- Plushpanions
- Jul 9
- 10 min read
Creating a plush doll is a journey filled with excitement, challenges, and constant learning. Our Digby Dragon plush has been more than just a project; it has been a year-long adventure of trial, error, and growth.
This journal-like outline shares the story behind the scenes, highlighting the evolution of our plush prototyping process, the changes we made along the way, and the vision driving us forward.
If you are a creative, an artist, or someone interested in the detailed craft of making eco-conscious stuffed animals, this story will give you an honest look at what it takes to bring a plush design to life!
Spring 2025: The First Spark and Initial Introduction
The idea for Digby Dragon started as a surge of love for the fantasy realm! Plushpanions are about fun and imagination... and what's more fun than playing dragons and knights? We wanted to design a dragon plush that felt friendly, detailed, and intentional, something kids and adults could love, without being too complex. The most challenging part of this design was Digby's ears. They needed to immediately register as "dragon", without looking too aquatic. Additionally, a lot of this design was drawn with the hopes that the illustrated shapes could come to fruition.
Thankfully, most of the design was tangible, albeit difficult to nail down, that much you'll gather as you read on.
Key Takeaways:
Detailed design without over-complexity.
Unsure about possibilities in both shape and color availability of recycled fabrics.
This phase is all about heart. Designing the plush to what feels right, not what may or may not be functional. You can find functionality later, whereas the look has to sing right away.
June 2025: Starting the Prototype
Just like that, we were off to the races! The design packet was submitted, and it was a hefty one. With design packets, you have to draw and mentally measure every little detail, in millimeters. Often times, illustrations are printed to scale to ensure the final look.
Additionally, there are specific safety requirements, when it comes to magnetic toys, so it is always vital to keep scale in mind with Plushpanion designs. Submitting designs always stirs a mix of emotions. You get the excitement from submitting your design, but then you have to wait for the first version, and you never really know what is in store...
Key Takeaways:
Digby Dragon design, and accessories, submitted!
Design packets are detail-heavy - measurements, colors, and even textures.
As Tom Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part.
At this point, the waiting game begins! Every sample and every production partner is different. You have to be prepared to stand your ground when it comes the integrity of your design.
Some sacrifices need to be made in the honor of time, but it is important to know what you need from your design, and not to waver.
July 2025: Fabric Selections
A month in, and we are finally able to select fabrics. Our fabrics have to be specially sourced, since we use eco-conscious fabrics. Our fabrics are recycled from post-consumer waste. Each Plushpanion can recycle up to 9 plastic water bottles!
These specialized fabrics are difficult to source, especially at a low order quantity, thus it takes a lot of time and effort to match with production partners that can source these fabrics at our small business quantity. Having palettes to choose from helps take the guess work out from digital renderings to physical fabrics. Colors appear different to everyone, and especially on different mediums, so having a palette of fabrics to choose from is integral to the process.
It also helps rule out colors that are not available, to make any necessary design changes.
Key Takeaways:
Fabric palette available to choose from.
Palettes take out the guesswork, when it comes to color choices. Especially if some colors aren't available as an eco-friendly fabric.
I also started thinking about crowdfunding as a way to bring Digby Dragon to a wider audience. Sharing these early prototypes helped build excitement and gather feedback from potential supporters.
August 2025: The First Digby Prototype
It's fair to say the first version of Digby was disappointing, after two months of waiting. Both the armor and the body fabric were darker than selected, however, it is important to keep in mind that for initial prototypes, the focus is on getting the shapes right, as fabrics can be changed. For that same reason, printed patterns are used in lieu of embroidery, as to not waste embroidery thread, and also get a good sense of scale and placement.
Highlights of this phase:
First prototype images!
At this stage, embroidery patterns are printed, to save on materials.
Though the fabric colors are wrong, it is more important to get the pattern right, initially.
Though this stage can be a little deflating, it's a start, and a great start at that! The overall scale and function of sitting is successful, and the rest can be edited.
October 2025: The Second Prototype
As you can imagine, time inched by until these prototype images arrived. It is always difficult not to check in, but we have to remember that the process is being maintained by professionals, and they're working at their curated pace.
I will admit that this sample submission wasn't quite what I was anticipating after about 2 months. The green wasn't right and the shapes were wonky. Digby's arms weren't shaped as tightly as needed and looked like little clubs, the pupils were fabric when they should be full embroidery, and the legs weren't defined enough.
With all of that said, the embroidery details were astounding!
I shared my notes about the colors, overall shape, the placement of the mouth, and detailed notes about the ears. Awaiting the next sample fervently.
What I learned:
You could explain everything right down to the millimeter and it doesn't mean that people can create exactly what you're envisioning, without your guidance.
With every plush design I bring to life, I learn more succinct ways of communicating design elements, but it will never be perfect.
Perfection is a goal, but it is okay to re-manage your goal with realistic expectations.
In design, it is vital to know which elements you will not budge on, in addition to elements you are comfortable with saying, "I am the only one who will notice this".
At this point I was getting a little nervous about the next prototype. I was already considering changing the manufacturer, but I stayed those feelings in favor of the positive aspects of this manufacturer.
When compared to Krampus' creation, we were already well on our way, I just needed to nail in the important aspects of the design, while stepping back on more miniscule elements.
With this sample was also the first indication of printed fabric being used.
When submitting the design, the preference for true fabric and embroidery was specified, over printed fabrics. This is based on our core belief of detailed and sensory-friendly plushies, when possible. Printed fabrics are often less soft and texturally interesting, so we avoid them when possible.
