Cat & Bug - The war of custom plushies

Quite a strange couple... Soft toys designed by an Italian boy, whose mom sent me the most fantastic feedback I think I've ever had. You know I made a little stamp from the original drawing and first of all the boy was surprised to see it on the envelope. And when he opened it, he was speechless, he couldn't believe his eyes, he had no idea how it was possible to see his drawings turned into softies, and later he was happy to realize he was the only person in the world to own these softies:)

Create your own toys and...

(I have readers who have sharp eyes for the details:) FYI: I was asked to make the cat's limbs thicker but not to make the navel!)

.... you can create stories with them :-)

I have a few questions in connections with these plushies though:

- how did the cat and bug meet?
- are they friends or enemies?
- why does the cat need a swatter? does he want to use it to kill the bug?!
- what kind of flag is in the bug's hand? (by the way, is it a hand...?)

Picture of a tiny little soft toy - just to give you and idea of size

Kérdéseket felvető macska és bogár. Légycsapó és zászló. Ja, a macska hajában két fölzselézett tincs. A bogár meg tud fintorogni.

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.

It's a squirrel plush (not a cat:-))

The remark in the title was unnecessary of course, everybody can see it IS a squirrel! :-) But Joris is a thorough young man, as you can see from his other comments in the drawing as well.

A drawing turned into a custom plushie with a little help from the designer

This squirrel is really special to Joris. It was the first character he started to draw when he was a kid. He wanted to teach himself to draw and saw this cartoon called "Screwball Squirrel" on TV, and since then he has been drawing the same squirrel again and again. He is 28 now, and when he gets a bit distracted or simply starts daydreaming, he still draws the squirrel unconsciously. These hundreds of squirrel drawings were turned into a one and only custom plushie.

I usually get nice reactions from my customers on seeing their designs made into soft toys, but the words from Joris made me really happy: "Wooooowwwww!!! It's so amazing, I can't describe how much I like it, it's much much much better than I ever could imagine. Emese, I can't thank you enough, you've made me so incredibly happy :) I'm blown away.....this squirrel I've drawn for so many years has now stepped of the paper and become something real. Thank you again!"

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

Poppy in heaven

Poppy was the name of Olivia's grandfather, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly some weeks ago. Olivia (she is 5 years old) drew this picture of him in heaven, and her mom asked me to turn the drawing into a soft toy, hoping it would be a healing present to help her with her sadness.

Custom stuffed grandpa doll to give comfort

The only comment of Olivia's mom was to point out the black on top of his head was in fact a hat- Poppy always wore a hat, so that was an important component...

Olivia's grandpa

It may seem strange to some of you that a custom doll like this can give comfort to a little girl. But I'm sure mothers know what's best for their kids. You know the strange thing is, that the week I received the email of Olivia's mom, I had almost the same request from an old customer of mine: she wants me to make grandpa plushies for her daughters, because their grandpa is very ill, and she hopes the softies will comfort the girls when their beloved grandpa passes. Softie making is not always just joy and happiness...

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