u/DBSeamZ

My time-rewind fix-it fic for VSMP that I've been working on since November is done enough to upload more of it!

Chapter 3 "Joinings and Partings": Sharing a cozy morning with Cherri makes it all the harder for Apo to tear herself away and return to Oakhurst.

Chapter 4 "If At First...": Apo's not entirely convinced that biting Martyn's leg instead of his wrist will let her remove the vampire blood from his body, but it would be stupid not to try in case that is all it takes…right?

Chapter 5 "Can Bat Wings Cause Hurricanes, Too?": Could it be possible for Martyn—and everyone else—to leave Oakhurst without being turned first? Apo strategizes and revisits the night she became a sire…only to find that their actions had more consequences than she knew.

Chapter 6 "An Overdue Do-Over...Overdone?": Having successfully confessed her turning to Martyn, Apo repurposes their meeting in the tavern cellar as the first pitch of her double-agent idea. Gradually, the plan takes shape, and the town does an excellent job keeping the coven from catching wind of what they're doing. Maybe too good a job.

"It might all just be an ordinary dream. But what if it isn't? Apo listens closely as the mysterious creature comes up with a nickname for itself and shows her how to turn back time. Could this incredible opportunity be real?"

https://archiveofourown.org/works/90028776/chapters/239419176

Whew, what a journey! It’s been fun seeing these tiny creations come together, even though I wish it hadn’t taken this long. Thanks to u/sapphireman for sending me screenshots of Drift’s New York outfit (and for just yapping about general fandom stuff with me), and Tumblr user qwerty-queer for posting screenshots of Abolish.

I had already made Shelby’s outfit, and the rest came together relatively quickly. The real leather for Scott’s jacket (salvaged from a purse whose straps were beyond repair) gave me a little trouble, but I prefer that over pleather that’ll just peel and flake eventually. Group shots to follow once I figure out a good background/lighting setup!

It’s interesting how many of the clothes Oakhurst’s vampires “found” in the castle were a similar shape to what they had on as humans, and just a different color. But I’m not complaining! Having already made a coat for Drift and a blouse for Pearl made it fairly easy to sew the same thing again from different material. The red cape was a little trickier, but I was able to modify the pattern I made for Scott’s black one. That outfit WAS his initially (I saw a neat piece of fanart that drew him wearing it for a pre-600yr-sleep flashback scene) so I decided he can model it for my photos.

I sewed Pearl’s flower petals to a sheer black overskirt, but the ones in her hair are just bits of felt sitting there. It stays put surprisingly well!

Twenty plushies later, I have finally felted the entire cast of VSMP including plus ones! Cherri’s plushie gave me some trouble, between the design of the sleeves, color-matching the skirt trim, and creating her wig in a way that a side braid would work. But the outfit is so cute that I was determined to get it right! Cherri’s flame is a removable piece of felt so I can swap it out with other colors if I make other outfits for her. I made her visible eye gray because their MC skins don’t show an iris and she doesn’t have separate character art for Vampires.
And since I wanted to photograph Cherri with Apo, I took the chance to redo her outfit with better materials. The first attempt had thin cotton for the black material and a knit fabric for the purple, I replaced that with black wool and plum cotton, and covered her boots with more cotton instead of the satin I used for the trim.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/4” or 13.5cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Shoes: Paper mache with craft foam heels, covered with black paper and varnished.

I think this is my favorite face I’ve made so far…Luanne’s art style looks really cute in plushie form (and in-game!) The clothes were fairly easy after all the vests and pants and front ruffles I’ve done, although sewing all those sleeve pleats was time-consuming. And I had to dig through Tumblr posts for a good screenshot of level 3 Louis, because he isn’t on Luanne’s NameMC.
The biggest time sink was Owen’s wig though—as far as I know there isn’t a faster way to make little curls like these than twisting and pressing each one by hand. And I still don’t know of any way to make more pronounced waves than the ones I gave Louis, or curls wider than Owen’s that don’t end up looking stringy. Still, I’m happy with how the pair turned out! Louis is a tiny bit taller than Owen like Luanne said he was, although Owen’s curls add enough volume that it’s hard to tell.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/2” or 14cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Boots: Paper mache with craft foam soles, painted (lv1) or covered with colored paper (both lv3s), then varnished.

Saving Scott for last wasn’t my plan from the start, but once I got down to the last few and I hadn’t made him yet it made perfect sense. He’s the oldest vampire, the main villain in a lot of POVs, and the one who set the whole plot in motion. (Plus he said he ate his tailor to make sure his outfit stayed one-of-a-kind…wanted to finish the rest of the main cast before I replicated it just in case. /j)
I do plan to keep sewing—there are outfits I haven’t made yet for the characters I have made, and there are canon MC skins for Louis and Cherri that I want to make into plushies too.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/2” or 14cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Boots: Paper mache with craft foam soles, covered with fabric and colored paper, then varnished.

I didn’t expect the hardest part of this plushie to be the bobbed hair curled under at the ends, but everything else was pieces I’ve done before: vest, pants, shirt, boots, coat. Acrylic hair shapes nicely with heat, but the shape of the wig and the shape of my flatiron made it awkward—I wish they made miniature curling irons the size of a straw (with adjustable heat so I don’t just melt the hair).

