Not only toys can be cute. A brand wanted hooded towels with hoods people would remember. So we designed three dog faces, a corgi, a French bulldog and a poodle, and sewed the first dog hooded towel samples by hand as prototypes for a production run.
You can't buy these hoods here, they belong to the brand. What we sell is the making: everything is sewn to order for one customer and their idea. This time the idea was a product, not a toy.
A hood that has a face
A towel hood is a purely practical thing. It keeps a wet head warm and nobody looks at it twice. Our job was to turn that plain piece of fabric into a small, funny detail you recognize from across the room, without making it heavy or fussy.
Each face is a separate plush panel sewn onto the hood, with the features embroidered rather than glued or printed:
- Corgi: cream and ginger plush, tall pointed ears, brown eyes and a wide open smile with a pink tongue and black whiskers.
- French bulldog: fawn plush, bat ears lined in pale pink, and a wrinkled, slightly worried face done in layers of stitching.
- Poodle: a small embroidered face on a brown terry hood, framed by floppy ears and a top-knot of curly faux fur.
The first photo shows the corgi on a mannequin head, so you can see how the hood sits when it's worn. The rest lie flat, the way a factory would see them.
Why sew a sample first
A drawing of a dog face looks fine at any size. Fabric is less forgiving. Ears flop or stand up depending on the pile, embroidery pulls on thin plush, and a face that reads well on paper can look sleepy once it curves over a head. You only find this out by sewing one.
So these hoods are honest first samples. The lower edges are still raw because the towel itself belongs to the production run. What the sample settles is the face: its size, the fabrics, the stitch work, and how the ears behave.
Soft goods, not only toys
Most of what we make are plush toys, but the same pattern-making, sewing and embroidery work for textile products too. If your brand needs a custom hooded towel or another textile product with a face, we can design it, sew the first sample and prepare the patterns for your factory.
How prototypes and patterns work: Patterns & Prototypes. More first samples are in Plush Prototypes, like the teddy bear sewn from one sketch, and brand characters live in Mascots. If you came here hoping for a plush copy of your own dog, that's a different service: dog replicas.
These hoods were made from plush, faux fur and embroidery. We use faux fur only, never natural fur.
- Plush for the corgi and the French bulldog: short, soft pile that takes embroidery well and keeps the ears in shape.
- Faux fur with tight curls for the poodle's ears and top-knot, the one detail that makes a poodle a poodle.
- Embroidery for every face: eyes, noses, whiskers, wrinkles and tongues. Stitched features don't peel off, which matters on something that meets water every day.
The poodle sample sits on a terry hood, so you can see how a plush face and faux fur look against real towel fabric.
For your own product we choose materials with production in mind: what your factory can source, what survives washing and what keeps its shape. If the design uses embroidery, the embroidery files come with the patterns.
The first samples of these hoods took about 1–2 weeks. Some of that is a safety reserve, because handmade work always brings a surprise or two.
Most of the time goes into the face. We build the pattern from scratch, sew the panel, stitch the features and check how it sits on the hood. Then we adjust the ears and proportions until the dog reads right from the front and the side.
Bigger or more detailed products take longer; a prototype with full patterns usually takes about a month. With a clear brief and a finished image one change is included. A rough idea may need a few rounds of refinements, usually 2–3. Full terms: Patterns & Prototypes.
We ship prototypes worldwide. Once the samples leave us, delivery usually takes 7 to 20 business days, depending on your country, the carrier and customs.
Around big holidays couriers get busy and parcels can run late. If you need the samples by a set date, for a factory meeting, a buyer presentation or a trade show, tell us that date when you ask for a quote and we'll say straight away if it fits.
The prototype stays with you, so your factory can match it stitch for stitch. For a first small run we can also sew the batch ourselves, usually up to 200 pieces.
We've been sewing to order since 2009, and first samples for brands are part of that work.
Prototype orders run under their own business terms. Before we start, we agree on what the finished sample should look like. You see photos of it before it ships, and with a clear brief and a finished image one change is included. Extra rounds of refinements are priced separately and cost less than the first sample.
Your design stays yours. The patterns belong to you fully, you can take them to any factory, and we sign an NDA, so your product stays private until you launch it. Details: Patterns & Prototypes.
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