Hello! This my final plush toy – Smile.

When turning on the switch, it looks in this way:

How I make this plush toy

• Finish the sketch of the toy and the circuit
• Choose the fabrics
• (1) The fabric for the hair and eyes: black and very thick fabric to block the light
• (2) The fabric for the face: flesh and thin fabric to let the light get through it
• (3) The fabric for the mouth: Two different red fabrics
• Cut the outline of the hair, face, eyes, and mouth
• Add a thickness to both the hair and the face
• Sew all the parts together! Hair-face-details
• Finish the circuit
• (1) Buy the electric materials: two red LEDs, one AA2 battery case
• (2) Choose the resistors
• Two 100 ohm – the light can get through the fabric and are not too dazzling
• (3) Solder them together!
• Place the circuit inside the face of the plush toy and adjust the position of the LEDs
• Fill the face with cotton and close the face part
• Finish!

Difficulty

The most difficult part I met is to sew the hair together. The black fabric is too thick so I cannot use the sewing machine. At first, I sew the thickness part to the front piece and then to the back piece. When sewing it to the back together, I use two steps: at first start in the middle of it and sew one half side, and then the other side. And it becomes more and more difficult when getting close the side.

Circuit diagram

The circuit has two LEDs, two 100 ohm resistors and a battery case with a switch. I use paralleling to connect the two LEDs so they won’t be affected by each other.

The name and the story

His name is Smile. This is a simple name and he has a simple hope to bring happiness to others.

Smile comes from a comic book and travel to the world where we live. During his travel, he found that smile is contagious, which means when he smiles to other people, they often smile back even they don’t know each other really. It always makes him feel happy, and he hopes others to feel happy too.

My plush is a brain! This brain lamp is for anyone who likes to use their brain, but also for those who want to take a break and keep calm. The switch allows you to turn on and off the light. It diffuses the light to help you relax or keel calm, carry on thinking about your next big idea! You can also pat it like your teddy bear when you need a break from thinking too much.

If your brain is constantly thinking, it is a reminder to stop working on your brain muscle but move your body muscle. Also, it is a reminder to think smart whenever you are working at your desk. It can be either put on your desk, your coffee table or hang from your ceiling of your front door.

I failed a lot in soldering but I learned so much about the best practices. I’m still learning about the circuit diagram and working with the resistors to make the light brighter. It also turned out blue or yellow LEDs are better than the white ones, which I thought would be good. Failing served good for me to learn!

This dipped plush light hangs on the wall and gives users a fun off-kilter light that evokes candy or cake.

The process began with laser cutting the holes in the top sheet then applying the fusible interfacing.

After applying the fusible interfacing I cut the fabric to size. I sewing with the piping and sewing it into place.

Following this I hand stitched the side piece into position to prepare it for the sewing machine.

The light box was made from an container for a pie. I used the lid from it and then spray painted it leaving holes that aligned with the holes on in the fabric.

The light box is elevated off of the base board with corrugated plastic sheeting and hot glued into place. The space between the outer fabric and the light box was taken up with batting.

I decided that this design required four LED’s. Here is the circuit diagram:

To achieve the candy coated appearance it was dipped into acrylic paint.

When I was a kid, I always love to see the cloud in the sky. I wanted to keep it in my room so I can touch it and play with it. I imagined the cloud is a child, loves to hover around the cage with its glowing body.

Process:

And then I bought the circuit for the coin battery from tinkersphere.

Sorry that I forgot we gotta record all the process, so I only took a few pictures.

Overall, I enjoyed the assignment a lot, and I love my little cloud cage!

This is a Patrick star. It is lively and cheerful and likes to talk to children. What it is best at is to bring light to the dark girl in the dark. This way the girl will no longer be afraid of the night or walk alone on the night.

This idea comes from my childhood. I have seen too many movies when I was young. I always feel that there are bad things in a dark corner at night. So I will be very scared. Especially when I walked alone on the night, I sometimes stopped to relax.

When I was young, my favorite cartoon characters were Patrick Star and Minions. Because I think Patrick Star’s fat and soft will give me a sense of security. Minions color is my favorite color.So I combined them and designed my Yellow Patrick Star.

\
This is the process of making my toys. I am thinking about the circuit arrangement after making the toy. In the process of making toys, I used a sewing machine.I am not very good at using sewing machines. Because I am afraid of needles. But in the end I still finished with the machine. This is a big challenge and a big step forward for me.

Initial concept sketch of Yellow Patrick Star.

Process photos of circuitry and sewing:

welding:

Sometimes it feels good to be a little blue when it’s raining. Sometimes you want to feel blue, but there just isn’t any real rain in sight. The Moody Raindrop provides you with the ability to get a little emotional any time you wish.

The white felt plushy resembles a single drop of rain that reveals its melancholy mood when inner-lit with blue light.

Concept Sketch

WORKSPACE

Prepping the workspace

PATTERN

Layout and cutting the pattern

I ended up stitching by hand. Thought I could use the experience/training of stitching by hand.. Hindsight says I should have used the machines for better cleaner edges.

(not pictured : gluing the blue felt eyes and quivering mouth to the inside of the felt before turning inside out.)

ELECTRONICS

The LED cluster was essentially the same as last week with the blue LEDs glued into the styrofoam spheres, but I added a 5th light and heat-shrined+hot-glued the cluster of 5 lights together for a more even dispersal inside the final model.

ASSEMBLY

The sewn felt skin and the electronics cluster come together with a hint of fiberfill to fill out the edges of the plush and to help diffuse the light another level.

The diffusion ended up OK, but not amazing. Still have hot spots in the center and a little dark around the edges. That said, my intended reveal of the eyes and mouth work like a charm.

Off – under light

ON-under light

ON – under little ambient light

Story:

Littlear is a little accompany monster who has its feelings on its face. People who are quiet and do not easily speak out their feelings can have them. Because this group of people is always afraid of socializing with others.

When they are upset and tired, they don’t want to speak with others; or when they want to refuse others but do not know how to say it. Littlear can help them to avoid these embarrassing situations. When they put this on his table and turn it on, it means “ Sorry I am not ‘online’ now”.

Sketches:

Process photos:

Circuit diagram:

Photos in context：

Hello Everyone!

This week’s assignment was challenging but I really enjoyed it.

I was inspired by dream catchers but wanted to make it more fun so I made a toy called “Monster Catcher” which is for kids who are afraid to sleep in their own room. The Monster Catcher hangs on the was and lights the room up.

I used 6 yellow 5mm LEDs. I initially wanted to put lights in the arms and legs but decided to make it more simple. Here is a sketch for my circuit:

Here is the process of soldering:

Process of making pom poms:

putting everything together:

And finally here is the result:)