Skully: Designer Notes

Version 3 of FreeSewing needed something special. We’ve had the Skully logo on all sorts of goodies. From measuring tapes to buttons, to cards. And Skully is all over the web site.

But they are just a logo. There is no Skully you can pick up and hold. That is, until now.

I wanted to make a Skully in 3D and give it to Joost for all of his work on the new site. And I couldn’t do that without making a sewing pattern for it too. So this was the goal.

I bought a plastic skull, a skull plushy (which I hated once I started looking at it more), and found a pattern for a skull. And I didn’t like that pattern either.

So what I ended up doing was taking paper, cutting it into pieces that were taped onto the plastic skull, and manipulated with darts and seams until I had something that looked somewhat like a skull. And with enough tweaking, I ended up with something that can be stuffed and maintain a shape that is a reasonable representation of Skully in 3D.

The first real version that was not made for testing got decorated with hair, and together with a large needle was send to Belgium. After sitting at a Belgium customs office for 4 weeks, and some phone calls from me, urging them that it was not a thread to national security, it was delivered to Joost.

And now you too can make a Skully.

Wouter.