DIY Plush Deer Head

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When I first started envisioning my sweet Baby G’s woodland nursery, I fell in love with the idea of having a plush faux deer head in her room. I saw several online that I thought looked cute, but either they were sold out or too expensive.

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

I spent several weeks searching for just the right deer head. I even thought about buying a plush deer, cutting the head off (morbid, I know) and mounting it myself. After a while I just kind of gave up on the idea, until one day I found an awesome DIY tutorial at Liz Marie Blog!

I have kept this idea in my back pocket for a while now, knowing that someday I would make one for my sweet girl’s nursery. And I finally finished it this weekend! Yay!! And let me just tell you … this was a labor of love.

I thought that having the free template and tutorial would make this DIY project a walk in the park. Not so much. I thought making the plaque and attaching the antlers would be the hardest part! Ha!! Trying to get pieces of fabric to look like a deer was by far the hardest part. But now that I can stand back and look at it, the extra special hand-made touch is all worth it!

What you’ll need:
1. set of real deer antlers
2. drill and screws
3. Wood for the plaque and stand (I used 1×4 reclaimed barn wood for the plaque, lattice trim for holding the plaque together and scrap 1×2 and 1×3 pieces for the stand)
4. Wood glue
5. Brown fabric (I used drop cloth canvas.)
6. Faux white fur fabric (I found mine at Hobby Lobby.)
7. black fabric (I cut up an unused black bag, cause I just needed a little.)
8. poly-fill stuffing
9. staple gun
10. Needle and thread
11. Hot glue gun
12. Optional: wood stain for plaque
13. Template from Liz Marie Blog

Let’s start with the most important element here and that’s the real deer antlers. My hubby is a hunter and killed this buck when Miss A was a baby. He cut off the antlers and had them sitting out in the garage. So, when I asked him if I could use them for a project, he was happy to see them put to good use. If you don’t have a pair of antlers sitting around, maybe they sell them online somewhere? Not sure, but hopefully you can snag a set.

And then I used some reclaimed old barn wood for the plaque. My brother-in-law gave me this wood a few years ago and I’ve been holding on to it for the perfect project. I stained it with a little bit of weathered oak stain by Minwax. It gives the project a little bit of an old, weathered look.

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

I just attached the board together with some lattice I had sitting around. I didn’t buy any new wood for this project. I just scoured my wood scrap pile and found what would work. I love it when that happens!

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

I grabbed a 4″ x 3″ piece of 1×3 and used that to screw in my antlers. Since antlers are bone and very hard, you have to drill a pilot hole through them before you screw them into the block. I can say that the smell of drilling into bone is not one I hope to ever smell again. Yuck! It took me a while to figure out which direction to place the antlers, because I wanted them to be in an anatomically correct position once I was finished. I think they are pretty close.

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

Then I cut my 1×2 board at a 45 degree angle. It’s about 10 inches long from one end to the other. And I cut another scrap piece of wood at a 45 degree angle to prop up the longer piece. I used generous amounts of wood glue under both pieces and then screwed them in. When they were dry, I screwed on the block with the antlers attached. And I’ll admit that it sat like this for a few weeks. I was somewhat nervous about the next part …

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

Finally I mustered up my courage and pulled out my fabrics and printed off the template (found at Liz Marie Blog). I cut out my pieces and started sewing them together. You’ll have to follow all of the sewing steps at Liz Marie Blog, because I didn’t document them here.

I will say that I had to do this step twice. Either my stand was too big, or the template is a little off, because the head pieces and chest piece were too small. I had to make them longer so that they would reach the stand for me to staple them down. I think you’ll see what I mean in the next few pictures.

I also had to change my fabrics. The first fabric I tried is the light-colored fabric in the above picture. It was too thin and unraveled at the seams. So, then I tried using drop cloth that I had on hand. It was thicker, but was also unraveling at the edges. I found a way to fix that, and posted about it HERE.

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

Once I had the face all sewn together, which was no simple feat. It took me several nights of sewing to get it right. I placed the head on the stand and stuffed it with some poly-fill. You can see in the above picture that I had to extend the fabric a little (or a lot) longer than the template for the face and check pieces so that they would give me enough room to staple them down on the plaque.

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

I stapled the sides down first, and then I cut a piece to go over the back of the head and sewed it on. There’s no template for this piece because the size will depend on how much you stuff your deer head and a few other factors. Then I stapled the back piece down, too. It’s getting close to being finished!

The last threes steps are to cut a long strip of fabric and cover the stapled edges. I folded the strip over three times, ironed it to keep it in place and then hot glued it around the edges. Then I cut pieces for the nose and mouth and glued them on with craft glue. And finally I attached the ears. I started to sew them on, but by that time I was ready for it to me done, so I hot glued them on. Haha!

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

Add a cute little flower for a girl’s room or leave it blank for a boy’s. Isn’t she so cute??

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

I just love it over the changing table, where Baby G can look up at her while she’s getting a fresh diaper.

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

You can get a peek at this corner of the room that is mostly done. I still need to hang some art on the other walls and I have one more small DIY project to finish and then we’ll call this room complete! Maybe it’ll be finished by the time she’s 6 months old. 🙂

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

As you can see in this close-up, Miss Deer isn’t perfect, but she’s lovingly hand-made. And I think those little touches are the best kind. (At least that’s what I kept telling myself when I got frustrated during the process.)

DIY Plush Deer Head | TheTurquoiseHome.com

What do you think? I think I’m in love.

Find more project from Baby G’s nursery HERE. See the original vision board HERE.

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13 Comments

  1. What a cool project- I am in no way talented enough to pull this off, but you did a fantastic job, thanks for sharing!

    I stopped by from Whimsy Wednesday.

  2. This deer head is soooo cute! And it looks great in the nursery!

    Navy Wifey Peters @ The Submarine Sunday Link Party

  3. I love how your deer turned out. So fab! Thanks for sharing your crafty inspiration on this week’s Monday Funday Party!

  4. I think she is absolutely adorable! I’m not sure I would have been patient enough to put this all togeher, but I’m glad you did it for your sweet little girl!

    1. It DID take a long time and lot of patience, but I’m glad I stuck it out, too! With so many projects, it’s just taking the next step a little as a time. 🙂

  5. WOW! I am AMAZED at this! I laughed when I read the part about cutting off a stuffed animal’s head… I had thought about doing the same thing! This is so cute and I am so impressed!! Great job!

    1. Seriously, the stuffed animal idea would have probably been so much quicker… lol. But I never do things the easy way. 🙂 I’m so glad you like it!

  6. So cool! You did a great job and it goes perfectly with the room! The flower takes it over the top in the adorableness category! Love!

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