Toothless Dragon Softie

After my son watched the How to Train Your Dragon (HTTYD) movie he asked for a Toothless Dragon Softie. I did search for a free pattern as the movie was released over 10 years ago so I thought I’d have a good shot at finding something. I did find one, but according to my son it was “too cute”. Further searching found a paid one on Etsy that passed the “not too cute” barometer.

I am not new to sewing softies, having made a few Among Us crewmates, and a Minecraft Creeper. I also tried designing a pattern for the Maddie snake from Back to the Outback, but I couldn’t work out the 3D head. I have so much respect for toy pattern designers.

Pattern Used

Fabric & Supplies

The pattern suggested minky for the Toothless Dragon body. I’ve used minky a few times so I knew it would be quite easy to sew with, and the texture is very cuddly too.

I went with my son to get the black minky as well as the other supplies at Spotlight. For the eyes my son choose two shades of green felt (the pattern only had one shade but he wanted a bit more detail), some black and white felt for the pupils and reflection.

Toothless has a prosthetic fin (see the movie to see why) in red so I used some red fleecy and red cotton drill that I had in the fabric stash, along with white felt I also used for the eyes.

Cutting Out

The pattern pieces do not come with a seam allowance. It suggests using a 6mm seam allowance. I can’t eyeball it (yet) so I wanted to add the seam allowance to the pattern. I did try a few methods and found that using a compass with the compass point and pencil tip measured to 6mm I could mark the seam allowance easily. I put some Scotch magic tape on the compass point so it wouldn’t rip the paper.

I even made a video on how to do this:

There are A LOT of pieces – and they are fiddly too. As the minky fabric has a nap I ensured all of those pieces were cut in the right direction. Once cut out I pinned the pattern piece with their fabric so that I could keep some order.

Interfacing

I choose to interface some of the pieces as recommended by the pattern – the wings, the front fins and the tail fins – to make them a bit stiffer.

Sewing the Toothless Dragon

I really had to be on the ball sewing the Toothless Dragon due to the number of pieces. Keeping the paper pattern piece pinned to the fabric really helped.

For some of the small, highly detailed pattern pieces I wasn’t quite sure where to sew as it wasn’t easy to determine the seam allowances. I printed another copy of these pattern pieces and cut along the sewing line. I then traced around the edge with some chalk. This worked quite well for some pieces.

These chalk lines didn’t work for the ear pattern piece as one side has a lot of little curves. The best option was to pin the pattern piece without seam allowances and sew along the edge. Then I ripped the paper off.

Sewing the Wings

There are four wing pieces where two are sewn together then turned to the right side. To add dimension and represent bone structure, lines of straight stitching are sewn to the wings. I found the best way to work out where to sew was to cut each part of the pattern on these detail lines and pinning the remaining piece to the wing, sewing along the edge of the paper. I continued cutting up the pattern until all the details were sewn.

Quite a bit of effort but definitely worth it! The same process was repeated for the front and tail fins.

The top of the wing had to be stuffed to add some dimension. The pattern suggested leaving small gaps along the top edge when sewing to make it easier to stuff. I know my hand sewing isn’t the strongest so I decided to sew the entire top edge, and stuff the entire length from the small opening where the wing attaches to the body .

My initial idea was to use a paintbrush to do the stuffing. Putting in just a small amount of stuffing into the opening, around the size of an avocado pip, and pushing it to the end with the paintbrush. This worked quite well but it took a long time. Fortunately my son and husband offered to help do this very tedious task. A few hours into this process we found that using a cable tie instead of a paintbrush was actually easier and faster due to it’s flexibility.

Sewing the Prosthetic Tail Fin

The prosthetic tail fin had detail lines like the wings, so I used the same technique of cutting up the pattern piece and pinning to the fin before sewing a straight stitch on the edge of the pattern piece. Once the detail lines were sewn I handstitched on the felt skull. I must admit it looks pretty good.

The pattern instructions on how to sew the leather strap to the prosthetic tail fin were confusing and I couldn’t quite work it out. After some thought I decided to use cording loops at the top and bottom of the tail fin, wrapped in a double fold of cotton drill. The leather straps could then be threadedd through the cording loops.

The leather straps, ie the dog collars, were a bit long and the holes were going to be in the wrong position. So my husband very kindly drilled me some new holes and shortened the leather strap with a stanley knife so they would fit onto the dragon tail.

Sewing it all together

The sewing of all the different sections of the body took quite a bit of careful thought. I took my time, read the instructions a few times before sewing it up.

To attach the wings to the dragon body the pattern instructions say to make a slit on the upper back. The most accurate way to do this was to use a rotary cutter. In hindsight this area should have been interfaced as it stretched when the wings were stitched on, causing some gathering (photos further down the page).

All the parts of the body were sewn together.

The head has many parts to it – Bottom Spike, Top Spike, Ear, Rear Spike and Face Ridge. The pattern had a diagram that clearly labelled the positions of these. All but the Face Ridge were lightly stuffed.

Stuffing

The body was the first thing to be stuffed. So with the help of my son we gave it quite a firm stuffing so it would sit up on it’s own.

The head was also stuffed firmly. The opening hand sewn closed and the head hand sewn to the body.

Sewing the Eyes

Once the head was attached the placement of the eyes could be determined. With a few pins I tried out some options for my son’s opinion, and then hand sewed them on.

Toothless Dragon Softie Review

I love how the Toothless Dragon softie has turned out. It’s a good size, but I think I overstuffed the main body a bit too much. I wanted it to sit up but there is no give at all for it to be cuddled.

The day after I finished it and my son had played with it a bit, two of the seams did pop open. They were in curved areas where I had trimmed the seam allowance. A few hand stitches to close it up and it’s all good again. In the future I won’t trim so close to the stitching line.

Below you can see how the large wings have a bit of gathering where they are attached to the body. If I ever make it again I’ll interface this area of the body.

Pattern: Munch for Lunch – Toothless Plush Night Fury Dragon – (Pattern was $25 but isn’t included in total below)
Fabric: 50cm Black Minky Fleece from Spotlight – AU$5.70
Felt for Eyes and Scull: Green Acrylic Felt, Lime Acrylic Felt, White Acrylic Felt, Black Wool/Viscose Felt from Spotlight – AU$0.10
Red Fin: 20cm Red Sports Active Fleecy from Spotlight – AU$2.00
Cord: 20cm x 3mm Birch Brown Cord Lacing from Spotlight – AU$0.25
Leather Strap: 2x 15mm x 32cm Small Leather Dog Collars from Kmart – AU$12.00
Interfacing: 60cm Black Interfacing from Melanns – AU$6.00
Stuffing: 3x Brilliant Basics Pillows from Big W – AU$7.00
Sewing Machine Thread: Rasant 4000 (Black), Rasant 2427 (Red) – approx AU$0.30
Cost of Toothless Dragon Softie: AU$33.35

Sewing Machine Settings on my Memory Craft 3500:

Black Minky

• Sewing Machine Needle: Schmetz Universal 80
• Seams: Tension of 4.0, Stitch Length of 2.2
• Topstitching: Tension of 4.0, Stitch Length of 2.4

Red Fleecy

• Sewing Machine Needle: Schmetz Jersey 80
• Seams: Tension of 4.0, Stitch Length of 2.4
• Topstitching: Tension of 4.0, stitch Length of 2.8