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edit to add: yes the printed minky is washable! I didn't wash mine, but according to spoonflower "Wash separately in cool or warm water using a gentle machine cycle. Machine dry using a low temperature or permanent press setting and remove promptly to avoid wrinkles." Although please don't machine wash a plush, ahah. Just the fabric.
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So I recently got the chance to play with printed minky! Here's a sort of review about it
Bought from: spoonflower.com
Price: $28/yrd. Very expensive, but for a very versatile product of this quality it's definitely justified.
Shipping: Only $6 to Canada, with tracking, took about a week and a half to arrive once shipped, no duties. A+
File prep: spoonflower has very simple requirements that are easy to follow. I scanned my pattern pieces, cleaned them up and colored them, then I copied them into a file that was set to spoonflower's specifications (150dpi, set to the width of minky. I added length as I needed it). To make sure my pieces were going to turn out the right size I drew a 1"x1" square on my pattern before scanning and used that with photoshop's rulers to scale my pieces to the right size.
Print Quality: Excellent. Very clean and crisp print. Not a hair of minky out of place. Colors accuracy exceeded my expectations. As it's been said by other artists, because of the way dye sub works, the ink does not reach the base of the fabric but it does soak a few mm in so the print isn't strictly on the very surface of the fibers.
Fabric quality: As good as I expected. At first I thought it was shorter minky than regular Shannon but the fibers are just laying super flat, probably a result of the printing process. It's very soft, but not as fluffy as Shannon minky. Feels a little thinner. Because the fibers lay very flat it's actually pretty difficult to brush it against the grain, which is a good thing in this case. The fabric doesn't feel clumped or stiffened by the ink at all, like it would with paint. Same texture on printed and unprinted areas. I would not mix printed minky with shannon's because the textures are clearly different(unless I'm going for different textures of course).
Down sides: Dark colors will show the white base at seams and points. Light colors will show it too but it's not as noticeable. I would not print a dark plush.
My biggest worry is how this fabric will hold up with time. I wonder if with age it would start showing more of the white underneath the print.
Also, unless someone can show me a method to line up embroidery perfectly every time I WOULD NOT DO EMBROIDERED EYES AGAIN. It looks great but lining up the eyes with the print was a nightmare and it ended up taking a few hours to embroider two eyes. o___o so unless I made the eyes into sew-on patches, they would also be printed.
And finally, onto some detail pictures!
Finished plush;
a few closeups to show print quality. Super crisp.
White pokes through the seams, especially at the tip of spikes.
Brushing your seams minimizes this, though doesn't completely get rid of the white(these are brushed seams). Filling with a marker in a matching color might be a solution, but I'm iffy about using markers on plushies.
Comparing to a plush made with Shannon minky. At a glance they're very similar
Closeup to show the difference in texture
So here ya go! Overall I'm very happy with the results and it's something I would definitely do again. As a matter of fact I have one more printed plush I need to assemble, and that one has GRADIENTS!! The white showing through dark colors is definitely the worst part of printed minky, but considering the overall look and possibilities printed minky opens up (I repeat--GRADIENTS!!) it's a drawback I'm ok with. Printed minky will be available for commissions by request!
------------------
So I recently got the chance to play with printed minky! Here's a sort of review about it
Bought from: spoonflower.com
Price: $28/yrd. Very expensive, but for a very versatile product of this quality it's definitely justified.
Shipping: Only $6 to Canada, with tracking, took about a week and a half to arrive once shipped, no duties. A+
File prep: spoonflower has very simple requirements that are easy to follow. I scanned my pattern pieces, cleaned them up and colored them, then I copied them into a file that was set to spoonflower's specifications (150dpi, set to the width of minky. I added length as I needed it). To make sure my pieces were going to turn out the right size I drew a 1"x1" square on my pattern before scanning and used that with photoshop's rulers to scale my pieces to the right size.
Print Quality: Excellent. Very clean and crisp print. Not a hair of minky out of place. Colors accuracy exceeded my expectations. As it's been said by other artists, because of the way dye sub works, the ink does not reach the base of the fabric but it does soak a few mm in so the print isn't strictly on the very surface of the fibers.
