The shoo-in of soft toy markets

What do you think the most popular custom stuffed animal has been during my softiemaker career? Sorry, just a single guess, trust me, that's enough ;-) Yes, the correct answer is CATS!

Cory's Magical Cat softie - Cory is 7, the cat has is eternal

But why do so many kids draw cats, why are cat pics and videos so popular, why do people love the idea of going to a café where they can spend time surrounded by cats? Why...?

All cat owners know the answer: cats are cute, funny, beautiful and it feels so good to stroke their velvety fur... So why should kids resist their cuteness? :-)

There's a café in my street - you can see the big cat in the shopwindow :-)

Well, I admit this cat looks not so cute at first sight... but what if you have one more look at it? :-)

Custom plushies' hard life... not very happy about the photo shooting... luckily Keira, the designer was much more pleased with her drawing turned into a 3D toy

Karina's plushie in a much, much softer mood :-)

A cat again

I should make a survey to find out what the most popular animal is - not impossible that it is cats...

This time 5-year-old Miya's drawing, the multibrown cat turned into a stuffed, chubby kitty- special edition/addition: a birthday certificate!

Hi everyone, I'm a new-born soft kitty toy!

One more plush cat

And a special one! The "love-at-first-sight" kind of cat. The model is Alice's family's cat called Mocha. Important info from Alice's mom: "Mocha has claws in the back, not the front and she has very furry ears and face :-) "

Alice's drawing was great, but the plushie version of Mocha cat wasn't very photogenic... black face, repositioned head and claws - you know this time I think it was necessary to turn the drawing into a soft toy with certain changes. Anyway, we did our best, softie cats are pretty patient photo models!

Lazy custom stuffed animals make patient photo models

Still not running anywhere - that's why it's great to spend time with soft stuffed animals:)

Cats again

I haven't made exact statistics but I dare say cats are one of the most popular animals put on paper by kids. And yes, tigers are cats, too! Just a little bigger and wilder ones.

Daisy's Crazy Color Cat drawing coming to life:

Daisy designed her own stuffed cat

Sweet little white kitty by Anoushka:

This is a really, really soft toy!

And finally Fluffy, the tiger softie for Emma!

Fluffy has a story: Royal Mail is usually very reliable, but this time it was slower than ever... which means Fluffy didn't arrive in time to wait for Emma under the Christmas tree. Emma's mom found out a story for her daughter: "Santa noticed the elves hadn't written Fluffy on your tiger's chest, and he only noticed when they were loading the sleigh. So he has sent Fluffy back to the elves workshop for them to add Fluffy's name and make her perfect. He'll have to though send Fluffy by post from the North Pole and she'll arrive in a few days." And the story with a print out photo of Fluffy plushie worked! :-)

Another kid's drawing born as a stuffed animal

Big Blue Supercat Softie

Mattia wanted a 1-meter-tall custom cat plushie first...:) I managed to convince him it would be toooooo big! But even though it is a nice, giant, chubby kitty. And a superhero! 

Facts: definitely the biggest custom stuffed animal I've ever made. Maybe the longest time I spent with turning a drawing into a 3D cuddly toy (errrr, it's not easy to cuddle this kitty...). And a pretty lot of time spent together. I felt the flat was empty without him when I arrived home from the post office...

The biggest custom stuffed animal I've ever sewn

Even its hairs on the top of his head were sewn one by one

Big crazy cat plushie for a big kid

Bonus pic entitled "Behind every successful man giant cat there is a woman":

Me and the giant cat plushie - sorry for the moustache... its fixable :-)

Óriás macska, aki olaszul fog nyávogni Londonban. Pláne, ha a bajsza így össze van kuszálódva.

Norwegian wild cat softened into plushie

Marianne's son is already 14, and he loves drawing, but this special drawing was made by him more than 10 years ago - since then it has been hanging in their hall! So it is not surprising at all that Marianne thought this custom stuffed cat would be the perfect gift for his confirmation.

A ten-year-old drawing turned into a brand new soft toy

You know it is the kind of drawing that makes me smile immediately. Kids are such great artists and toy designers - let them create their own toys ;-)

Get a closer look at the happy face and hairs

p.s. Some absolutely non-softie related topic: when I was thinking about the title of this post, "Norwegian cat" was my very first idea - and I couldn't help thinking of my years at secondary school. My English teacher played the guitar and there were lessons when were just singing. He taught us lots of songs and one of them was "Norwegian Wood" by The Beatles. Let's admit it was a strange choice but I still remember the song and I love it. And I had another English teacher who played the guitar and sang beautifully...:) I often went to concerts of his band, and he was an important person in my life at that time. But he chose to live in Canada decades ago, so we don't often meet. Now he is at home again, and I was invited to his concert last night. And no matter how many years have passed, his voice is still the same:-)

Well, that much about me and English teachers and music...

Feel like listening to "Norwegian Wood"? Click on it: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY5i4-rWh44&feature=kp