Kitty Sweet Tooth plush toy

 Kitty Sweet Tooth is a graphic novel for young readers about the silly adventures of Kitty Sweet Tooth, who as her name implies loves desserts! Written by Abby Denson and illustrated by Utomaru, the book was released this spring.

The editor Robyn Chapman commissioned me to make a plush version of Kitty Sweet Tooth as a gift for the creators.

I took reference images of Kitty from throughout the book and figured out a simple pose and facial expression for the plush toy version.

Her face is a combination of appliquéd fabric and machine embroidery. She is about 12 inches tall from her cute shoes to her ears. Her body is made out of plush minky fabric and her dress is cotton knit fabric with a heart embroidered on it. 

 There is nothing better than reading a book while cuddling with the main character by your side.

Front

Back

 

Side

While the plush versions were just for the creators, you can still check out the book and join Kitty Sweet Tooth on her adventures!

TrevyMetal's Green Meanie monster plush

After seeing some of my plush designs at Meow Wolf, the artist TrevyMetal got in contact with me to create a plush out of his Green Meanie monster character.

Front

Back

Side

The process of creating this plush started with TrevyMetal sharing an illustration of his Green Meanie character. He also shared some great reference of similar existing products that he liked, that helped me visualize what he would like to see with his character turned into plush.

From his drawing, I made my own sketch of the front and back. Making my own drawing helps me think of how the flat drawing will be built into a 3D shape made of multiple pattern pieces. The Green Meanie has some interesting facial features that needed to be shaped out like the folds in its nose bridge, the pushed out eyelids, the flared mustache and the muzzle shape. I made various versions out of muslin, going back and forth tweaking paper pattern pieces and sewing up sample variations until it looked good. Then I made a full plush fabric version for TrevyMetal and sent it to him in person. Once he could feel it, he had a couple more adjustments. I included those in the next sample and then the Green Meanie plush was officially created.

I made a limited edition run of just 25 pieces with a custom embroidered logo, which sold out quickly as there are some big TrevyMetal fans out there.

Turtle Cat Toys

I worked on a bunch of sketches for Sport Pet and then I saw them turned into a cat toy at Target!

Often what I'm asked to do is come up with lots of product ideas and sketch them out for the in house team to think about. This one was for a molded rubber cat toy with a Mylar film crinkle feature. I came up with all sorts of different things that might look cute and Sport Pet ended up making the turtle. I don't always know what gets made as it's a long process that I'm usually just a part of the beginning of, but it's always fun to see a sketch made real.

They did send me a sample of the jellyfish too, but I'm not sure if that went into production.