My Little Pony | Imagine Our Life

For much of this project, I did things the same as with the Pinkie Pie I made my niece for Christmas. You can read that post for many details I will be leaving out here!

I scaled the pony body pattern up for a larger, huggable plush. This also made it easier to sew with felt. Felt is thick, and sewing inside out with seams can be tough. There were many places (wings, tips of hair) where it was really hard to flip the sewn felt right-side out, even at the larger size! My pattern ended up being 9.4″ wide from foot to foot (E2 to E2) on the “Underbody” piece. I had to break up the “Body Side” piece to print, then tape it together.

I did all of the details (everything but the body and eyes) freehand – cutting paper, then felt to whatever looked right. I did my best to photograph each piece to scale so I could draw it into a pattern for you later. Please keep that in mind when using the pattern! Things might be a little off since it was created after the fact and not tested. Grab my pattern here. (The pattern for the body is linked into the Pinkie Pie post.

Body: Rainbow Dash’s body is sewn the same way as Pinkie Pie’s was. I also used the same kind of felt, so that the two ponies will age the same. It is from Felt for Less. I got a rainbow pack as well as some light blue. Her eyes, nostrils and mouth were sewed on the same as well. (Note that she has different eyelashes than Pinkie.)

Cutie Marks: I cut the entire shape of the rainbow bolt out of yellow as my base ,extending it under the cloud a bit. I then cut the red and blue stripes to sew on top. They are tiny! Use sharp micro-tip scissors and be patient. I had to try twice on one of them. Sew the red and blue onto the yellow (my photo shows webbing, but I ended up not using it.) Overlap the white cloud, then sew it to the pony. A curved needle may help if you’ve already sewn and stuffed her. I used a plain one and jumped around a bit when stitches were too close to maneuver to. I added blue back stitched outlines to the cloud and to make the extra swirls.

Tail: My pattern for the tail already has 1/4″ seam allowance added, because I photographed it at that stage. Cut the base out of scrap felt (I used extra body felt) then layer the stripes on top to match, starting from red and working out to purple. Sew down the overlaps with matching thread.

Put right sides facing and sew around the large, straight areas, leaving any small flippy hair ends open, as well as a couple inches at the base of the tail. urn it right side out and sew the little flippy end bit by hand with a ladder stitch. (I talk about this in the Pinkie Pie post – It was just too hard to turn the tiny hair ends right-side out using felt.) Stuff the tail through the base, then fold in the remaining seam allowance and ladder stitch it closed. Attach the tail the same way mentioned int he other post. I kept going back and reinforcing it. Her tail is heavy!

Mane: Used the same technique of overlapping the stripes to make the tail, but start with the blue stripe as the base and layer on the green and purple on the sides. Sew and lightly stuff. Sew closed and attach to her neck so it can curl around to her left side.

Bangs/Fringe: For each segment, sew the two main pieces together along the top and front, leaving the bottom and end open (see dots). Open like the triangular roof of a tent and sew the base to it, leaving the end open for stuffing. (See the letters on the pattern and the photos for help understanding where things go.)

Sew the end shut with a ladder stitch and attach them to her head between the ears. Make sure the are right up against the lower mane, and squish them in a bit to fit. I sewed them to each other and to her head near the base.

Wings: These are similar to the mane, in that they are lightly stuffed, with the feather detail appliqued on. I actually sewed all the way around each wing, minus a couple inches for an opening) and turned each feather right-side out in a very slow process involving pointy objects and long pins used to grab bits of felt and pull it up. It took longer to flip the right way out then it did to sew them, but they came out neat. Something to keep in mind if you want to sew all the way around the tail. I attached them to her body with ladder stitch.

Goggles: I had very little time to make accessories, and apparently Rainbow Dash doesn’t wear a lot of easy to sew clothing. I saw an image of her in goggles, and knew I wanted to do those! I freehanded these as well – including the circles. I cut out two rings of gold felt (from American Felt & Craft) for each eyepiece and sewed them together with clear vinyl layered inside. I cut strips of thick 100% wool felt in brown and sewed it in a ring to each eyepiece, layering in a long ribbon on one outer edge and a short piece for the nose bridge between the two. I cut the long ribbon to fit around her head and added colored Velcro to the end (and the inside of one brown ring.

My niece received her new pony Memorial Day weekend when she came to stay with us. She loved her and carried her and Pinkie Pie around the house her whole stay! Next up will likely be Apple Jack for Christmas. Stay tuned!

Happy sewing! If you sew your own My Little Pony, I’d love to see it! Email me or stop by our Facebook page.

When I asked my brother if there was anything I could make for my niece this Christmas, I was a little overwhelmed when he suggested a My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic plushie of “Pinkie Pie”. I’d never sewn a stuffed animal before, and I’d be a pony newbie creating something to give to a pony expert!