Fabric quality: As good as I expected. At first I thought it was shorter minky than regular Shannon but the fibers are just laying super flat, probably a result of the printing process. It's very soft, but not as fluffy as Shannon minky. Feels a little thinner. Because the fibers lay very flat it's actually pretty difficult to brush it against the grain, which is a good thing in this case. The fabric doesn't feel clumped or stiffened by the ink at all, like it would with paint. Same texture on printed and unprinted areas. I would not mix printed minky with shannon's because the textures are clearly different(unless I'm going for different textures of course).
Down sides: Dark colors will show the white base at seams and points. Light colors will show it too but it's not as noticeable. I would not print a dark plush.
My biggest worry is how this fabric will hold up with time. I wonder if with age it would start showing more of the white underneath the print.
Also, unless someone can show me a method to line up embroidery perfectly every time I WOULD NOT DO EMBROIDERED EYES AGAIN. It looks great but lining up the eyes with the print was a nightmare and it ended up taking a few hours to embroider two eyes. o___o so unless I made the eyes into sew-on patches, they would also be printed.
And finally, onto some detail pictures!
Finished plush;
a few closeups to show print quality. Super crisp.
White pokes through the seams, especially at the tip of spikes.
Brushing your seams minimizes this, though doesn't completely get rid of the white(these are brushed seams). Filling with a marker in a matching color might be a solution, but I'm iffy about using markers on plushies.
Comparing to a plush made with Shannon minky. At a glance they're very similar
Closeup to show the difference in texture
So here ya go! Overall I'm very happy with the results and it's something I would definitely do again. As a matter of fact I have one more printed plush I need to assemble, and that one has GRADIENTS!! The white showing through dark colors is definitely the worst part of printed minky, but considering the overall look and possibilities printed minky opens up (I repeat--GRADIENTS!!) it's a drawback I'm ok with. Printed minky will be available for commissions by request!
Monthly ITH pattern on Patreon
We're still technically a little under the goal, but we're so close that I've decided to go ahead and add the pattern tiers anyways since we're so close! So starting this month I'll be releasing one ITH(in the hoop) pattern every month on Patreon. These will require an embroidery machine with at least a 4"x4" (100mmx100mm) hoop to make. I'm really excited about this, please check it out! ^^ https://www.patreon.com/plushiluv
updated commission info
I've finally revamped my commission info to have a detailed price guide! I am forever grateful for everyone's support but I can't always respond to every quote request, so I've made it easier to pinpoint an estimate through this guide. Last time I opened my commissions I got 60+ requests and I was not able to answer everyone, leaving many (understandably) frustrated. I'm a one person operation, and there's only so much I can do in a day. I'm hoping that somewhat automating quote requests will help everyone! I know the guide isn't 100% perfect, I'm aware that there are exceptions it does not cover. It's meant to be used to get a general idea not an exact price. Please note that I will no longer be doing detailed quotes while commissions are closed. Quotes that I've given out before this change will be valid until my next re-opening in late June/early July, but after that all quotes will no longer be valid. Thanks for understanding! Check out the new commission page here;
Shop fill! Plushies in stock and ready to ship
I don't advertise it online cause it's all really local, but I do sell at cons every year. And like a lot of events, my first two of 2020 got cancelled thanks to Coronavirus. I have other cons scheduled later this year but I've got a difficult and expensive situation going on with my house and I was really hoping for a bit of extra income from those two cons. 😅 So I've gone ahead and listed my major items on my website.
Everything in the Under $100 tab is in stock and ready to ship plushiluv.com/shop
New commissions
So sorry this is really late, I got absolutely flooded with quote requests before I re-opened and I wasn't able to get back to everyone on time and I'm really sorry for that. I wish I could answer more, make more, and just cheat time in general but realistically when you get 60+ requests for price quotes and 40+ submission when commissions re-open, most of which weren't from the previous 60+ quotes, there's only so much a single person can do. I still had to narrow it down to a few, which was brutal, but this is the list I've come up with;
-Nickit
-WoW druid
-Growlithe
-Nightlight
-Gumgramon
-Lugia
-Palico
-Sorairo
-Dorugamon
-Wani
© 2017 - 2024 MagnaStorm
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I wanted to let you know Spoonflower recently improved their printed minky so there's a lot less white
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARmOza…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARmOza…