Enjoy this adorable and FREE add-on for those who have already purchased my Kitsune Bookbag/Backpack Sewing Pattern. The pattern comes in both Mini & Large sizes - this free add-on also has mini and large sizes included via this blog
Ahhh - the famous plushie backpack that we all wanted but could't achieve in the newest Nintendo game - the Eevee bag! It's no wonder everyone wanted their character to wear this bag - what with it's adorable charm and fluffiness. Straight out of the gate with the reveal of Penny's Concept Art everyone knew they NEEDED that bag. Alas the game did not give us the opportunity to really even customize our characters much leaving the bag (for now) unreachable in game. That being said maybe you are looking to make your own bag in real life? If that's the case then you are in the right place.
With my Kitsune Bag Pattern already purchased you can follow the tutorial provided with it to create the bag while using these FREE eevee add-ons to make the bag look like Penny's. If you haven't purchased my Kitsune bag then you likely will not be able to use these free add-ons to achieve the finished result via this blog. The bag pattern I created is a bit different from the one seen in game due to wanting to make the bag function as more of a bag compared to a plush. I wanted the bag to have room to actually carry things while still achieving a similar result to Penny's bag. So though not an exact match - I think people will be happy with the end result for functionality purposes and comfort to wear. If you are looking on where to purchase my bag pattern please visit the link below:
Now let's get started with this Free Add-On! You will need to print off the Free Add-On Pattern pieces first. You can choose from Mini Size (Think Loungefly size bag) or Large (Penny Bag Size). I should mention that if you have never made a bag before I would highly recommend creating the mini size first. The pattern pieces in the mini size are much smaller/more manageable for a new bag maker - thus making it less overwhelming. The Large bag is definitely a huge project - so do not underestimate taking it on (I learned that myself for these example photos). Visit the link below to collect and download the Free-Add-on pattern pieces.
Next let us discuss what you will need material wise to create this Eevee Bag Add-on via the bullet list below:
Minky Fabric (1-3 Colours of Brown + Cream + Black) 3/4 Yard
Sherpa/Lambs Wool Fabric (Cream - optional for added texture to plush) 1/2 Yard
Bag Foam (Bosal or Pellon Brand) 1/2 Yard
#5 Zipper (I prefer to buy a 24" one but you can buy in the yard as well)
Pattern pieces printed and cut out
Embroidery Machine of 5x7 Hoop (No Face Appliqué is discussed in this tutorial - embroidery only)
Embroidery Essentials (Thread Colours, Stabilizer Tear/Cutaway, Watersoluble Stabilizer)
Regular strength 100% Polyester Sewing Thread
Upholstery Strength 100% Polyester Sewing Thread
Hand Sewing Needle
Pins and/or Wonder Clips
Large Sharp Scissors
Optional Materials:
Basting Spray
FINALLY we can jump into the Add-on! For reference when following my Kitsune Bag Pattern - This Free Eevee Add-on jumps into play via the front of the bag. It is best to have your back panel already completed and the gusset with zipper finished. That way assembly is quicker for you.
For this pattern you will need to choose which size embroidery file you will need (Either the Mini or Large) to create the Eevee Face. Both fit within a 5x7 Hoop size with ease.
Hoop some stabilizer and stitch out the eevee face in the following steps:
Eyes/Nose/Mouth - Dark Brown/Black
Eye Highlight Colour - Orange/Brown
Eyebrows - Same colour as main fur
Eye Shine - White
Once the face is embroidered you may continue to assemble to front of the bag as per the Kitsune Tutorial. Stop once you have the paws finished on the front with the foam sewed in and come back to this Add-On.
2. Now that the front of the bag is prepped as per the Kitsune Bag tutorial we can start to truly make it an Eevee Bag!
You will need a piece of minky fabric with the hair piece traced on it folded over (Right sides touching) as well as either another minky piece or some sort of batting/foam. This will give the hair piece the ability to not be floppy by adding bulk.
Note: The hair piece does NOT have seam allowance
3. The hair piece has NO seam allowance because it is meant to be sewn quick and easy. Layer the fabrics with the batting/foam/minky extra layer on the very back.
Sew around this carefully. You don't really need pins for this piece either.
I also want to point out that when I sew the "Points" on the inside of the hair I sew a square instead of a point. This will prevent puckers later.
4. Carefully cut the design out. When cutting into the corners be sure to "clip them" or make a small snip into the sharp corners of the hair pieces. DO NOT accidentally clip the sewing thread we just sewed.
This is the secret to preventing unwanted puckers.
5. Now we can turn the hair piece right side out! Use a chop stick, end of a paint brush, etc to poke everything right side out easier.
