Silksong Flea Bag Charm

everyone who has played silksong has loved the fleas, and with their simplistic design they are very easy to turn into plushies, so why not use that feature to decorate a backpack or computer case by turning one into a bag charm?

I have set this tutorial up so you will hopefully have the skills to fully design one of these fluffy guys on your own. however if you aren't interested in pattern making, simply skip to step 4 as I have already made and attached a pattern there.

additionally there are an optional 3 steps with designated materials they are all labled as such, since they use extra supplies that can be rather costly if not already owned you may not wish to do those three steps, so feel free to skip those as well.

Minky fleece fabric (aprox 1 sq ft)

embroidery floss (red, brown)

stuffing

sewing thread

wooden beads (red, brown, optional: pearl, metallic black)

bag clasp

Optional: shrinky dink or PET 6 plastic

uv resin or sealer of choice

Tools:

sewing needle

embroidery needle

scissors

hole punch

you can skip the pattern making steps and use the pre-made should you wish (attached at step 4). however if you want to make your own pattern here's how:

make a sketch of what you want your plush to look like, you can use any art program, I like to stick to krita. other options include but aren't limited to: Fire Alpaca (pc), Autodesk Sketchbook (pc/mobile), and MediBang (mobile).

using the mirror tool create a lineart pattern which each piece on a different layer. this could be two pieces, however i want my pattern to have a little more depth, so i want the collar fluff to stick out which means i'm making the head and body three different pattern pieces (will be six total pieces), two for the head and one for the body

you may notice the legs are still a sketch, and that's because I will be using beads and embroidery floss to make them, I find sewing something that small to be far too tedious and they don't look very good.

once you've finished drawing out the pattern pieces, spread them across your canvas and add an extra outline around them, the inner lines will be for stitching, the outer is where you'll cut the fabric.

If you did not make your own pattern, either download the attached pdf or the pattern photo from the last step. it is made for A4 paper, and you will not want to size it down any as it will greatly impact the difficulty of the project.

trace along the inner and outer guides of the pattern, to make this easier on myself, I cut the outer part of the pattern separately and pinned it to the fabric.

make sure the mouth has plenty of extra paper around it.

do make sure the pattern parts all have the same fabric direction for the best appearance.

take the mouth pattern, and on the non printed side rub as much graphite as you can around where the lines should be. next, place it graphite down onto the fabric you have chosen as the front, do this on the fuzzy side of the minky fleece.

take a pen or a pencil and rub along the print lines, if your pattern has not transferred you either didn't have enough graphite, or did not use enough pressure when tracing the lines.

when embroidering start with the outlines in brown, and then fill in the tongue with red. if you do the reverse your tongue's shape will likely get messed up. also, due to the fuzzy nature of the fabric, you will likely have to embroider over the outlines twice.

pin the fabric pieces together as shown in the first three images, A to B, C to C, and D to D. fuzzy faces should be placed against each other.

when sewing do not sew along the entire line, do try to keep with the outline's general shape, but only sew as far as shown in the last three images.

take the different parts and flip them inside out. sew the tops of B and C together, with the fuzzy faces meeting, flip it again and sew the head together (part A) but leave the top open.

flip the flea inside out for the last time, and string some brown embroidery floss through the bottom, loop the thread through a brown bead until you only have enough thread to tie a knot. repeat until you have four legs.

pack a bunch of stuffing into the flea, making sure you get stuffing into all the little pockets, and then go ahead and over stuff it a bit.

next, use a ladder stitch or invisible stitch along the top, sewing the ears in at the same time. once it's properly sewn shut, squish it around to get the extra stuffing into the top.

Note: do not stuff the ears, they will look weird, and be incredibly difficult to sew.

pull a bit of brown embroidery floss trough the top of the flea, having a knot with a loop allows you to center the plushie on the string by going back trough the loop.

when you have finished stringing on the desired beads, loop through the last one to keep everything in place for the next step.

I strongly recommend using an embroidery needle to string the beads.

to attach the clasp, create a loop through the ring on the clasp and pull everything through the loop. make sure it's tight against the ring. i had some exposed string left so I used some loop knots to prevent fraying. If you don't want to do the last three optional steps definitely make a knot here and cut the excess string.

either take a piece of PET 6 plastic, which is often used as lids for tin baking trays, or some shrinky dinks and make sure to sand it down, this way you can use color pencils on it. color pencil will give a much more solid appearance, where as markers will still be transparent and most paints will crack or separate from the plastic as it shrinks.

start out with a black outline of the needle using an alcohol marker or permanent marker. color in the needle with color a white pencil, can use a light layer of another color that you go over with the white if you want shading. lines will be lost, so go over the pencil layer with the marker.

cut it out with a pair of scissors, and use a hole punch to create the eye of the needle.

shrink it either using an oven or a heat gun, keep a close eye on it as it will shrink fast, it will be ready when it lays flat, if it has not flattened out on its own you can do this by hand, just be sure not to use too much pressure as it will pick up any texture it's in contact with.

you will want to seal it, I used a uv resin as I already had that on hand, but if you have a preferred sealer go ahead and use that on the pencil side.

string some more beads onto the excess string like in step 10, and keep the last bead in place by looping the thread back through it.

about an inch away from the last bead, place the needle charm onto the string, then use a spiral knot/Chinese ladder to strengthen the string and keep the beads and charm in place. cut off the excess string.

Great job! you made it! take a moment to admire your work and appreciate your new bag charm!