Mary Daisy Dinkle Doll, Mary and Max Plush

Description

"Her eyes were the colour of muddy puddles. Her birthmark, the colour of poo." That's how Mary and Max introduces its heroine, and fans still quote it. This Mary Daisy Dinkle doll is about 30 cm (12 in) tall, and we make her to order, from scratch, after you write to us. There's no shelf of ready dolls here. The one in these photos already went to her owner, so yours gets sewn new.

Who Mary is

Adam Elliot's stop-motion film opened the Sundance festival in January 2009. Mary is eight, lives in Mount Waverley outside Melbourne and has no friends. One day she picks a name from a New York phone book and writes a letter. It reaches Max, a 44-year-old New Yorker, and the two keep writing for years about chocolate, The Noblets cartoon and the hard questions nobody else will answer. Bethany Whitmore voices young Mary, Toni Collette the grown-up one.

People call her underrated, their spirit animal, the kid they used to be. One fan wrote that Mary was the first character they'd ever seen with a birthmark on the forehead like theirs.

What we sewed

We kept the clay look as close as fabric allows. She has a round white face with a big nose, freckle dots on the cheeks and shiny black eyes behind heavy black glasses. The brown birthmark sits on her forehead. Her hair is black faux fur with an orange clip on the side.

A brown woven apron dress with a black button
Grey boots with black laces
A small pendant on a cord that says CHIPS

One hand is raised to her chin, as if she's still working out what to put in her next letter.

Made for your Mary

Want grown-up Mary, a different size, Max beside her, or Ethel the rooster? Send us stills from the film and tell us. We can also add wire in the arms, an embroidered name or a different outfit. You see photos of the finished doll before she ships. More film characters live in toys from animated films and character dolls, next to our Homer Simpson plush.

We're an independent studio. This is a handmade fan piece, not an official Mary and Max product.

Materials used

Mary is sewn from the same materials the film's look asks for:

White plush for the face and hands, soft enough to hold and smooth enough to read like clay
Black faux fur for her hair (we never use natural fur)
Brown woven fabric for the apron dress, closed with a black button
Grey plush boots with black laces, and a cord for the CHIPS pendant

The glasses, the hair clip and the pendant are made for this doll, as in the photos. She's filled with hypoallergenic stuffing, firm enough to stand on a shelf and still soft in your hands.

Because every doll is made new, small details will differ a little from these photos. Want a different dress colour or a bigger doll? Say so at the start, since it changes the pattern.

Lead time

A Mary Daisy Dinkle doll usually takes 2–4 weeks.

The head takes the longest. Mary's face is mostly nose, glasses and forehead, so the pattern has to keep that pear shape before anything else gets cut. Then come the dress, the boots and the small parts: clip, pendant, laces.

The glasses and the birthmark go on last, because their position decides whether she looks like Mary or like any girl in glasses. The time frame includes a small reserve for handmade surprises. If you have a date in mind, put it in your first message.

Delivery

We ship worldwide. Delivery usually takes 7–20 business days, depending on your country and the carrier, and it can run longer around the holidays.

Mary makes a good gift for the friend you've been writing to for years, or for anyone who cried at the end of the film. Add the making time to the delivery time and count back from the date you need. For Christmas, order by November 1.

Before she ships, we send you photos of your finished doll. We pack her so the glasses and the pendant arrive in place.

Guarantee

We've been making custom toys and dolls since 2009, and film characters with a very particular face are a big part of that work. Mary is a good example: a few millimetres on the glasses changes who she is.

That's why you approve photos of your doll before she leaves us. If she arrives and you still don't love her, you get a full refund within 14 days, for any reason.

Not sure which Mary to order, the eight-year-old or the grown-up one, or which size fits your shelf? Ask before we start. It's much easier to get a detail right in the pattern than to change it later.