I let the idea brew in the back of my mind for a while, as I tend to do for all sewing projects, when one day a box full of gorgeous recycled felt arrived from a friend. Two shades of pink? Check! The project was on! I planned an entire weekend of sewing, but ended up adding 2 evenings so I could add pony clothing to the gift.

The felt was purchased from FeltForLess on Etsy, who is unfortunately closed over the holidays as I am writing this, so I do not have prices for you. I will say that the thickness is similar to the wool blend felt I get from American Felt and Craft. It seemed to stretch a bit easier than the wool, and didn’t have the subtle color variations that make wool felt so rich. But the colors were bright and it cut like dream. I had no trouble working with it. I did lack that subtle “wool sweater feel” love so much about wool felt, but I’d use it again! (FYI – when sewing the pony construction (anything getting turn right-side-out afterwards) I preferred to use two strands of machine thread instead of my normal 2 strands of floss. It seemed stronger.)

As I had never made a stuffed animal, my first stop was to find a pattern for the pony’s body. There are many free patterns online for MLP. While there are people out there that make and sell these plush ponies, I think it is risky due to copyrights. All the patterns I saw were free. I did a quick search, but chose the most complex pattern I found. I liked that it was more accurate thanks to details like darts by the legs. Thank you Voodoo-tiki for the great pattern and tutorial!

I enlarged the pattern a bit. I didn’t want to deal with turning it right-side-out with tiny parts made of felt. Even enlarged, I still ran into that with the main and tail. If you want to make a pony of similar size to mine, resize the pattern so the height of the “body side” piece is 11.25″. I had to break up the two largest pattern pieces over multiple pages to print them.

For the main and tail, I used the same technique mentioned in this tutorial to create a pattern. Thank you Meowplease! When I sewed the swirl patterns of her hair onto the felt pieces, I added a layer of batting to the back to add dimension. It would have worked better with more batting and thinner fabric. My results were subtle. I ran into trouble while trying to turn the sewn piece right-side-out. The little flippy curls were too small. I ended up ripping out the stitches for all the tiny curled bits, then sewed them while the piece was right-side-out using a ladder stitch. I used this technique to attach the main and tail. Thank you MLPPlushies!

The eyes were my own creation. I do not have an embroidery machine (that’s called “my hands”!), which seems to be the preferred way to sew pony eyes and “cutie marks” (butt tattoos!) I layered felt ovals to make all the main parts, added a wedge of lighter blue at the side of the iris for shading and stitched a satin stitch wedge of white for a highlight. The eyelashes were a combination of back stitch and satin stitch. In my quest to do well, the eyes took 3 hours!

The “cutie mark” was done in felt. I started out with the balloon strings done in back stitch. I decided I wanted something more solid, and wove my needle right-to-left through every stitch to fill it in. The result was similar to stem stitch, which I used for the mouth. The “cutie marks” took me an hour each.

The clothing was all my own ideas. While I searched a bit through images online, thanks to my brother’s information, I decided to do my own thing. I didn’t have the materials needed to do anything “show accurate” so I went with colors that matched Pinkie and my niece liked.

The cape was made with the darker pink eco felt on the inside and peacock wool felt on the outside. I cut a bib shape with a slight concave curve at the bottom to allow for her tail. I used snag-free Velcro to close it and decorated the front with a vintage button of my mother’s. I also sewed on a collar of faux fur.

I wanted some boots for her, despite the fact I’d have to make 4 of them. I used some of the eco felt in white, and cut circles slightly larger than her finished feet. The boot bodies were strips of felt with a subtle curve. I wrapped the first one around a leg and trimmed it to make a template for the others. I had it long enough to overlap the seam.

I kept the seams flat by stitching little stitches across both overlapping edges in each boot. Then I turned them inside out, sewed on the bases and flipped them back right-side-out. I stitched pompons onto the backs and stitched crisscrossed ribbon onto the fronts as laces.

The tutu was added into the mix because the ponies had “gala dresses” that seemed to be a big deal. While I couldn’t make Pinkie Pie’s actual dress without candy corn ribbon, I decided to make a quick skirt to turn the cape into a dress. I took a bit of elastic and strips of leftover tulle from my sewing stash, looping the halved strip through themselves to attach them. (A quick search just now brought up the same technique here.)

This little chair was $3.75 at the thrift store. Perfect school chair!

I didn’t make the elastic go all the way around her waist like I’d originally planned. Instead, I sewed the elastic and the tops of each tulle strip to a long piece of the darker pink felt. I added a length of cupcake ribbon (Dollar Tree!), sewed another piece of felt to the back as lining, and added more snag-free Velcro to close it. It looks more finished that way.