A Place For Horsey Stuff

EDIT: I am going to be investigating an easier and safer option in the future, I will post a new guide once i've found a better method ^^

A note before we begin, attempting this will put your plush at risk of damage! Due to how difficult it is to remove eyes (they’re glued in and often melted down) we need to use cutters very close to the fabric and I have accidentally cut the fabric before!

It is very possible to repair any damage done, my plush Ortus is the plush that I damaged but I fixed the holes and you can’t tell

However I still warn and I encourage you practice on plushies you don’t mind damaging, this is not an easy customization to do! Please take your time and be patient with the process if you do attempt

Also one last warning please please please be careful of your fingers! Though it looks like my fingers are near the cutter in the photos they absolutely are not when I actually cut! Absolutely be careful and make sure you do not hurt yourself either!

Now then! Here’s our friend we’re customizing, you’ll need a few items to do this.

Scissors, a needle, thread, seam ripper, eyes + eye backings, and lastly if you have one large enough a plastic nipper is your best option! otherwise you may use a wire cutter just please be careful

First step is opening our friend up. I gently pull on the edges of the fur where theres a seam and look for the thread, you can see in the first photo I loop my seam ripper under the thread and then you’ll pull forward to cut the thread.

You can now gently pull on either sides of the seam and it should begin to open, continue to cut threads as needed with the seam ripper until you’ve got a big enough hole you can turn the head inside-out through.

Remove stuffing from the head and then you’ll push it through the hole we made and find the eyes. I’m only replacing one eye on this guy so I find the one I want and get my cutters ready.

Note: once again this step can damage your plush, take your time and be careful! Play around with how you line up the cutters and try to find the best possible angle

If your eye has a melted stem like mine cut that off first, then try and line up the cutters under the back piece while avoiding the blade going into the fabric!

Avoiding the fabric can be hard if the eye is glued down like mine was in this case, I ended up cutting the edge of the back piece instead and that was enough to get it to pop off but some eyes are a lot trickier.

Once you have the eye free turn the head right-side out again, remove the eye and pop in your new one! Next while holding the new eye in place use your other hand to push a back onto the eye from inside the plush, you may need to partially turn the head inside-out again to do this.

Lastly, you’ll add the stuffing you removed back in and ladder stitch the hole shut and then you’re done! If you don’t know how to ladder stitch its super easy and you can find a tutorial on youtube!