Kid’s Art to Plush

Yes, your child’s drawing can become a real plush toy. Send us a photo of the drawing, and we sew one stuffed animal from it by hand, keeping the wonky lines and the odd colors your kid picked. At SKAZKODROM a plush from a drawing starts from $297, sewing usually takes 2–4 weeks, and you see photos of the toy before it ships.

Nothing here is ready-made. We don’t keep a shelf of toys; each one is sewn to order for one family, from one picture. We’ve been doing this since 2009, more than 2,100 toys so far, and on a personal order you get a full refund within 14 days if you don’t love it.

The child’s pencil drawing, with a note by the wings: make them silver.

The unicorn we sewed from it: sleepy eyes, short legs, silver wings.

Any of them. Crayon, pencil, felt-tip, paint, a doodle on a napkin, a drawing done on a tablet. It doesn’t need to be neat, and it doesn’t need to be an animal anyone has heard of. A monster with six legs is fine. So is a cat with no body, just a head and a tail.

Some of the kids’ drawings we’ve sewn:

• A rainbow unicorn drawn in pencil, with a note by the wings saying they should be silver. So the wings are quilted silver fabric.
• A rainbow kitty a little girl made up and drew on a small scrap of paper. She said it lives on a rainbow, so the body came out in rainbow stripes.
• A snail mouse, half mouse, half snail, with spiral eyes and a shell for a tail.
• A hamster in a tracksuit, sneakers and a baseball cap with a star, drawn by a girl who loves inventing outfits. Her dad couldn’t find that hamster in any shop, so he sent us the drawing.

Grown-ups’ drawings work the same way, from a blue frog in sunglasses to a rainbow monster with too many teeth. More are in Plush From Drawings.

That’s the whole idea. Kids don’t draw the way toy shops sell toys. The head comes out too big, the legs too short, the eyes end up somewhere unexpected, and the cat is purple because purple is the best color. We don’t “fix” any of that. A plush from your child’s drawing should look like their drawing, so the kid who drew it knows at once that this one is theirs.

The rainbow kitty shows how. In the drawing the eyes look up and there’s a tear under each one, so the plush has embroidered eyes looking up, with small red tears. The mouth is a little “w”, like on the paper. The whiskers are long and thin, like pencil strokes. The tail curls around the bottom, just where she drew it.

A drawing only shows one side, though. Somebody has to decide what the back looks like, where the tail goes and how the toy sits. If it needs it, our artist draws the plush version first and you approve it before any fabric is cut. That’s a good moment to ask your child: what color is its back?

Her drawing on a scrap of paper: a teary-eyed kitty with long whiskers.

The rainbow kitty plush: red head, the same teary eyes, rainbow stripes.

Less than you’d think. You keep the original drawing; a photo is enough.

• A photo or scan of the whole drawing, taken in daylight so the colors are true.
• The colors your child wants, if the drawing is in pencil or the colors are only in their head.
• A side or back view, if your child drew one. If not, we’ll ask.
• Anything that matters to them: a star, a heart, a missing tooth, a favorite color.
• The size you’d like, and who the toy is for.

Send it all through the quote form. The quote is free.

The rainbow kitty’s eyes, tears and mouth, stitched in thread along her pencil lines.

A plush from a drawing starts from $297. Each toy is priced on its own, by size and detail: a big toy needs more fabric and more hours, and so do outfits, lots of colors and small parts. The rainbow kitty starts from $315 and the winged unicorn from $345. Send the drawing and you get a real price for free.

Think about size too. A toy a small child carries everywhere shouldn’t be huge. One dad, Ruslan, asked us for a Findus cat no taller than 25–30 cm (10–12 in) for exactly that reason: his daughter was going to carry it around.

Sewing a plush from a drawing usually takes 2–4 weeks. The estimate has a small reserve in it, because handwork sometimes needs the extra week, and a very detailed toy can take longer. Delivery is paid separately, usually about $50–60, and takes 7–20 business days, a little longer around the holidays.

Planning it as a birthday surprise? Tell us the date at the start. For Christmas, order by November 1.

The drawing usually ends up in a drawer. The toy sits on the bed for years. A few ways to keep them together:

• Frame the drawing and put the plush on the shelf right next to it.
• Write on the back of the drawing: the child’s name, their age and the date they drew it.
• Take a photo of your child holding both, then take the same photo again in a few years.
• Ask for a secret pocket sewn into the toy, big enough for a folded copy of the drawing.
• Ask for embroidery: the child’s name, the date or a short message stitched on the toy.

Grandparents, this works the other way round too. A drawing your grandchild made for you can become the plush on your shelf.

The snail mouse plush: spiral eyes, whiskers and a shell, kept as the child drew them.

These two dads ordered from pictures of book characters, not from their kids’ drawings. The worry was the same, though: will the toy look like the picture?

“Great likeness with a picture I sent as an original. … Frankly speaking, I had some doubts in the possibility to achieve such a similarity with the original picture. So I am doubly happy. … Though the toy was meant to be created for my daughter, I am really enjoying it myself))”

Alex, about Bill the lizard. Read his review

“I needed a toy no taller than 25-30 cm since I wanted my daughter to carry it around … I’m sure my daughter will remember this present for a long time to come.”

Ruslan, about the Findus cat he ordered for his daughter’s birthday. Read his review

You see it first. When the toy is finished we send you photos, and if something looks off, we change it before it ships. If it still isn’t right once it’s in your hands, tell us within 14 days of delivery. On a personal order you get a full refund, and you keep the toy. See our guarantee.

Did you draw the character yourself, as a grown-up artist? That’s a slightly different story, told in our article on turning your sketches into plush.

Take a photo of it and send it with the size you have in mind. We’ll reply with a price and a time estimate. For Christmas, order by November 1.

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