Even the familiar pieces used a couple of new techniques, like covering the boots with cloth instead of paper so I could sew in “laces” with thread. And Drift’s monocle doesn’t have a visible frame, so I just cut it from plastic packaging and threaded the nose piece and chain through holes I punched with a tack.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/2” or 14cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Boots: Paper mache with craft foam soles, covered with fabric.

It’s actually a murder-mystery map called Harpy Express.

Well, two more in the main cast. I would like to make plushies of the “plus ones” (Cherri and Louis, since they were based on real CCs who made MC skins for them) as well. Anyway, Ren’s outfit was one of the easier ones for me to make in terms of complexity, except for handling the leather pieces. And I’m glad I did the doctor’s monocle before attempting Ren’s glasses, because I learned a few things about how that glue behaves.

I also discovered that one jumbo popsicle stick, cut in half with the round ends removed, is the perfect size to make a shield for one of these plushies! So now the Militia are all together! (I miss them)

Specs:
Made of wire, “Craft Glaze” 3D glue, and gold paper.
Specifications for the rest of the plushie:
Size: About 5 1/2” or 14cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Boots: Paper mache, painted and varnished.
Shield: Jumbo popsicle stick cut in half and glued together along the long edge. Gray seam binding around the edge, colored paper “banner”, wire hook on the back for holding.

This one holds the record for “most new techniques I’ve tried for one plushie”. V!Legundo’s hair is short enough that I didn’t think a wig would work, so I just felted it straight onto his head. I can put a wig over it if I ever make outfits for longer-haired characters of his. Then I wanted the fake eye to be removable. I considered making an entire eye from wool that would slot in, but after a closer look at Legs’ level 3 skin I decided just adding green wool to the head of a short pin was the easiest way to get the effect I wanted without risking tiny pieces falling off and getting lost.
The monocle was fun—I tied some really skinny wire to a jump ring for the nose piece, then set the ring on a piece of plastic wrap stretched flat and filled it with this 3D glue called “Craft Glaze” that dries really hard. I was prepared to cut around the plastic wrap and leave it as part of the lens, but when the glue dried it just peeled off and I didn’t have to.
And I won’t be making his level 2 skin. That would mean sewing a third entire gown and a third pair of boot covers, just to put a tiny bit of marker ink on them for a skin that was seen in a few seconds of footage. The red wool I added for level 3 is really loosely attached, so it’s removable.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/4” or 14cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Body, face, and hair: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making other plushies’ hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Boots: Paper mache with craft foam heels, painted and varnished.
Accessories: False eye made from wool and a short pin. Monocle made from a jump ring, clear glue, and thin wire.

A lot of the plushie making process is waiting for glue to dry. Making the shoes and wig bases takes a lot of glue, and attaching the hair has to be done one row at a time. So since I already had vamp Cleo started, I decided to work on level 3 Sausage at the same time and switch plushies whenever one of them had glue drying. I did NOT start and finish Sausage in the time since I posted Cleo, as much as I’d like to work that fast!

Since I’m running low on gold beads and need to save some for a few vampires’ vests, I decided to use knots of gold braid for his buttons. The braid was made from two strands of amber embroidery floss and one strand of narrow gold ribbon, and I used more of it for his fob chain.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/2” or 14cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Boots: Paper mache with craft foam heels, covered with colored paper.

I started this one at the same time as my human Cleo plushie so I could make their base layer outfits identical. They could theoretically share a single outfit because I took extra effort to make them the same size, but I want to be able to photograph all my plushies at once when they’re all done and have them all dressed.
The decision to line the robe was pretty last-minute, after I put it on the plushie and realized the back of all the embroidery showed behind her feet. Fortunately it’s a pretty flat piece apart from the sleeves, so it was easy enough to retroactively add a lining.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/2” or 14cm tall. Body proportions slightly wider than an OB11 doll’s.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Boots: Paper mache with craft foam heels, painted and varnished and embellished with colored paper.
Accessories: Crown made of paper and cardstock, with felt leaves sewn on. Necklace is a piece of ribbon.

Color matching was definitely the hardest part of this one. V!Pyro has kind of sallow (yellowish) skin, which I had to blend two colors of wool for. Then for the shirt and pants I colored beige marker over pale green (for the shirt) and dusty pink (for the pants) until I got the right shades of not-quite-brown. I was lucky to already have the right colors of fabric for his neck kerchief and coat, though.
Pretty sure this was also my first time making a mini buckle from wire. It mostly works, but the ribbon belt keeps sliding because it was too small to add the pin part of the buckle. I might end up stitching the belt to the clothes so it doesn’t keep sliding off.

Specs:
Size: About 5 1/2” or 14cm tall. Body proportions based on OB11 dolls.
Hair: Acrylic yarn, brushed and flatironed.
Body and face: Needle felted from wool roving over leftover acrylic from making the hair. Pipe cleaner armature.
Clothes: Hand sewn from fabric scraps.
Shoes: Paper mache with craft foam heels, painted and varnished.