Final Major Project.

For my final project, I decided to develop a book suitable for a child aged 2-5 with a soft toy of one of the characters.   There are lots of products that are developed from popular children’s books, but I felt that a soft toy was an achievable aim, and I wanted to use my pattern cutting skills.  Also, after I have left college,  developing a soft toy or doll that I could sell as part of an online shop could be useful.

 I looked in the following shops for inspiration – Waterstones, Beau Cadeau – a shop near Frank gate, Marks and Spencer, Boots, Build-a bear and Toys r us. 

Waterstones was the most productive place for looking at toys that are spin offs from popular books, but the other shops gave me construction and character ideas to follow through.   There were also plenty of sites on the internet that have toys that I havn’t seen sold in Toy shops, but which are spin offs from popular children’s books.    There are ranges of ‘The cat in the Hat’ toys from Dr Seuss’s books that I've never seen sold here.

After some research (consisting of squeezing cuddly toys) I decided that the toys I liked the best and wanted to develop  generally hasd solid foam bodies with a soft outer fabric – generally a knitted velour, which is hard wearing and can be sponged/washed.   A really good example of this is the Moomin toys developed by Aurora.  They have the shape really well developed – one shop assistant  described them as having ‘just the right amount of tummy’

Aurora also produce the soft toys for The Gruffalo,which has a huge range of different activity books and products on offer.  I asked at Waterstones, and The Gruffalo is their most popular children's book - the power of televison!