Plushies

Announcing the 2016 Softies for Mirabel Drive

November 6, 2016

As we begin to approach the busy holiday season, there is one standing tradition at Spoonflower that allows us to embrace the best qualities of the holiday season – kindness and giving. For the 5th year in a row, we are excited to announce that both Spoonflower locations (that’s right… our US and Berlin offices!) will be donation drop-off locations for the Softies for Mirabel Drive, hosted by Pip Lincolne over at Meet Me at Mike’s.

The DIY Little Red Riding Hood softie from bubbledog is ready for her trip to the Mirabel Foundation in Australia!

Crafting for a Cause: Softies for Mirabel Handmade Toy Drive 2015

October 24, 2015

Have you ever searched the Spoonflower Marketplace looking for the perfect design for your next project and stumbled across a cut and sew softie pattern but just didn’t know who you could gift it to? I’ve certainly experienced this while looking for designs to use for a project and discovered a handful of absolutely adorable plushie patterns that caught my imagination. Weeks later, the plushie patterns still popped up in the back of my mind in the form of dancing pigs and I knew those patterns had to be mine!

It’s pretty tough to have a bad day at work when you’ve got an adorable pig plushie and elephant waiting to greet you on the couch!

However, there was just one problem: the current fabric real estate in my not-so-spacious apartment was running low and these plushie pals would need to be gifted soon! Luckily, thanks to the creativity and generosity of Australian native Pip Lincolne over at Meet Me at Mikes, my plushie pals would not be left without a home. For the past 9 years, Pip has been creating homes for plushies through Softies for Mirabel, a handmade toy drive for children supported by the Mirabel Foundation.

While Australia may be a hop, skip, and a jump from the Spoonflower headquarters in Durham, North Carolina, we’re always looking for ways to contribute our creative skills to bring a ray of happiness to those who need it most. We are pleased to announce that for the 4th year in a row, Spoonflower will be a drop off location for those interested in donating to Softies for Mirabel!

Spoonflower community members proudly display their softies donated during the 2014 Softies for Mirabel handmade toy drive.

Are you ready to craft for a cause? Learn how to get involved below:

Pins & Needles: Head over to Meetup to RSVP for our upcoming sewing social on November 17th! We will be printing a variety of our favorite cut-and-sew prints for folks to sew in the Greenhouse, but feel free to come and crochet or knit a toy, as well. Cut-and-sew kits are great beginner sewing projects, so please do bring your friends!

Send or drop off handmade toys at the Spoonflower HQ: We will also be collecting any handmade toy donations here at Spoonflower's headquarters from now until Saturday, December 5th, at 2pm. You can drop by with your donations Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm if you are in the area, or you can mail finished toys to us.

Please include your name and email address with any toy donations so we can keep you posted as we send over our donation and photos are shared!

Please send all donations to:

Spoonflower
Attn: Greenhouse
2810 Meridian Parkway, Suite 176
Durham, NC 27713

Join the fun and share your softies by using #softiesformirabel and tag @spoonflower in your photos to be featured in an upcoming Softies for Mirabel blog post update!

DIY: Customize Your Own Cut and Sew Doll

June 10, 2014

Talented designer Natitys (Eloisa) visits the blog today to share some of her sweet cut & sew doll templates with you. She’ll show you how to customize the patterns to make your own unique doll, and upload your file for printing. These templates make a quick, simple and personalized project that fits perfectly onto just a fat quarter of fabric.

Eloisa: I think handmade dolls are one best gifts anyone could receive, especially when your doll is designed just for you! In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to change colors of the skin, hair, outfits and add accessories to these pre-designed doll patterns so you can add detail and personalization that’s all your own!

Versions of my cut & sew dolls, Lili and Sylvie made up in Silky Faille fabric. For an even cozier alternative, select Fleece.

Softies for Mirabel + a Sew-in!

October 12, 2013

This fall, we're excited to take advantage of the amazing variety of cut-and-sew plushie designs in the Spoonflower marketplace to participate in the Softies for Mirabel handmade toy drive! This annual toy drive supports the Mirabel Foundation, an Australian organization that offers support to children affected by parental substance abuse. This year, we'll be collecting handmade toys and hosting a plushie sew-in here in the Greenhouse, our classroom and community space at our Durham, NC headquarters, to support this amazing effort to raise awareness and spread some love!

It's no secret that we just love plushies here at the Spoonflower offices! When they're not starring in our little videos or giving us endless crafting possibilities, they're just really fun to have around the office for, you know, us to play with any kids who stop by the office. But this fall, we're excited to enlist our plushie friends to do some good for kids across the sea in Australia, so we're putting out the call for contributions for the 7th annual Softies for Mirabel, a handmade toy drive organized by the folks over at Meetmeatmikes.com.

Cut and Sew Plushie Pattern Giveaway To Benefit Softies for Mirabel Foundation

October 19, 2011

From Darci:

Our North Carolina fall is finally here and I’m starting to think about holiday projects. Here at Spoonflower we prepare to put our crafty hands to work for our own family and friends and wouldn’t it be lovely to share some of the handmade goodness with kids in need.

One of our favorite Spoonflower designers, SammyK, brought our attention to the Mirabel Foundation, a children’s charity based in Australia, that accepts handmade soft toys to donate to Mirabel children in their annual Softies for Mirabel drive.

As encouragement for the Spoonflower community to get involved we are hosting a giveaway of 15 cut and sew plushie patterns with hopes that the winners will sew up the toys then send them to back us so we can ship the lot on to Melbourne.

ENTER DRAWING FOR CUT AND SEW PLUSHIE PATTERN

Enter by Tuesday October 25th 12:00 PM EST and the winners will be announced on Wednesday, October 26th. Please return completed projects to Spoonflower by Wednesday November 23rd.

Not a winner? Don’t fret, we hope this giveaway will serve as inspiration for everyone to get involved! Let’s put our needles and thread to fabric and create special gifts that the kids will cherish. Keep up with the drive details here to find out when and where to send handmade toys of your own.

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