How to train your plushie dragon?

If this dragon plushie is not scary enough from the outside, it's high time to see its inside!

Don't come any closer!

No matter how scary the dragon is, I loved making it - I felt like an architect or engineer while creating the sewing pattern: which part should go under the other, what to sew first and next, how much to add to the tummy and so on.

First a drawing turned into another drawing, I mean into a sewing pattern

Layers of felt: this is how you can create your own dragon toy

Pretty complicated inside, outside

Ever wanted to turn drawings into soft toys? Think twice :-)

And the result: a tamed custom stuffed dragon

Hippo plushie remade

Though most of my plushies are custom made animals or dolls, I sometimes get requests to replace a lost soft toy. And I sometimes say yes. This is what happened when I read Arnna's letter: even if I hadn't liked the original hippo, I couldn't have refused to sew this hippo softie because Arnna's email was so heartfelt:)

A lost hippo plushie reborn

Arnna allowed me to quote from her letter (the original hippo was bought from a small back street store in a small town in New Zealand, and the family have searched the world for a replacement...)

"My son was three months old and eldest sister bought him his first Christmas present (all of the age of four).  Hippo was born.  He has painted the fence, been to kindergarten, ridden bikes and never been far from our son.  Hippo left the shores of New Zealand and travelled to the Middle East two years ago.  On a weekend to Dubai, Hippo went on his own adventure and we haven’t been able to find him.  Our son has cried for months and months since.  We have been back to the hotel, every stop we visited at and offered a reward wherever we can think.   He has not been found.  We are one year and two months since Hippo took his own OE and we still have tears.  He is a link to our home country.  We haven’t visited for over two years.  Our son is nine, growing up but a real softie at heart."

Is there anyone among you who would have been able to say no...? ;-)

My studio, where the softies are born

You know I started workshopping with kids in my studio, and they keep asking me questions about the things they see on my shelves, in the drawers or on my desk. You can't visit me to see the place where my custom plushies are made, but what about some pics of the studio, where your kids' drawings are turned into soft toys? ;-)

On the wall: a mini quilt with fish by me and my nephews' welcome poster among others

Oh yeah, that's me - just making a custom stuffed reindeer

The only plushie I've made for myself - it's not a drawing turned into a soft toy... I just followed my imagination when my favourite cardigan was washed in too hot water... :-)

The yellow-headed mouse relaxing on the top of my beads was sewn by my elder nephew and me

See you soon!

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 :-)

Hard as snails

"What rhymes with snail?"

First steps first

Yes, you can find an answer to this question on the web... carefully listed words with one, two or three syllables or even rhyming phrases for snail! These are my favourite ones, but it would take time for me to write a poem using them:

Still a drawing - but not for long

snail - like a beached whale

snail - coffin nail

Snail longing for spring

But let's get back to my snail, drawn by Daniella - the most colourful snail I've ever been mailed (did you notice the rhyme...?):

Slim soft snail sitting on a sofa

Softies humanized

"Neither humans, nor animals" - this is what the file is entitled in which I collect these plushies: objects, vegetables etc. with a face.

The eights were turned into soft toys for Andy's City Apartments in Milton Keynes:

three times eight is equal with how many plushies...?

But before all of them I created their plush plumber fellow:

a stuffed plumber with plush tools

An example that you can create your own toy even if you are an adult: Band-Aid Man was one of the funniest requests I've ever had - a softie ordered by a fantastic mom for her grown-up daughter:

custom Band-Aid plush with limbs of course

I don't know many French words, but I learnt "biberon" for a lifetime when I was turning this drawing into a plushie:

plush biberon to comfort a little boy

"Marker" was a big love of mine! You might think there is nothing special about him, but look, what Gretchen's mom wrote about him to me:

"This is a picture of Marker.  Marker is a marker.  :)  He is always purple - in the attached picture, he looks a little faded - but usually he's very purple - I think her real markers are getting dried out from over-use.  Marker is the star of all of Gretchen's books and stories.  She draws him everywhere.  He has a whole Marker family, and his friends include Eraser and Big Fat Whiteboard.  His body is always square-ish, with a round top.  His outline is always black, too."

