Pocket Friends: Little Plushies, Lots of Choices

There’s something about bins full of colorful little plushies that makes kids want to dig right in.

I see it at my markets all the time. A child walks up to my booth, spots a bin full of axolotls, dinosaurs, or some other little creatures, and suddenly those little hands are busy. They pick one up. Then another. Maybe they find a different color they like better. They dig a little deeper.

And eventually, they find the one.

That’s what my Pocket Friends are all about.

I call them Pocket Friends because they’re small, cuddly plushies that are just the right size for a child to carry around or stuff into a little pocket. And they’re at just the right price, $5–$10 depending on the supplies I use and the time it takes me to make them.

Something for Everyone

When I set up my market booth, I think about the people who are going to walk into it.

Some people will fall in love with one of my larger plushies. Some will want a character. Someone else might be looking for a Storytime Set.

And then there’s the family with three or four children.

Maybe Mom or Dad isn’t looking to spend $20 or $30 on a plushie for every child. But that doesn’t mean the kids don’t want to take home a little something.

That’s where the Pocket Friends come in.

I want a child to be able to walk into my booth, look around, and find something they can choose for themselves.

There’s something special about that moment when a child gets to say, “This is the one I want.”

It might be a blue axolotl. Or a purple dinosaur. Or a little red ladybug. It doesn’t have to be the biggest thing on the table to be special.

And that idea of choice is really what shapes what I make and how I display them.

Why So Many of the Same Things?

You might wonder why I sometimes have a whole bin full of the same animal.

Why not make one axolotl, one dinosaur, one turtle, one frog, and one ladybug?

Well, because choosing is part of the fun.

When I have a bin full of axolotls in different colors, a child doesn’t have to decide whether they want an axolotl. They get to decide which axolotl they want.

And I think kids love that.

The Choices Keep Changing

Having choices keeps the Pocket Friends interesting for me, too.

Not only do I keep track of which plushies the kids like best, but I also enjoy seeing which colors they gravitate toward. Sometimes the color I thought would be the first one to go is still sitting in the bin at the end of the day, while a color I almost didn’t make disappears first. You just never know.

And because market shoppers are always surprising me, I try not to offer the same choices every time.

Some creatures are definitely favorites and are worth making again and again, such as axolotls and dinosaurs, but if I sell out of something else, I look at that empty bin and think:

“Hmm. What should go in here next?”

And that’s how I end up trying something new.

Like little rockets. They aren’t my usual plushie type, but I thought they would be fun to try. And without any plastic pieces, they’re perfect for kids of all ages.

So Many Possibilities

There are so many possibilities—if you know, you know—that I could never make all of them. If I tried, my entire booth would be Pocket Friends!

And while that might be a pretty fun booth for the kids, that’s not really what I want. I prefer a variety, especially recognizable characters like Snoopy and Hello Kitty, along with my Storytime Sets.

Pocket Friends are just one part of the bigger picture.

But when I think about what they add to my booth, I don’t really think about them as 

the “inexpensive” things.

I think about them as the little friends that give people choices.

Choices for the child who wants blue instead of green.

Choices for the sibling who wants a dinosaur while everyone else wants something different.

Choices for the family that wants to let every child pick something of their own. 

And choices for me, as the maker, because an empty bin gives me a reason to try new patterns. 😊

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Want to See More?

If you're curious about the little toy box display I use to keep all these Pocket Friends organized and easy for kids to explore, you can find it in the Market Day Essentials section of my My Maker Toolkit page.

And if you'd like to see more of the Pocket Friends themselves, you can find them in the Pocket Friends section of my Plushie Collections page.