And notice how there is little no puckering ;) !
Great job! Eevee's hair is ready to attach to the front of the bag.
6. Attaching the hair to the front of the bag is simple. We will baste it in place.
Lengthen out your stitch to 4mm on your machine. Line the hair piece up in the middle of the head. Be sure to clip/pin in place with the spikes down inside the head as shown to the left.
Stitch in place with 1/4" seam allowance using a basting stitch.
7. Moving along we can start to assemble the ears. For the sake of this tutorial I am only doing one here for you. You will duplicate this same step a second time for the second ear but don't forget to mirror the second ear!
For the ear you will need a cut out of the Ear pattern pieces in minky and one from bag foam. As well as a long scrap of darker minky for the middle ear details.
Remember to mark out the middle ear details on the foam piece especially. Also remember that the ear has TWO openings we can't forget about on the outside. These are important.
8. In order to create these ears you need to stack the fabric pieces on top of each other. This is just the front of the ear as well not the back.
Stack the pieces of the ear with the darkest middle centre piece on the bottom, the lighter minky colour brown in the middle and the foam on top with all the pattern markings. Smooth them all out and line up the pieces nicely.
This is also a time to make sure your minky fur is going in the same direction for both the inner ear (dark fabric) and outside ear (light fabric).
9. From my experience making this ear I did not need to pin/clip the pieces together. I did lengthen my stitch length to a 3mm however.
Carefully I started at the base on one side and stitched the inner ear detail to the tip. Back stitched a few and stopped at the tip.
Then I went to the other side of the inner ear at the base and stitched to the tip again meeting where I previously stopped. By sewing in the same direction down the ear my fabric barely shifted since I sewing with the nap towards the tip, meaning no pins were needed. You can pin though if you feel more comfortable.
10. Turning the ear over use some sharp scissors to cut away the excess dark fabric. DO NOT cut too close to your stitching line. We are not appliquéing this and the stitches DO need some fabric overhang.
Lastly to finish the ear we will need an opposite/mirrored ear cut out for the back.
11. Sandwich the front and back ear pieces together (Right sides touching) and stitch around the outside using 1/2" seam allowance.
Remember to leave the openings on both sides of the ear.
12. Once you finished stitching together carefully cut away the excess fabric around the outside as shown to the left.
13. Now you can turn right side out via the opening at the bottom of the ear. Use a chopstick or some sort of poker stick you have on hand and run it along the edges of the inside of the ear. This will make it sharp and crisp looking.
14. Time to baste the ears in place. At this point go back and repeat steps 7-13 but mirrored so you have two ears ready.
Lining up the ears is super easy! Use the middle of the front of the bag paper pattern piece. Lay it down with the tip of the pattern piece in the middle of the front of the bag.
As shown to the left you can see where the ear placement is approx.
15. Laying one ear at a time down you can clip them into place with wonder clips. Make sure the ears are face down going INSIDE the bag.
16. Using a 4mm stitch length baste the ear into place using a 1/4" seam allowance.
17. Repeat on the other side to baste the second ear.
At this point in the tutorial you can go back to the Kitsune Bag Sewing pattern and finish assembling the bag. You will sew all the outer pieces together, the bag gusset with zipper and the lining. Once the bag is closed up you can come back to this tutorial for the finishing eevee details.
18. Now that the bag is turned right side out it is time to complete the finishing details! I promise we are almost there!
To stuff the ears I used some hemostats and poly fill stuffing. I pushed stuffing into the channel we created on the top section inside the foam. This stuffed channel is stuffed quite firmly to give the ear a 3D shape.
Then you can lightly stuff on the bottom of the foam inside for the back of the ear. Stuff the back of the ear light and fluffy.
Once both sections of the ears are stuffed you can take a moment to ladder stitch closed both openings on the ear. I used regular strength 100% polyester thread of ladder stitching these parts closed. Remember to take your time and use smaller stitches, you will get a cleaner closed result.
19. You will suddenly notice when the bag is on that the ears droop! We don't want this at all. To create an easy fix you will now need a hand sewing needle and that thicker upholstery thread mentioned in the beginning materials.
For some parts to this bag we will be using what I call "Anchor Stitches" to pull and secure parts into place properly.
For both ears we will be using doubled over thread and a ladder stitch but only about 8-10 stitches. As shown to the left you can use these stitches to anchor the ears backwards so that they do not flop forward. You may need to go up and down the ear in the same spot a few times moving backwards towards the zipper until you are happy with where the ear is pulled to. These few stitches will prevent the ears from drooping forward like magic. Once stitched into place be sure to tie off a tight knot at the end to secure.
