Jimmy Jansky Plushy Spaceman

It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to have printed on fabric and make into a stuffed toy. The process of printing your own fabric has been available for many years, but I just couldn’t decide on what sort of plushy I wanted to design.

My mother is a master doll maker and has been making dolls for longer than I’ve been alive. So I knew once I started on the idea I had a perfect teacher to help me figure out all the details. Then one Monday I got an amazing 50% off deal from Spoonflower and it hit me. I’ll make a stuffed spaceman. I’d just come off a day of drawing spacemen at an event so I was still feeling the need to do something with them I guess. One thing led to another and Jimmy Jansky was created!

Once I got the fabric in I rushed over to show my mother and asked if she would help me make a prototype. She set to work ironing, cutting, pinning, sewing, and in a couple of hours I had one ready to take home.

She knew that that the best way to complete all the ones I’d ordered was to do them assembly line style, starting with his arms. Again, my mom is a doll master and has made dolls for years to sell at local shows. So I was basically holding her back. I decided to let her loose and she knocked out almost all of them in a few weeks while piddling around doing other stuff.

I wished I’d been able to go over everyday and work on them with her. There were tons I could have learned in the process of making them. I already know more than most people about sewing just by being around her all these years. But I know there is more. Schedules are what they are and she was more than happy to work on them at her own pace.

This photo was when I went and picked some up. She wasn’t expecting me to take it and put it on the internet. I couldn’t help it, she looks so proud of her accomplishments. And I’m beyond blessed to have such an amazing mother who’d enjoy doing such work. Yes, I did pay her and even though it was way to little she still wouldn’t take it. I left it on her sewing machine anyway.

I still remember the times when I was just a little boy playing at her feet while she sewed away on some project. The strings and scraps of cloth were part of my adventure. And most nights the hum of the sewing machine from the other room would lull me right to sleep. Drifting off to sleep like an astronaut in space.

I’ve only got a few of these to sell. So if you’d like to have one then come visit me at Heroes Convention in Charlotte NC on June 14-16.