Design Your Own Plush

To design your own stuffed animal with us, send a drawing, a photo or just a description, and tell us the size, the colors, the fabric or fur and any extras you want. Our artist turns it into a design sketch, you approve it, and we sew the toy by hand. Custom toys start from $350 and usually take 2–4 weeks to make.

We’re SKAZKODROM, a soft toy studio. Since 2009 we’ve sewn more than 2,100 toys, each one made to order for the person who asked for it. Nothing is waiting on a shelf. The quote is free, and you see photos of the finished toy before it ships.

This page is about your side of the job: what to decide, what to send, and how the design gets agreed. The sewing itself is in how to make a custom stuffed animal.

Any picture that shows the stuffed animal you have in mind. A drawing on paper is fine. So is a photo of a real animal, a screenshot or a character sheet. People who commission plush often call that sheet a ref sheet: the character from the front, the side and the back.

The more of these you send, the closer the first sketch gets:

• The front, clear and well lit. This one matters most.
• The back or side, so we know where the tail sits and what the ears do from behind.
• Close-ups of the details that make it yours: markings, a scar, a pattern on the coat. Flat colors read better than heavy shading here.
• The size you want, in centimeters or inches.
• The date you need it by, if there is one.

Our fox with a beauty mark started from one colored drawing: ginger coat, blue eyes, white chest, a white tip on the tail. We felted her from it in wool, with a tiny beauty mark by her nose.

Designing a plush of your own character? Our article on turning your sketch or OC into a plush goes deeper. If the drawing is your child’s, read turning a child’s drawing into a plush.

The colored drawing the fox was made from.

The finished fox, needle felted from wool, beauty mark included.

Yes. Plenty of our customers never send a picture. They describe the toy in a few sentences, and our makers sketch it first.

Denis had a bunny in his head for his girlfriend and couldn’t put it on paper. He sat down with our artist and they drew it together, sketch by sketch, until the bunny on paper matched the one he imagined. The result is our big bunny: about 1.2 m (4 ft) tall, in blue gingham with white daisies, with button eyes and a red vest. Their two names and a date are embroidered on the vest in white thread.

If you’d like a proper drawing of your idea before anything else, our artist offers a plush-ready drawing from $150. It’s drawn the way a toy is built, with the seams and proportions fabric can hold. You approve the drawing, and then we sew it.

The big bunny Denis designed with our artist: blue daisy gingham and a red vest with their names and a date.

When an idea needs it, our artist draws the stuffed animal before any fabric is cut. That drawing is the design: the shape, the pose, the face and the small details that make it look like yours. You see it and approve it. If something’s off, say so, and the artist changes the drawing before we start sewing.

The fisherman dragon is a good example. A woman wanted a dragon that looked like her husband, a keen fisherman. Our artist drew him sitting up with a wide grin, glasses on his nose and a fishing rod in his paws. Only after that sketch did we cut any fabric.

The sketch settles the shape and the details. Colors are picked with the real fabric in hand, so they can still change: the dragon was green on paper and came out a deep, bright blue.

The same goes for people. Our anime doll was drawn from one photo of a girl first, and sewn only after the drawing was right.

Then there’s one more check. When the toy is finished, you get photos. If something looks wrong, we change it and you look again. Nothing is packed until you say it’s right.

Our artist’s sketch of the fisherman dragon, approved before sewing.

The finished dragon: blue plush, wire glasses, a moustache and a fishing rod.

We achieved the agreement very quickly: what is possible, what is not, subsequent approval.

Alex, about the Bill the lizard plush he ordered for his daughter. Read his review

Any size you ask for. Toys on our site range from a 20 cm (8 in) rat to a 1.3 m (about 4 ft 3 in) dinosaur that children climb on. Think about where the toy will live:

• Carried everywhere: small enough for a child’s arms. One customer asked for a Findus cat no taller than 25–30 cm (10–12 in) so his daughter could take it with her.
• Hugged on the bed or the sofa: something like our Toothless, 45 cm (17.7 in) tall and 60 cm (23.6 in) long.
• Sitting in its own chair: the 1.2 m (4 ft) bunny above.

A bigger size usually costs more, because it takes more fabric and more hours. Give us a number in centimeters or inches, even a rough one, and we’ll price that size.

Tell us how the toy should feel and look, and we’ll suggest the fabric. Here’s what we sew with: plush, fleece, minky, faux fur, felt, faux leather, velvet and needle-felted wool, with polyester fiberfill inside.

• Long faux fur for a wild mane or spines. The spines of our Tryam hedgehog are long ginger faux fur.
• Fleece for a smooth, sturdy body that holds a shape, like Toothless.
• Velvet for a soft sheen. Our ice dragon has steel-blue velvet wings.
• Needle-felted wool for a realistic animal, like the fox above.
• Printed fabric when the pattern is the point, like the bunny’s daisy gingham.

We use faux fur only. We never use natural fur, and we turn down orders that ask for it.

The face decides whether the toy looks like your character, so it’s worth choosing on purpose. Eyes, noses and claws can be embroidered, painted or made of polymer clay.

• Embroidered: stitched into the fabric, soft and flat. Our Ozen plush has embroidered closed eyes and a tiny cat mouth. Kara Gremykha, a customer’s OC, has embroidered amber eyes.
• Painted: fine lines and shading done by hand on cloth. The face of our Little Witch portrait doll is painted, from the lashes to the blush.
• Polymer clay: for eyes, fangs or claws that need to be hard.

An embroidered face: Ozen’s closed eyes and tiny mouth.

A painted face: the Little Witch portrait doll, painted on cloth by hand.

Yes. You add these on request:

• Wire in the arms, legs or wings, so the toy holds a pose. Toothless has a wire skeleton in his paws and wings, so he can stand, sit, crouch, or fold his wings for a nap.
• A sound module. The Little Witch has a small pocket with a lid on her back for one. You can send us a module you’ve already recorded, or we build a compartment for one into the toy.
• LED lights.
• Clothes and parts that come off. Our hair color doll came with four wigs. The Viola doll from The Witch’s House got a spare head and spare legs.
• Secret pockets and zippers. Tryam has a zip pocket hidden in his spines for a surprise.
• An embroidered name or message, like the names on the bunny’s vest.

Extras change the price and the time, so put them in your quote request.

Toothless with wire in his wings, spread wide.

Tryam’s secret zip pocket, hidden in his faux fur spines.

Viola’s two heads and spare legs, one calm and one bloody, sewn for a customer in Australia.

They’re also great at thinking outside of the box and making useful little extras to complement their creations (the Viola doll came with extra, non-bloody head and legs, for when company arrives :p )

Sheba, Australia, about her Ellen and Viola dolls. Read her review

Custom toys start from $350. A plush of your own original character starts from $400; see OC plush. A plush-ready drawing on its own is from $150. Each toy is priced by its size and detail, and the quote is free.

Making a custom stuffed animal usually takes 2–4 weeks, a little longer for a very detailed one. You get a real estimate with the quote. Delivery is paid separately: regular post usually costs $50–60 and takes 7–20 business days, longer around holidays. For Christmas, order by November 1.

On a personal order, if you don’t love your stuffed animal, tell us within 14 days of delivery. You get a full refund and keep the toy. See our guarantee and how we work.

Want ideas first? Browse plush we’ve sewn from drawings.

Send a picture or a few words, with the size you have in mind. We’ll reply with a price and a time estimate. You approve photos before it ships.

Custom toys start from $350.
A bigger size or extra details can cost more.