The Story Behind My First Handmade Plushie

Every plushie in my studio has a story.  Sparks of inspiration are stitched together with love… and then boom…a plushie is born. And it all started with one very special cookie. 🍪✨

I was a little nervous to create my first plushie on my embroidery machine. I didn’t have a pattern or any real idea on how to digitize, but even more than that, I was excited.

I knew I wanted my first plushie to be meaningful. It couldn’t just be any character; it had to be something special. I spent time dreaming up a design that hadn’t been done before, something that felt uniquely mine. And when the idea finally clicked, I knew exactly what to do.

When I was little, I spent countless afternoons with my grandma, Concetta. She loved to sew, too. I still remember a yellow terrycloth fabric she had — we once turned it into a funny little duck together. It was long and lopsided and totally amateur… and I loved it.

So when it came time to make my first plushie, I wanted to create something that honored her. My grandma and I used to visit a bakery near her house to get linzer tart cookies… which soon became our favorite. I had never seen one turned into a plushie before.  On the hierarchy of cookie popularity, linzer tarts do not seem to be on the list. It felt perfect. Unique. Memorable. Iconic. A sweet ode to one of my favorite person in the world.

Connie Cookie took a few tries to get right. She started off with more scallops around her edges, which looked lovely in the sketch but didn’t translate quite as well when stitched out. The leg design I drew up was good in theory but once they were stitched out, they lost their definition. So I adjusted her shape, made the scallops larger, and made a new leg design with a thinner fabric. With these few key changes, everything fell into place.

The original Connie Cookie Design

Connie Cookie with some slight alterations, version 2

Now, with her heart-shaped cheeks and jam-filled heart belly, Connie Cookie has all the personality and warmth I imagined — a little piece of my grandma’s sweetness brought to life in plush form.

Every time I see her on my studio shelf, I’m reminded that creativity often begins with love, and that sometimes the tiniest stitches carry the biggest stories. 💗

Big shout out to my grandma, my Nani, who I believe held a lot of the same love for all things handmade, homemaking, and teddy bears that I hold. If she could see Connie Cookie, I know she would be out of her mind with praise and admiration. A lot of what I do, I do to keep her memory alive.