You’ve been in business for a while and feel it’s time to take the leap and start outsourcing your plush. You’re tired of sewing your fingers off only to turn around and do it all again and again. This will be so easy! Just send off the drawing and the factory will produce it, no problem, right? [Insert record scratch noise here and abrupt cut off of the blissful mental soundtrack]. It’s not uncommon to have to go through multiple edits to get your design right and along the way, you can definitely get some lolz. Here are some of mine.
Sweet Dreams Strawberry
The Sweet Dreams Strawberry is a chocolate covered strawberry in a removable chocolate ‘sleeping bag’. Usually the chocolate follows the shape of the strawberry and comes to a rounded tapered end. Well, the first prototype I got looked more like it was sleeping in a precariously balanced chocolate snow cone. I was actually in the process of still finalizing the prototype on this one when I ran its Kickstarter, something I do not recommend! It’s always better to have the plush looking as close to final as possible when you start a campaign.
Flapjack Octopus
Flapjack Octopus is a design based on an actual octopus species that is super adorable in real life. Of course, I had to go punny with mine with a pancake theme. The first prototype was sort of close, but not fully the shape I wanted. And I wasn’t sure what was going on with the pink butter. At least they drew the face in cute. Unlike this next one…
Bunana Bread
Usually, the factory doesn’t want to spend the time and resources setting up embroidery on a first round prototype which I totally understand. So they will often just draw on the features with a marker. And usually, they are pretty close. Except for poor Bunana Bread’s first look. When I opened the email with this one, I totally lol’d cause it’s face is just…priceless. I’ve outsourced a ton of plush by now, and this one is still my favorite first round.
Chinese Lion Dancer - Sitting
The Chinese Lion - Sitting version, was by far, the most complex plush I had designed at the time. I sent a bunch of detailed sketches showing body shape with and without the long fur, colors and as many different views as I could think of. Little did I know what a ride I was in for. This one ended up taking a year and a half of prototyping and two different designers at two different factories. I think the first one just threw up their hands at one point. I’m sure the second one had a party when I finally approved the design. And then probably swore a lot when I put in for another Lion, this one standing about a year later. At least that one didn’t take as long!
The Mewcarons: or The Factory Will Take You Literally
A few years ago, I wanted to make kitty macarons that I called the Mewcarons. I had already done a Hamburger Bunny plush and I liked a lot of the shape of that one so I referenced it when sending the design for the Mewcarons. Well, the factory took me literally and sent me a Catburger for the first prototype. My middle man and I had a really good laugh about that one. She arranged for the mistake plush to be sent to me and then Catburger ended up going on an incredible 5 year journey that ended with people falling in love with it cause of it’s ordeal and me making an intentional Catburger that funded in 2020 in a Kickstarter.
Steamed Bun
Honorable mention goes to when I outsourced Steamed Bun for a run and they clearly sent him to deal with his anger issues. Steamy has never looked so chill.
Roary: When They Get It Right At the Start
I hope you’ve had some lolz seeing how some of my plush have started out. But I also want to say that it’s not always a scary plush when you get the first one. Sometimes, they get it almost spot on with the first try. An example of this is Roary. Other than some coloring issues, his body was pretty spot on and adorable from the start.
Plush outsourcing, as you can see, can definitely be an adventure. However, I really do like how it frees up time for me to come up with more art and designs! This is time I wouldn’t have if I was stuck on the sewing machine all the time. So I just plan out my projects schedules accordingly, knowing that most likely there will be some edits needed. And sometimes, there will be lolz along the way.