Light Up Espeon Pillow

Anybody like Pokemon? I sure do! My favourite Pokemon is Espeon, hence the main focus of this project. This is actually very easy to do. The hardest part is the wiring. Mostly becuase listening to around an hour of "Happy Birthday to You" is killer. There's more information below! =^.^=

Hello my lovie-dovies! That sounded British... Anyways, this is my first time-consuming project on here! This took me two days to complete. To be truthful, it is only time consuming if you don't have everything planned out. This is a very fun project nether-the-less. So I hope you try it out! The total cost will be around fifteen dollars. So set aside some money for this project.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

You will need:

Around a meter of light purple fabric. (I used an old blanket.)

Black, white, blue, and red felt.

Birthday Card that lights up. (The usual cost is around $8.99)

Scissors

Light purple thread and sewing needle.

Stuffing (I took some from an old pillow.)

Pins

Paper

Measuring tape

Step 2: Fold Your Fabric

Fold your purple fabric in half length-wise. Then, grab the right end on fold it in half again. You should have two layers of fabric on the left, and four layers of fabric on the right... in the same piece of fabric. ;) Innovative, I know.

Step 3: Pin, Mark, Pin, Mark, Pin...

Now we will make Espeon's head. To start, ready your waste bins. Place your waste bin where you want to cut out your circle. Then, press hard on it and move it in a circle. This will leave an indentation so you can pin a perfect circle. I put a binder clip in the center to lift the fabric up so that I could pin the circle better. I cannot say how much indenting after putting a pin helps. Just place the waste bin over the top of the pins and push down. This part was very easy.

Step 4: The Ears! Dun.. Dun... DUN!

Now we will start on Espeon's ears and ear tufts. Using my refrence picture, I drew an ear on a sheet of thin paper. Then I placed the sheet of paper onto the area that has FOUR layers of fabric. Placing it there is very important because you will need two sets of ears. After putting the sheet of paper in the area, I pinned it down. You could just cut out drawing, pin it on the fabric, and cut it out. But hey! It was 3am! I sorta took the long route... What I did was. I pinned down the paper without cutting it out. Then I pulled the paper off, pushing the pins through the thin paper. This left only the pins on the fabric. Then, I measuring the length, width, and all that jazz. I then put marking pins on the head where the ears would go. I did this so that I knew where to sew the ears on. I freehanded the tufts on the ears.

Step 5: Cutting Out the Ears and Head

Now let me warn you... Cutting out fabric using a child's scissors at 4am is NOT a good idea. When cutting out the head, leave the pins in by cutting some extra space around. Just remember, this cut is just to get the circle off the fabric. I used binder clips to hold the fabric tightly while I cut it.

Step 6: Fixing the Cuts, Sewing the Ears, and Stuffing the Ears

Now you will refine the cuts and sew the ears together. Cut as close to the pins as possible. This time, take out the pins. Leave the pins marking where the ears will go. Then, sew the ears using a slip stitch, or any type of stitch you please. Make sure to leave a hole so you can flip the ears inside out. Flip it inside out. Stuff the ear using the hole you made to flip it inside out. Sew the hole up. Repeat for the other ear. =^.^= - Done with the ears!

Step 7: Sewing the Head

Here comes the head... Dun Dun DUNNNN! Do as you did with the ears. Sew it all around, leaving a hole to flip it inside out and to stuff it, leaving the pins marking where the ears should be sewn. Flip and stuff the head, I am and Ta-Da!!! The head is done! Make sure to leave the hole you used to stuff so that you can put the wiring there. Also cut open a space under the top of the head, this is where the lights will show.

Step 8: Sewing the Ears to the Head

Where the marking pins are in the head, place the ears and pin them down. Then sew the ears on. Literally, that's it. WELL... If you want more detail... totally not writing this at 3am... I swear... It's only 8am! Which is why, no matter what you think. You really shouldn't start this project at 1am. Just use any type of stitch you want for the ears. The fluff will hide the stitches! :) Also, make sure the ears are near the top of the head. I had to sew them on twice because the first time they just looked... weird. Now that you have the initial body shape, it's time for the lights to shine! (Did that rhyme? :P Haha!)