With this sample, printed fabric was also used for most props, which were all sent back with the same note, but thankfully the potions were completed to perfection!
January 2026: Sample 3, Now We Are Cooking
In January we received a fantastic version of the sample! Digby was the perfect green and yellow — no more fabric woes! The armor accessories were still printed during this phase, but we was over the moon about the progress achieved. I just had a few notes left for the body, but little did we know, it would be the most difficult part of the plush to build!
We had a few items we had asked to see up close to be able to make notes on. These were the paws and feet. Upon further inspection unfortunately, the feet had been changed to look more like hooves and were missing the middle paw pad.
We had to work at expressing the design of the feet further, which was challenging, because as the designer you feel as though the image describes everything! Having to turn your illustration into exact diction is still a skill we are still developing.
Additionally, this was the second time we had to express embroidery over print — really the third time, when you think about the initial design being submitted with that request. This can easily become frustrating, but you have to remember it is quite literally not the end of the world.
With these things, you have to have patience. It is okay to push back sometimes and ask as many questions as you need, but we have run into something similar with each plush made, thus personally I have learned that you cannot take it to heart, or your heart will grow too heavy.
As a final note, we reminded them that Plushpanions eyes are fully embroidered, because in this sample the pupil was still fabric. We also added that the Velcro needs to be on the back, on the top and the bottom of the wing hole. This makes a tremendous difference in the ease of taking on/off Plushpanions clothing.
The Velcro in the back makes it more accessible for everyone to clothe our critters, and those are the design sticking points that are vital to stand by.
Key takeaways:
A fantastic plush sample! Accurate fabric colors, embroidery, and shapes.
Small but important edits needed for the feet, wing embroidery, and embroidery of clothing.
A vital change to the clothing, making it easier to dress/undress Plushpanions.
This prototype comes with a mix of emotions, but they all do, truly. Nothing beats when something comes back flawless, but there is also a reward for pushing designs to do more and be more.
April 2026: Digby Sample 4... Yes it Took This Long
We will be totally transparent here that we were extremely disappointed this version took 4 months, and it wasn't even close to perfect. The body had not been worked on, and the clothing was all wrong — the colors, I mean.
We expressed our frustration, but unfortunately that doesn't move you to the front of the line. It is just part of their process. There are often holidays, or just elements out of your control, in general. If you intend to express your frustration, first, always step away first and remember, this is a plush toy. It's supposed to be fun and it is okay it isn't ready, yet!
If you're still feeling fiery, type what you feel like you want to in another application, then walk away again. When you revisit, you will find the sweet spot of letting them know the process timeline is not working for you, what expectations should you be setting for yourself, but most importantly, how to press forward.
We gave them even more detailed notes with specific fabric colors, again, and noted the feet were not as they should be. Too puffy and not refined enough. This took a lot of back and forth, including drawings and reference photos, hoping for a resolution that works for everyone, but only time will tell.
Key takeaways:
Embroidery eye problems, no longer!
Armor is still way off, as well as the feet.
Left with the question, how is this the result of four months?
May 2026: We Took a Risk
At this point, it is fair to say we were getting antsy to have Digby in hand. We were preparing the crowdfunding campaign, there had already been overall delays we did not expect, and we were starting to get concerns about unlocking characters in the campaign — that wouldn't have prototypes finished for a year, or more.
However, we were already deep enough in with Digby that we couldn't just go somewhere else, at this point. So to quench our prototype thirst, we asked them to prototype a Golden Digby, but only after the Green Digby was approved.
A small part of us thought that might conclude the feet resolution after all this time...
While we don't necessarily advise what we did. We are confident that the feet will be designed in an appealing way, and that the Golden Digby can be rendered shortly after.
Additionally, we were starting to feel guilty about not having the project ready yet, however we did promise not to start the project without Digby in hand, so we were indeed following through on that promise.
We truly designed the Golden Digby to say thank you to the big fans of the project — those who are following closely and really looking forward to it. Golden Digby gives them a one-of-a-kind "Thank you" for supporting Plushpanions through the prototype turmoil!
June 2026: Digby Dragon Plush Sample 5
With this batch of fixes, we felt so close we could almost taste it, but also still so far! In some cases, the fabric was the color that we chose and it was just right, but in other cases the fabric and embroidery colors were way off. The backpack was also missing a lot of embroidery, but this is because they felt some of the embroidery designs were not possible.
We responded with our notes and inquired heavily about the backpack embroidery and how the colors continue to be missed again and again. Us and the manufacturer went back and forth a bit, as there are a lot of different fabric colors in this design.
Honestly, even we were getting a little confused!
Thus, the solution was clear, we needed to not only number fabric choices but also send their matching fabric image in. This way, there can be no doubt.
In addition to spending time making the new design packet, we also discussed the backpack further with them, to see how much embroidery we could squeeze out of such a small shape.
While not every line in our original design could be added, we came to the conclusion of which elements could be added and which could not. We look forward to the results!
You will find that the feet are still little nubs. We am sincerely hoping this is ironed out with the next sample iteration. And of course, we are hoping we can lock in all of the fabrics as well.
July 2026: Where Are We Now?
The length of this process has been a little deflating, but also enlightening. It has helped us find our voice when it comes to standing our ground on a design, but it has also made us realize that smaller projects might be a more consistent way to keep the momentum of growth between, what we realize now to be, a big project!
Here's the Teaser Page for Fabled Friends: Plushpanions Series 3! Follow the page to stay up to date on the launch and freebies for pledging early!
