Stuffed Tribbles–Tutorial

As promised yesterday, here is my tutorial to make your very own tribble (or pack of tribbles). You know, the cute and fuzzy little guys from the classic Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”

According to David Gerrold (writer of the episode) the pattern for the original tribbles was an elongated figure eight, folded in half and stitched together. In the interest of being as accurate as possible, that’s how I designed the pattern for my tribbles. As an added benefit, it is super easy to make…in fact as Scotty might say, it is no tribble at all! (see what I did there?)

The tribble family portrait

The pattern

1) So let’s get started!  First thing we need is the pattern.  Click to get the full size image and print out a copy.  You can re-size the pattern to make whatever size tribble you want.  The pattern sized to fit a full page will give you a tribble about 5 inches long.  The pattern includes 3/8″ seam allowances.

You also need some tribble skins (aka fun fur). With Halloween approaching, I found my local Joann Fabrics had a large selection of fun fur, in all sorts of exciting colors.  You want browns, greys, or white (or pink, if you want to go animated series style).  The longer the fur, the wilder the hair-do your tribble will sport. You don’t need very much fabric. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Place your pattern--paying attention to the grain-line

2) Cut out your pattern and lay it out on your tribble skin of choice, wrong side up.  Line up the grain-line on the pattern with the fabric grain, so you don’t end up with wonky distortion and stretch in your tribble.  Pin the pattern in place.

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Cutting out your tribble--very, very carefully

3) Time to cut out your tribble.  Cutting fun fur is a tricky business, and trust me, no matter what you do, you will end up covered in little bits of fur by the end of this process.  What I found worked the best is using small, sharp scissors (I used my embroidery scissors) and taking lots of small snips.  It takes a bit longer, but is the best way to preserve as much of the fur as possible.  If you take big cuts, you will cut off a lot of the fur, which means your tribble might have bald patches.  And no one wants a bald tribble!

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All pinned together and ready to sew

4) Fold your tribble in half, right sides (furry sides) together, so your two pieces line up.  Pin together as needed and you are ready to sew.

5) Sew up both sides of your tribble, leaving a 2″ opening at the top.  This is very important, so you have a way of turning your tribble right side out.   You can sew your tribble by hand or by machine.  I used my machine–because the fur is so fluffy and thick, it took some finagling and swearing to get it to feed through my machine.

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Stuffing your tribble--a wooden spoon works well to ensure firm and even stuffing

6) Turn your tribble right side out, so the fur is facing outside.  At this point, if you are like me you will panic and go “ZOMG! There’s a big-ass obvious seam on my tribble!” Don’t worry, we’ll fix that after he’s stuffed.

7) Stuffing–I used poly fiberfill.  You don’t need much, but we want our tribbles to be stuffed firmly, to give them their shape.  Insert the stuffing through the hole you left.  I found using a wooden spoon handle was the best way to get the stuffing in and even.

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Brushing your tribble's hair--because tribbles have bad hair days too

7)  Time to play tribble hairdresser!  Remember that funky seam?  I used a dog brush and metal comb to brush the fur up to hide the seam.  Basically, use the comb to gently pull the hair that got caught in your stitches and use the brush to fluff it out.  With a little judicious teasing, that seam will disappear entirely.

8.  All that’s left is sewing up the stuffing hole (try not to be juvenile like I am and refer to it as the tribble butt).  I forgot to take a picture of this step, but you need a needle and some sturdy thread in a color similar to your tribble.  Using a slip stitch (or whatever works for you really, the fur hides most all stitching sins), sew up the opening and then brush the hair over it to hide the seam.

Congratulations, you just made a tribble!  Be careful though, you start with one, and then before you know it…you are surrounded.  Oh and be sure to keep them away from the quadrotriticale–you never know what might happen!