Common soft toy mistakes and fixes
Puckered curves, lumps and visible closing.
- Puckers and points on curves: clip the seam allowance.
- Lumpy stuffing: add it a little at a time, small parts first.
- Opening shows: use ladder stitch and pull gently to close.
- Wriggly fabric: start with wovens rather than knits.
- Pieces slipping: use lots of pins, and tack when the pattern says to.
- Lost on a step: transfer all pattern marks and letters to the fabric.
Watch
Plush Making 101: Sewing Clean Points (3:13)
By makeshiftwings · Open on YouTube
Chosen from its title and channel: a 3-minute video from makeshiftwings on the same topic as this guide. Embedded from YouTube with credit; we don't host it. It only loads when you press play.
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Sources
All checked 1 November 2026. We read these; we did not test the products ourselves.