Embroider Buddy
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Introducing Embroider Buddy®! We make custom embroidery as easy as 1-2-3! I know the plush toy market well and I had never seen such a bear. On to the next idea!
Embroider Buddy was created by Donna Kotzer Jacobs and is the result of more than three years' development work. "For the last four years I have been exhibiting at the Imprint Sportswear Show in the US. I had developed a nice line of bearwear and bears that imprinters could purchase," Donna explains. "However, I noticed that the embroiderers wanted a bigger imprint area, so I started to research a bear that one could embroider directly on the skin. The embroiderers needed a bear like EB, and it took someone in the toy business to create him. I look at Embroider Buddy as a child created out of the union of the toy and embroidery business." "I spent three years working and re-working countless prototypes to perfect the design. At first I was going to have a removable paw. One would take off the paw and embroider it and then put it back on - mabe with heavy duty Velcro? However, someone questioned whether the design would be childproof; could a chld pull off the paw easily? That was to Velcro the back of the Buddy. Then I thought: why didn't I use an opening at the bottom of the bear so that you could embroider the back as well? I was not happy with the Velcro so I tried an invisible zipper. "The inside was also an issue. Speaking to embroiderers I sensed they were not too keen on having to stuff the bear with handfuls of loose stuffing. Also, if a child opened the bear up there would be a 'stuffing mess'. I decided to create a 'pillow pouch' in the shape of the bear's belly that can be removed and inserted easily." The finished design is incredibly simple to use: all the embroiderer has to do is unzip the invisible zipper in the EB's backside, remove the pillow pouch and slip the body over the machine's plate to begin the embroidery process; once the embroidery is completed, pop the pillow pouch back insde, zip up your EB, and you're done! Embroider Buddy is seamless front and back, so it can be easily embroidered on either or both sides.
09/24/2026
Raspberry is down to one size.
Size #4 is what is left. Six tees to a pack, and they take HTV, DTF or sublimation, whatever you already run.
If you sell personalized plush, this is the easy second line on the invoice. The buddy is the gift, the tee is the upgrade.
Link in bio while the raspberry lasts.
09/23/2026
There is a shelf in most houses where polite gifts go to sit.
The gift basket. The scented candles. The thing that was thoughtful for about a week.
Then there is the other category. It ends up in a box in the closet, then in a dorm room, then in the hands of somebody’s kid.
The difference is usually a name.
Not a card with a name on it. A name stitched into the thing itself, next to a birth date or a nickname only two people in the family use. That is the part nobody throws out.
Tell us about the one gift in your house that never got put away.
09/21/2026
Sweater weather is doing something to us.
The blanket comes off the shelf. Everything soft gets promoted around here in September.
And the buddy stops living on the bed. It starts riding in the car, sleeping on the couch, going wherever the kid goes.
That is usually when somebody decides it needs a name on it. Sixteen inches of flat belly panel, and whatever you want stitched across it.
Frederick the fox already came in the right colours for the season. His belly is the flat part.
What is the first thing you pull out when it gets cold?
Happy first day of fall! 🍂
Nobody wants to hear this in September. It is 100 days.
Here is the part that catches shops every year. A blank has to ship to you. Then you stitch it. Then it ships again to your customer.
That is three windows, not one, and two of them are not in your control.
The shops that have a good December placed the order in September.
Santa, Reindeer and the Angel Bear are all in stock right now.
09/15/2026
Most people think personalized means a name.
Mateo’s bear has s’mores on it. A campfire. Marshmallows on sticks. Then his name, underneath all of it.
That is what the belly panel is for. Sixteen inches of flat space, and a machine that will put whatever you want there.
A birth date. A nickname only two people use. The dog. The whole thing your kid drew in kindergarten.
He read the entire belly out loud before he said thank you.
So what would you put on yours? Tell us in the comments.
09/14/2026
Kids do not pick the newest toy. They pick the one that got claimed.
A name stitched on the front, where she can actually see it. Not on a tag sewn inside a seam that nobody reads.
That is the whole difference between a toy and the toy.
Dolls, buddies and blankeys, all with a flat panel waiting for a name. Link in bio.
Every Embroider Buddy is inspected. Every single one, at every stage of production, in an ICTI-certified factory, meeting safety standards in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Here are four things worth checking before you buy any plush toy:
1. Seams that hold, with no stuffing showing anywhere. Loose stuffing is a choking hazard the second a small child gets to it.
2. Eyes and a nose that do not move when you tug them. On an Embroider Buddy both are embroidered, so there is nothing to pull off.
3. No loose threads or strings long enough to wrap around a small hand.
4. It has to be washable. Our skins and stuffing pods go in the washer and the dryer.
Thirty seconds in the store, and it saves you the doubt later. The full checklist is on the blog. Link in bio.
09/09/2026
Ask anyone over thirty about their teddy bear. They remember the bear. Most of them do not remember what happened to it.
The ones that stayed are the ones that got claimed. A name on the belly, a date, something that made it that kid’s bear instead of a bear.
That is the whole difference between a toy and a keepsake.
Happy Teddy Bear Day. Bobby comes in five colours, and his belly is sixteen inches of flat, embroidery-ready space. Link in bio.
09/07/2026
The machine is off today.
Everything that gets personalized, somebody personalized it. Somebody hooped it, threaded six colours, and stood there while it stitched.
To everyone running a shop out of a spare room, today is yours.
Happy Labour Day.
09/02/2026
Tummy time is better with backup.
Meet the Lamb Blankey Buddy: half blankie, half best friend, all soft.
Who’s your little one’s snuggle partner?
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