How are stuffed animals made at Petit Loulou?
Today I will unveiled behind the scenes at Petit Loulou’s and what makes my plushies unique.
Every plushy start on paper, with some design research. It can take many sketches before finding the final shape and expression of a soft toy. It comes according to the inspiration of the moment, in the course of a discussion or while reading a book ... you never know when the inspiration will come. I always show my ideas to my husband and son to get their opinion and improve the details. My son is also a great source of inspiration as he has tons of ideas for plushies and often places orders. He is only 5 but knows exactly what fabric he wants. He likes to sneak into my workshop to choose his own fabrics. He even made his very own little monster!
As it is very important to me that my soft toys are not only cuddly toys but that they also allow the awakening of the senses and the development of your child, I think of all the details: the global shape, the ergonomics of details, colours, contrasts, sounds ... I want everything in your soft toy to allow your child to grow up safely and confidently.
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Once I am happy with a design comes the pattern stage. This is the moment when the stuffed animal goes from drawing to volume. I first test the pattern with paper to make sure everything fits perfectly well.
In parallel, I do some material research. The fabric will play largely in the joy that your little one will have while touching, cuddling and playing with their plushie but also to help with their development. I pay a particular attention to the colours, of course, like for Melvin the fish or Cali the skunk that I wished contrasted to stimulate your newborn’s sight, but also to the textures, as for Spiky the hedgehog and Yaku the lama who concentrate rather on the touch with the bumpy fabric or the long fur. The quality of the fabric is also extremely important: I want a beautiful coat, but especially no hair loss and no harmful chemicals! I am uncompromising on this point, in order to be able to guarantee you the best quality for my soft toys, even if I have to delay the production until I found the perfect fabric.
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Finally comes the cutting of the chosen fabric, the pinning and sewing of the plushy. I hand stitch all the tiny details like the eyes on most of my plushies but will use a sewing machine for sewing together the plushie.
To ensure the strength of the seams I sew two to three times around before turning around the plushie and filling it. The peculiarity of Petit Loulou's stuffed animals is that the very last seams, those that close your stuffed toys, are made by hand so that they are invisible. No thread that protrudes, no fragility where a hole could appear from having attracted little fingers, just a perfect finish, because your children are well worth it!
Before shipping to you your plushie I will inspect it closely to make sure there's no mistakes and will brush it to make it look as nice as possible and make sure it's perfect!
I put lots of care and love in every plushie I design and sew, and I hope they will bring softness, dreams and lots of hours of play and cuddles in your little ones life.