Step 9: Taking Out the Lights From the Card

The battery will most likely be in between two thin sheets of card. The lights will be about a half an inch between where the lights show and where they are. Take out the electronics out. I don't have any pictures of me taking it out, again, never do this at 3am, but I think it's simple to take the electronics out of the card.

Step 10: Disconnecting the Audio and Putting in the Lights

This is where you listen to Happy Birthday for about an hour. Find which cords connect to the audio and find the speaker. There should be a battery. Take out the battery,(I used scissors to pry out the battery. Which resulted in a huge hole where the battery was. This worked out great because it stopped the energy still running through it.) and then cut the wires connecting the speaker to the hard drive main board thingy... :P Make sure you cut as close as possible so that no sparks come out when you turn it on. I recommend putting electrical tape over where you cut, but I didn't and I am pretty sure the pillow my head is on right now is not on fire! :3 Putting in the lights is very easy. Just put in your motherboard thingy (Can somebody please tell me what it's called?) into the hole you left open. Then, thread the lights all the way to the other hole located on the forehead of Espeon. Sew both of the holes shut. Make sure the white pull is visible, this is how cards play music or light up when you open them. It is taped to the opposite side of the card, and when you pull it there is a hole in it that allows the energy to flow through (basically like opening a circuit) and then when you close it it pushes the pull back to where solid pull is blocking the energy from flowing. Place a bit of red felt (In this case I used a Santa hat that already had a hole in it... Sorry Santa!) over the lights. If the lights don't show, try something with more holes like a Santa hat, or a worn red blanket. You could try to cut holes into your felt, but make sure the holes are stars or something and not just plain cuts.

Step 11: Decoration!!! (Aka Adding the Lights and the Face)

Cut out a large eye with your black fabric. Then cut out another eye using your blue fabric, but cut it small enough that when you put them together, a small border of black appears. Then, cut a small circle using your white felt. You can glue them together, but I will explain what I did further on. After you repeat this step for two eyes, set them aside, glued or unglued, and grab the black felt again to start on the nose and mouth. For the nose, just cut a small oval, and for the mouth, I did one like this -> :3, so it was very cute. To sew them on, I grabbed my eyes and placed them where I wanted them to be. Then, using white thread, I sewed the eyes on through the pupil. I put my needle into the pupil, near the bottom, put it under the face, and stuck it back up near the top. Repeat this step three times for it to be very secure. Do this for both eyes. For the nose, I just winged it and repeat what I did for the eyes, except this time I used black thread. I did the same for the mouth. I highly recommend using a worn purple blanket with fluff, or something of the sorts, because the fluff would hide all of my stitches.

Step 12: Ta-Da!

To turn on the lights, pull on the pull lightly, they will turn on, and after a minute or two they will turn off automatically. This was actually really fun and worth it! My cat and dog love it when the lights turn on randomly! I am so excited to share this with you guys! This has been a process. I started around a week ago and finished Thursday at 3am, but it was wonderful! Some tips, use reference pictures online. Also, get creative! I feel no matter what plan you have, with this project it won't be simple. You may have to change some things so that they fit your style! Hey! You can make a shiny Espeon, and use green fluffy fabric instead! The choice is yours! I am getting into crocheting, so I may make an Espeon (Or any Pokemon you guys ask for) that way! It may take a bit though, so I will plan that out later! Maybe next year.

Thanks so much for viewing this Instructable. I would love to thanks LoomPiggyTutorials and Umbreon226 for ALWAYS asking me about the pillow, always asking for pitures of it, seeing it when it is done, etc.! So, I hope you enjoy this and try it out! Now that I have done it for the first time, I believe I can do it again, taking less time, and I could even make it better! So give me any ideas for an Instructable in the comments! I promise I will seriously take it into consideration! My friend asked me if I could loom something, so now I am getting a loom and planning to create some stunning works of art with it. (As soon as I learn so use it!) I am also a huge fan of yarn, so I could make an Instructable about that! Just put your ideas in the comments. Vote,comment, favourite, etc! But, to be honest, my favourite thing to see is the "I made it" button being pushed! It means you put your time and effort into making this lovely pillow!

I hope you enjoyed this my little Lovie-Dovies! See you soon! (Hint Hint ;P )