I’m bringing back the Ghibli fanart! I’ve been wanting to make something Howl’s Moving Castle themed for a while, and I finally decided to take action after reading the original book and rewatching the Ghibli film. It was a real treat doing that, because I thought the book really complemented the movie. They had their differences, but they worked together in ways that made them both better, which isn’t common. Tales from Earthsea and the book Tehanu I thought had the same effect. But anyhow, after all that I can definitely say Calcifer was one of my favorite parts of the book and movie, so I wanted to make a little palm-sized plush so that I might feel just like Sophie did.
Update! In late May of 2020, I went back and created embroidery files for this design. In order to fit embroidery 4″ x 4″ hoops, I designed a mini version that’s 30% smaller than the original, so you have your choice of both sizes in the new and improved instructions!
25 thoughts on “Freebie Friday! Calcifer Plush”
I’m reblogging that I LOVE calcifer he’s my favourite. I’ll try it (warning: my sewing abilities are really low). I’d love to make it to use as a wallet.
I think seeing him as a wallet would be really interesting! I hope you’ll give it a try sometime — I’d love to see it! ♥ And thanks so much for the reblog!
If you keep posting that kind of thing I’m going to reblog A LOT! ^^
I got a comment saying that it was probably difficult to make I’m going to buy some cloth this week for my 2nd sewing lesson so I’ll buy some for the calcifer and try to do it on my own.
by the way it’s quite hard to get the yard inches system I think that 1/4 yard is about 25 cm but I’m not sure about the other appliqué pieces when you say
10″X 7″ …
It’s only because the applique pieces you need are so tiny, so I listed the actual measurements so you could scraps ^^;; You could also get about .1m of new fabric for the applique pieces, but you’ll have a decent bit of fabric left over.
Reblogged this on 茉莉音chan Marionchan and commented:
Calcifer! mon préféré !!!! Si on pouvait le transformer en porte monnaie ce serait trognon!
I was so excited to stumble on your tutorial! I’ve been wanting to make Calcifer but I couldn’t picture how to translate the animation cutely enough into a plush. You nailed it.
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you like it! ♥
I’ve just made calcifer for my ghibli obsessed girlfriends birthday, this coming Friday…he’s already wrapped so I can’t take pictures but she’s going to love him! Thank you so much for making and sharing your pattern.
Awww, that’s so sweet! I’m glad the pattern was able to help you out! And I hope your girlfriend loves it ^-^
thanks so much for this pattern! I am going to try him in the holidays, I will send a picture of him when I am finished!
P.S. How do I add a profile pic to my profile?
I am almost finished with this but I can’t seem to get the base part right, can I get any help please?
Sure thing! If it’s step 3 you’re having trouble with, I find if you sew it in two parts that helps. The top sections of Calcifer’s body (the arms and flames) is one separate seam. Then sewing the base to the bottom of Calcifer’s body is the second seam. The ends of each seam should meet up where the circle markings are.
If there was more to your problem though, let me know and I’ll try to help out more!
Hi! I absolutely LOVE your plushies (and everything else!) do you think this would be an okay first project? Also, could I use just batting to fill it?
Thank you so much! If you’ve never sewn anything before, I’d probably stick with the patterns that are rated 1-star. But if you’re at all familiar with fusible web applique and y-seams then it shouldn’t be too bad for you 😀
And using all batting to fill the plush would be fine as well 🙂
Hi, just thought you might like to know I made this but the for the filling I used rice to about 2/3 full. Made a lively microwave hand warmer 🙂 little fire demon warming my hands on a cold day:-) Thanks for the pattern.
I’m going to use the face part of the pattern on a bag too so I have a calcified bag . I’m so excited!
That’s such a great idea! I love it 😀 Thank you for sharing <3
My sister wanted one and I couldn’t find one but when I showed her this she freaked out an I’m making it for Christmas this month
I made this a while ago and put a whole in it to be able to put a small heating pack in it! It’s so cute to have on my period 🙂
Is there a way to scale up the size on this to make it more of a throw pillow size? I’d like to make it larger so I can sew a play sized camp fire for my toddler but still be able to enjoy having it around the house for myself as well.
Definitely! I have a tutorial on how to enlarge patterns here:
http://cholyknight.com/2016/10/25/enlarging-reducing-pdf-plush-patterns/
If you wanted it like a 12″ tall throw pillow, you’d want to enlarge it 200%, and for something more like 18″ you’d want to enlarge it 300%.
Thank you so much for this wonderful free plush.
It’ll be the perfect prop for my Sophie Cosplay *o*
Hello! Is there a reason this pdf download is password protected? I don’t have a printer so I trace directly from my laptop screen. I tried to rotate the pattern pages so it would fit nicer on the screen and it asked me for a password. After that, the next time I tried to open the pdf the entire thing was behind a password. It works fine if I just re-download a new copy but it’s a little irritating that I can’t rotate a page?
Hello, so sorry about the password protection being annoying. It’s there because scammers like to remove my name from my work and resell it as their own. It should only prevent editing, but different .PDF readers handle the protection differently 😓 If you message me privately I would be happy to share an unprotected version with you.
I managed to make it work as is, but thank you! I’m sorry about the scammers, that makes sense!