Behind the Sketchbook—How Doodles Turn Into Plushie Friends

Bringing characters to life has been one of the most magical parts of my art practice.I actually bought my embroidery machine seven years before I ever stitched my first plushie. The idea of creating a full stuffed animal felt… huge. Intimidating. But the urge to try never really left.

At first, I practiced with embroidery files from other artists—an easy way to learn the ropes. But the more I stitched, the more my own ideas started knocking. I could see characters in my head, already alive and waiting. That’s when digitizing software entered the picture and everything changed.

From Vision to Sketch

Every design begins with a flash of imagination. I never sit down and think, “What kind of plushie should I make today?”… the characters are already there, tugging at my sleeve.I grab my iPad or sketchbook and start doodling. My patterns stay simple (tiny plushies need that!), and I use embroidery details to bring them to life without a lot of tiny parts.

A Donut Dog Example

Take my Donut Dog keychain. I have two black dogs, Longley and Pongo, and wanted a little plush version to carry everywhere because they are total homebodies. When Taylor Swift released The Black Dog on The Tortured Poets Department, it felt like the perfect nudge.

The first design borrowed from an earlier “Plushify Your Pet” project: my curly-haired dog Bernie. I smoothed the outline, added small ears and a collar, and stitched it out. Cute, yes... but something was missing. Their faces disappeared into the dark fabric. They didn’t feel like my dogs.

From the Sketchbook

The Glow-Up

For weeks I kept tweaking. I imagined heart-shaped cheeks (a signature of many of my plushies) and remembered hearing that dogs’ snouts gray from all the kisses they receive. Perfect.I also warmed up the eyes with shades of brown—just like the way their real eyes catch the sun. Suddenly, the plushies came alive.

From Realism to Whimsy

The big lesson? Letting go of strict realism. Early on, I chased detailed accuracy, but the magic arrived when I embraced impressionism in plush form—capturing the essence instead of every feature.

Most characters take a few prototypes to get “just right” (don’t worry, every trial plush finds a loving home in the studio). And almost every time, the final plushie outshines the sketch.

Below you’ll see version one of the black-dog keychains (Longley and Pongo) beside version two—the one who earned the name Donut (a loving nickname I have for Longley and Pongo).

Longley and Pongo, Version 1, and Donut Dog, Version 2