plush light is named Venus, after the famous painting “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli. 

Source: Wikipedia

The Venus plush light was designed as a decoration for the users favourite chair, bed, couch, etc. The cushion is two toned, beige on the back and ivory on the front. I hope that my design brings people excitement and happiness when they see it placed in their space. 

The materials used to build the Venus plush light include satin fabric, stuffing, a battery pack, an LED light bulb and a ping pong ball to diffuse the light. 

My design process began with creating my sewing pattern and watching lots of sewing tutorials on YouTube. I started with the pearl by cutting out 4 ovals and sewing those together with the sewing machine (pictured below). I then began working on the shell, I created the scalloped pattern and cut out the shape on two separate fabrics. Again with the sewing machine I sewed the two pieces together and then proceeded to stuff the pearl and the shell (but not fully stuff it, I will explain more in the next part).

(shoutout to Sophia for these amazing photos)

After I had the exterior shell shape I began by sewing down the shell to create the ridges. After wards I stuffed the rest of the shell and moved onto figuring out how I am going to attach my pearl, place my LED light and hide the wiring/battery pack.

As you can see in the pictures above I decided to make a small hole in the interior of the shell to feed the light through into the pearl.

Finally I used velcro to secure the pack in the bottom of the shell, which hides perfectly behind the pearl.

That’s it for this week! I had so much fun with this project and am looking forward to working more with the sewing machine in future projects.

P.S. this blog post does sound like everything went very smoothly but I did encounter some bumps along the way which I will discuss with you guys further tomorrow 🙂

say hello to my little friend… Spooki!!

Spooki is a plush jack-o-lantern night light that I created for this project. The target user is young kids of any gender ages 5-10 that like Halloween and stuffed animals (or if you are like me and still love stuffed animals it is for all ages hehe). Spooki is meant to sit on any surface and act as not only a fall decoration but a Halloween themed night light for kids. I hope that this night light makes kids feel safe in the dark but gives their room a cozy fall feeling.

To create this pumpkin plush I used a thick cotton orange fabric for the pumpkin body and a thinner light orange fabric for the cut outs of his jack-o-lantern face. The stem is a very thick brown denim material which I think makes it look much more realistic. Inside, of course, is the stuffing to make him soft and the circuit with three yellow bulbs covered in ping pong balls.

my circuit and corresponding diagram

I really enjoyed the process of sewing Spooki and I found that my sewing only improved as time went on. However, it was a very long process and there were many more pieces to it in the end than I expected going into this project.

sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew sew…

Spooki is made up of 9 leaf like shapes that are sewed together and then opened up almost like a beach ball. One thing that I tried that was new stitching on the small pieces of fabric that up make his face using small individual stiches that you can see. I wanted him to have a fall scarecrow vibe which I think I achieved.

comparing light under fabrics

My biggest challenge was apparently not making my knots big enough. I had a lot of stitches come out at the top and bottom so I ended up reinforcing it with a circle of fabric on both ends. It definitely helped with that issue and made the whole thing look much cleaner.

jack-o-lantern face coming together

If I had more time I would have loved to make him bigger and put more stuffing in it. I think he is the perfect size for a desk night light but he turned out much smaller than I pictured. But he is Spooki, and Spooki is perfect.

Dhou Fu Has Arrived!

Meet Dhou Fu (Tofu), the silken-tofu-meets-silkie-chicken-inspired study-buddy night-light.

Dhou Fu was created for students who like to do deep work, and need quiet focus in order to tap into this part of their brains.

Dhou Fu lives on his owner’s desk and serves as a study-guardian. When his owner wants to do deep work and avoid interruptions, Dhou Fu turns blue, to let others in the shared workspace know that his owner is deep in thought, and to please not interrupt them.

Above: Dhou Fu in his natural habitat.

Dhou Fu is designed with magnetic toes and pipe-cleaners inside his feet, to help him attach to various objects, and ideally, hang from a desk lamp. He also has cute little eyes that gaze encouragingly toward his owner, seeming to say “you can do it!”, because who doesn’t need a little bit of extra support every now and then!

Top: Dhou Fu hanging out.
Bottom: Dhou Fu guarding from the clouds.

Materials and parts used:

• faux fur
• cotton plaid fabric
• blue plastic eyes
• a 2-LED circuit
• pipe cleaners
• fridge magnets
• embroidery thread
• stuffing

The Journey

Creating Dhou Fu was not difficult but it took a lot of time and attention to detail. I had ever used faux fur fabric before in any creation, and it presented a few challenges, and there were a number of things I had to do to make him look his best:

1) cutting very close to the base of the fabric to avoid cutting any of his hair;

Above: Trimmed edges of early prototype compared to the final product after sewing.

2) folding the fur in and away from the edges as I sewed the seam of the body;

3) pulling out any hair that was sewn down, which was really tedious but ultimately incredibly worth it. His hair is glorious!

Above: Pulling out small sections of hair along the seam.

I also made chicken feet for the first time, which had a lot of twists and turns and was an involved process. However, I’m really pleased with how they turned out, I think they add a lot of character.

Top Left: a foot in progress.
Top Right: a finished foot.
Middle: Dhou Fu with feet (left) versus the prototype (right).
Bottom: Dhou Fu’s feet gripping my metal lamp base.

I think the most difficult part of this whole process was that at the end I decided to add buttons, like a crazy person. Here’s why:

After securing the LEDs and battery pack in place with stuffing, I began sewing in Dhou Fu’s legs. As I sewed them in place along the bottom line of the body, I became concerned that if I were to cut the seam open in the future to replace the batteries, I might compromise the seam holding his legs in place. I decided that having his bottom seam open instead with buttons would be a good way to keep everything in place but make the batter pack more accessible.

I did a test with a button and sewing a button hole on some scrap fabric, and once I felt confident that it would work, I made 3 button holes on one side of the opening, and added 3 buttons to the other side. I also “finished” the edges of the fabric openings with embroidery thread to give it a cleaner look.

The Future of Dhou Fu

With more time to work on Dhou Fu, I would replace the magnets in his right foot. They’re a little smaller than the magnets in his right foot, which I didn’t realize until I started working on the left foot, and the layers of fabric started interacting with them. In his left foot, I put stronger magnets, which fortunately are strong enough that he can hang from a metal object by just one foot if the right foot fails.

Above: Dhou Fu’s toe magnets in action.

Above 3 images: Dhou Fu’s toe magnets in action in various locations.

Dhou Fu’s Circuit:

Here’s a quick look at Dhou Fu’s circuit diagram, and the making process. On Becky’s advice, I used 2 blue LEDs to ensure that he was as bright from the back as he was from the front, as blue LEDs are fairly directional in the light that they emit, and I wanted to make sure his blue light was visible from all angles. Thanks Becky!

Dhou Fu Gallery: The Work in Progress

And lastly, here are some additional shots of the making process:

Above: Prototyping and testing feet shapes with stuffing and pipe cleaners.

Above: Preparing my work station.

Above Images: Cutting a larger pattern based on original prototype shape.

Above images: Finishing the feet and constructing the body.

Above: Finished product!