So it was quite obvious that Marker should be born as a soft toy version.

What's more, Gretchen also makes videos starring Marker! Do not hesitate to watch one of them! This one for example :-)

Marker drawn and explained and sewn into a plushie

 
 
Jacques in a Smock is also a star, he's the main character of a children's book written by a father for his daughters:

artist's drawing into a 3D artist

Cranky and Grumpy live their lives in a theatre in New York, quite surprisingly called Sour Grapes Productions. They travelled a lot between Europe and America thanks to hidden secrets of mysterious postal services: they crossed the ocean three times...

custom stuffed fruits

Softies again

Return of a lazy blogger but diligent plushie-maker...

Let's start with some portraits and self-portraits!
Let me be a bit partial, so first please meet Rachel from Hungary:

Never too late to make a soft toy from your kid's drawing - it's a 21th birthday gift!

And this is a mom with her son from Mexico (I was sent a photo of the plushies sitting on a shelf in their final home):

Custom stuffed mom and son

Three-year-old Emmie is a colorful personality from the US, and I loved working with her drawing:

I was asked to add arms and legs to Emmie's stick figure

An Australian mom asked me to go crazy regarding the colors when turning her son's drawing into a doll:

the mom seems to be happy with the result :-)

And finally a soft self-portrait with a plush car! Any questions..? Why not with a car?! :-) 

How to make your self-portrait drawing into a unique art of work!

As you can see, Ryan, who drew the self-portrait above is not kidding: let there be cars everywhere!

Softies at home - with even more cars...

Surprised that Ryan created both his toys with an additional car...?

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!

Hattie & Milo

Hattie the rabbit and Milo the monkey are from a book Lisa illustrated for her kids. So exceptionally not a kid's but an adult's drawings were turned into soft toys. Lisa was doing a degree in illustration and wanted to have a 'real' Hattie and Milo to go with her  book. She would have liked to get a Hattie plushie as close to her drawing as possible, including even the different overlaying colours. I had no idea how I would be able to create this effect, but Lisa is a very co-operative woman and she advised me to use fabric pastel sticks. Which was impossible to find in Budapest… But that’s what E-bay is for! :-)

Hattie, the custom stuffed bunny

Milo's drawing turned into a soft toy with certain changes - I added a smile and some hair by request

Plush friends forever

As Hattie dresses up as a bear in Lisa’s book, she was trying to make a teddy bear costume for her with a bow on the top of it, but it was impossible for her to find the fabric I used on the internet. And I am a co-operative woman, too, so I sent some of the fabric to the UK, and our common project could have been completed!

Hattie's bear-costume

Hopefully Lisa’s book will get published and Hattie and Milo will be famous! If you are interested to see some of Lisa's work, have a look at this link: http://www.cambridgemashow.com/lisa-sheehan

And a little extra: Lisa had a model of Hattie made using a 3D printer. Will 3D printers ever take over a softiemaker’s job..?

You can also create your own toy with a 3D printer - well, it's not soft... ;-)

Stuffed animals with and without wings

How to classify a big bunch of soft toys? Well, check whether they can fly or not!

First the ones that can fly. Or at least they have wings...:)

Greg's green goose

Christa's graceful ostrich drawing turned into a soft version

A penguin in pink - adults can create their own toys, too ;)

Another playful adult's cuddly toy

He has wings, doesn't he?!:)

Mousebro plush, the mixture of a Wyvern and a mouse, of course

Finally a kid's drawing, and a classic one: Rainbow Pegasus Unicorn

And the plushies that still wait for their wings:

Ellie's pandas, big and small custom stuffed cuties

Cherie's reborn squid toy

Platybunny plush for Sara's "other half"

Anniversary stuffed toy crab for Mauro's girlfriend

Michael's caterpillar - cuddly toys for adult, too!:)

Daniel's mammoth softie

Ethan's plush dino and the happy designer

And two very clever sisters, who can read my mind - so one of them drew a bird, the other one a unicorn :-)

Two kids' drawings to choose a detail from - hard job, isn't it?