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!

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!

Girl dolls, boy dolls

Pretty people's drawings turned into custom stuffed dolls from all around the world!

Efrosini from Greece:

Turn your self-portrait into a soft toy!

Princess Peyton from Nevada:

Custom stuffed princess

A fantastic drawing to work with! Isabelle's self-portrait from Australia:

Are you feeling like making your own stuffed version, too?:)

Danielle' cuddly toy from The Netherlands:

Custom portrait with custom doggie

 Rashid's drawing into a doll also from The Netherlands:

I made a mom very happy with this special softie

A sad girl from California:

Soft hair, soft tears, soft heart - a soft toy altogether

Veda's doll from Michigan:

The perfect custom doll to play with: your own self-portrait

And a young couple from Vancouver:

Custom dolls as a wedding gift - a little something to start their life together:)

Summer Soft Toys 2014 - Vol.3

Vol.3 = it is so difficult to classify plushies... well, here you can see mainly monsters, a unicorn, a special 3-in-1 creature and my first vehicle softies. The rotor of the helicopter can turn around!

Have I told you, it is fun to follow kids' imagination and to help them create their own soft toys...? ;-)

3 softies in 1 by Lykke, 4

Mrs and Baby Budino turned into soft toys from Sofia's drawing - poor Mrs Budino...

Golden unicorn plush designed by Beth, 6

A special home-leaving plushie for Elliot, 17

"Happy monster" drawn by Erin, sewn by me

Koby's (5) mom is a helicopter pilot in Australia!

"Bubbles" is the nickname of a beloved auntie - yes, it's another birthday plushie!

Summer Soft Toys 2014, Vol.2

Vol.2 = plushies from animal drawings: cat with a hat, small cat, large cat and non-cats.

This tiger was designed by Kenzie for her vet mom in Texas- until the time she starts curing real tigers ;-)

Pretty tiger design by Mackenzie, 6

Eli-Birgitte's Hat Cat softie - the drawing that calls for a plushie!

Custom stuffed animals make perfect "first-day-at-school" gift :-)

Girlish soft dog toy inspired by Alice's drawing - with some extra pics:)

The mom said it was a dog, but I always thought of him as a pink (and orange) panther...:)

Pünktchen the centipede - soft toy birthday present for a 30-year-old daughter

 Custom plushie "The Purple Octopus" by Brett, a big kid:) He works for Warner Brothers - not a surprise at all, is it? :-)

Remake of a lost plushie - big joy of a little girl somewhere in Australia

Summer Soft Toys 2014, Vol.1

Vol.1 = drawings about humans reborn as plushies. At least more or less human...:)

Best birthday gift? A custom stuffed doll from your childhood drawing :-)

Jack and his plush sister holding hands forever

Bronte is only 3, but she already cretaed her own toy to play with

A bit confused - it even can happen to soft toys...

 

 

 

 

 

Plumber softie with all the necessary equipment

Spring plushies

First of all a custom stuffed doll for Maia - when the softie arrived, her mom overheard Maia walking around with the doll saying "I love my doll, I love my doll.":-))))

I love copying the details of a drawing as precisely as possible

This commission was placed by a friend of Maia's family from Luxemburg, but the doll was delivered to the US. The lady in Luxemburg was quite sad about the fact that she wouldn't be able to see the doll in flesh.... So I decided to make a little compensation for her: a greeting card with Maia's drawing.

This time the drawing was turned not only into a custom plushie but into a unique card as well

And the next soft toy is a giraffe to Hong Kong. I counted the exclamation marks in the email about the plushie's arrival - there were 8 of them...:)

Josephine's drawing was not a simple one - but even the most complicated drawing can be turned into a plush version! :-)

Some little extras:

A soft toy's way from the beginning to the end

Finally Lilly's custom stuffed doll, the Austrian princess softie and her plush doggie Swiffer:

Lilly Princess softie and her soft companion

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