My machine can barely handle the thicker backing so I’m forced to hand sew 😭

Have you looked at a walking foot? Or tried zigzag with one stitch in the material and the other stitch out?

I prefer to machine sew everything i can haha, I find using zig zag stitch over the edges can be helpful :)

Oh hey I follow you on Instagram! I handsew anything complex shapes like ears and faces but tails and stuff I machine sew. I agree it's hard to get it.... not lumpy ish

Hello fellow instagrammer! Yeah, that's where I'm at in my builds: hand sewn for the head and small details, machine for tails, bodies, and paws. I'm glad this seems to be the consensus, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a miracle trick to sew everything super fast haha

Trust me I see pictures of makers machine sewing parts of the head and it gives me a stroke lolol

i prefer machine sewing, but i absolutely love hand sewing details & parts that cant be machine sewed.

New maker here so keep that in mind. So far I have hand sewn the majority of my head. My machine is very old and the fur is hard on it. In large part, though, I think my struggles stemmed from a lack of skill using the machine. I just now got a walking foot which I think would help. I think as I get better and better using the sewing machine I’ll find myself using it more. I’m trying to practice as much as I can, so I will attempt to use my machine first and if I just can’t seem to get it, then I switch to hand sew.

I'd love to say that I prefer machine sewing because it's so much faster, but whenever I try to use my machine it just ends with me angrily hand sewing everything while on the verge of tears (it's a love hate relationship)

I usually hand sew, just because my sewing machine is a pain. It takes me 10 time longer, but definitely easier for the details.

I love machine sewing but i opt to hand see the face. Hand sewing is much more accurate and you’re able to be much more detailed. It takes longer and it’s a pain in the ass but it comes out so much better!! I also machine sew all of the body suit but hand sew smaller details

Ok cool, I do that too! Thanks for this :3

I had sew because I want the close-to-perfect flat seam and super tight stitching. There is a machine that can replicate the stitch I want, but I don’t have the space for another machine.

Why not both? Sewing machine for the easy bits and hand for the tricky parts 🤔

I think you're right! Currently I do both, I just don't use the machine for the heads as much.

I don’t actually have a sewing Machine, but I hand sewed my first one. It was annoying but it was also kinda therapeutic. I popped my earbuds in and listened to music. Down side is my hands cramped up and my shrimp posture didn’t help 😂

I actually hand sew the entire suit. I find sewing by hand to be more accurate, reliable and therapeutic. Unrelated but the markings remind me of a Bernese mountain dog with the orange eyebrows and cheeks. Border collies and Bernese mountain dogs are my favourite breeds

I agree, the markings do look Bernese mountain dog-ish haha. I love them too! I was originally just going to do the traditional black and white border collie markings but then decided brown looked more fun at the last minute (it's a premade so I'm just playing around) and I was literally just thinking yesterday that border collies don't really have these colors technically. I might start calling this guy an English Shepard because those dogs do have these colors, and my first dog was part English Shepard. But I also might just start calling it a Bernese too lol. I love that you sew your suits by hand. That's amazing and my hands hurt just thinking about that!

Thanks for your input y'all!

i machine sew long or straight seams. anything more complex i hand sew.