I made this adorable dragon plush for @GeekyBookworm in the 2024 Monster Swap! She specifically said she didn’t want anything scary or creepy, and he is very definitely not either of those things. 
He was so sweet it was hard to send him away, but I know he’s being adored in his intended home. 
After tons and tons of painful searching, and even buying a couple patterns that I rejected for this project (I will likely make them or cannibalize parts of them for later projects), I stumbled across a website with some free dragon patterns, and they also had a cute little bat plush, as well. Here’s the site with the base patterns: Cuddly Dragons. After doing some arranging and thinking and back MS Paint “photoshop” sketching, I Franken-patterned things! In the end, I used 3: Snowy the Bean Bag Dragon (spikes and neck), Azhreia (body and head patterns), and Batty (wings). I also re-drew and combined the back legs into the under-body piece, and I extended the spikes in both directions to run the full length of the body/tail tapering them off at the end. I also used safety eyes but added felt backing to make them look a bit bigger; I love his almost puppy-dog expression. 
I attached the wings by the short side, instead of the longer one. The horns I self-drafted out of felt. I am so absolutely delighted with how he turned out!
Here’s all his main pattern pieces laid out on the stretch plush fabric I used:
I’m super proud of getting his extra long back spikes to work out; they were very difficult to trace and also turn after sewing, but I go there in the end!
And here’s what they looked like in the sewing-in process. I used soooo many pins/clips to make this fluffy, stretchy stuff cooperate. It also shed all over everything, and there was much use of the lint roller…
Here’s a close-up of his safety eyes backed with little felt ovals, which I free-handed completely as “felt right.”
Next, the absolutely clip-stravaganza that he required to get his body sewn together. I had attached the wings directly to the top of his body, so I had to literally roll them up and squish them back and forth inside as I sewed around the edges. 
For his cuddly factor to be appropriate, he needed weight, so I made little round “pouches” out of batting and filled them with glass toy beads that have been in my stash since I lived in Japan in 2008-2010! I tucked one into each of his feet before stuffing with regular toy stuffing fluff. I also made a larger rectangular bead-filled pillow for his belly area, and then stuffed over and around that.
He’s adorable in both his unstuffed and stuffed states. 
And here he is in all his glory, plus hopping into his box to head out to his new home.
I had so much fun making this dragon for the swap, and it was lovely to do something majorly creative and crafty again after so long not really have the energy or time or brain space. 
Bonus shot of him hanging out with a Sand Worm, Hezekiah the Skeleton, and the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. 
~Erin 
This project has been entered in Monster Jam 2024!
Well, lookie here! Your cool craft is one of this week’s Featured Projects! Congratulations!