20. We will use this same Anchor technique for the hair piece as well. You will notice it naturally flops forward and we don't want that. We want it lifted and kept upwards.
Take some doubled over upholstery thread and ladder stitch across the back of the hair piece. Be sure to only grab the back minky of the hair and NOT the front.
Pull and watch the hair piece be lifted up into place. Tie off to secure.
21. Looking from the front the hair now looks great and held upwards in place instead of flopped forward! Wahoo!
We are ALMOST there guys. I can feel it ;)
22. To finish off the eevee look-alike bag we now need to turn our attention to the neck fluff and tail.
For the neck fluff I simply traced the pattern piece onto my lambs wool (synthetic). This pattern piece has zero seam allowance because I consider it another quick sew item.
Place two pieces of fabric fish sides together and stitch around closing them in. Be sure to have 3 openings in the top - 1 on each "bubble" top. I am sewing with a regular stitch length of 2.5mm here. Again I didn't need any pins for this piece. I also prefer to use the synthetic lambs wool found on etsy or alliexpress compared to sherpa. Sherpa is a knit fabric and horrendous to work with due to it's nature to stretch and loose woven backing. The Synthetic Lambs Wool has a cotton backing with minimal stretch and tighter weave = easier to sew.
23. Trim away the excess fabric around the sewn piece. Again we have 3 openings at the top of the neck fluff.
24. Once turned right side out we need a way to create the "bubble" effect of the neck fluff.
What I did was increase my stitch length to 3.5-4mm and stitched ditches to separate the bubble sections. You stitch through both fabric pieces here.
Then you are free to stuff each bubble fluff through the top opening and ladder stitch all 3 openings closed once finished. Set aside for later.
25. The tail is just as easy! You will need to likely join both tail paper pieces together with tape if making the large bag.
You will need 2 of these in a dark brown from minky.
Each tail includes a 1/2" seam allowance.
26. You will also need to cut out the tail tip pieces from the main tail paper pattern.
Trace these out onto minky or sherpa/lambs wool.
Cut them out. These also include a 1/2" seam allowance.
27. Line up the tail tip colour (cream here) with the brown via the tip.
Optional: You can spray the backing of the cream fabric with basting spray if you'd like. This will give it a temporary hold when pressed onto the brown minky.
I used wonder clips to hold in place. Stitch with a 1/4" seam allowance at 4mm length straight stitch. I stitched down both sides separately first. Going the SAME way. At the top of the cream down to the tip. Then repeated on the opposite side. This prevents the fabric from shifting by sewing in the same direction. Then you can stitch at 1/2" at 2.5mm-3mm stitch length across the cloud puff tail tip at the top.
28. To secure the tail tip cream color a bit more I also decided to zig-zag stitch back across the top tail tip cloud fluffs. This gives me a more secure finish.
Trim mildly the excess fluff away to neaten the piece up.
Repeat the same steps from #27-28 to make another tail. You should have two once finished.
29. I flipped over the back to show you what it looked like. All work was completed via the front to make sure things laid flat while sewing.
30. To finish the tail I used wonder clips again to clip together. Because I know from experience that wonder clips do not hold minky as well from slipping as pins - I basted the first trip around the whole tail being at 1/2" with 4mm stitch length. The longer stitched prevent the minky from shifting as much.
Once the clips were all removed and tail basted I then went around it a second time with a 2.5mm stitch length to secure.
Of course if you use pins for this part you can just sew with a regular stitch length. Pins prevent the minky from shifting as much.
31.Trim away the excess fabric around the outside with some sharp scissors. Then turn right side out.
32. Finally the last piece to this backpack hack is to stuff the tail to your desired fluffiness with polyfill stuffing.
Once happy with how full the tail is ladder stitch the side opening closed with 100% regular strength polyester thread.
Grab a hand sewing needle, some upholstery thread (thicker thread) and finish your bag by ladder stitching the tail to the back! I recommend going around the tail quite a few times to secure.
Alternatively if you are following my Kitsune Sewing Bag Pattern I show you a wonderful way to attach the tail via a safety joint - this occurs early on in the bag making process of the kitsune bag pattern! Either method words great!
Once finished you now will have a functional backpack that resembles Penny's Bag from the new Scarlet/Violet Game! I created the larger version here but a mini version is also included via the pattern templates. If you are new to bag making I highly recommend starting out with the mini bag to gain experience :) Enjoy and happy bag making!
Want to check out a few more traditional sewing patterns? I am slowly working on bringing more and more sewing patterns to my shop and not just embroidery patterns! Check out the few I've published below.
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