From the TARDIS to Adipose: Another Doctor Who Custom Order

If you know Doctor Who, you probably know exactly why the Adipose make such fun plushies.

They are simple, quirky, slightly strange, and somehow completely adorable.

After the detail involved in creating the TARDIS plushies, these little guys were an entirely different kind of challenge.

Their design looks simple at first: a little white body, tiny arms and legs, and that unmistakable face.

But sometimes the simplest characters require the most attention to shape.

There aren't elaborate costumes or tons of colors to make them recognizable.

Their personality has to come from their silhouette, proportions, and those tiny facial details.

For this project, I turned to a pattern by Jennifer Christiansen, which gave me a wonderful foundation for bringing these quirky little Doctor Who creatures to life.

And along the way, her pattern introduced me to a technique that I absolutely fell in love with.

Her method for creating hands and feet with individual little toes!

It was such a clever way of constructing them, and those tiny fingers and toes added so much personality to the finished Adipose. I love when following another designer's pattern teaches me something new that I can tuck away in my crochet toolbox for future projects.

I started by working on their soft, rounded bodies, shaping each one to capture that wonderfully chunky Adipose look.

Then came those little arms, hands, legs, and feet.

And those toes!

As those tiny features started appearing, they quickly went from simple white crochet shapes to recognizable Doctor Who characters.

Of course, the faces finished everything off.

Those simple little expressions gave each one the personality it needed.

Suddenly, I had a whole group of Adipose looking back at me from my workspace.

And honestly, there is something pretty funny about watching a custom order multiply across your table!

What made this order even more fun was knowing the story that had already brought this customer to me.

Doctor Who wasn't simply a random theme she liked.

It was something she shared with her mom.

The first order gave them matching handmade TARDIS plushies. Coming back for a set of Adipose felt like adding another little piece to that shared collection.

That is something I love about custom crochet.

One creation can become the beginning of something much bigger.

A favorite television show can turn into a collection.

A collection can become a tradition.

And each handmade piece can carry a memory of the person, moment, or story connected to it.

There is also something incredibly special about having someone return and trust me with another idea.

The first time, I was asked to turn an iconic blue police box into something soft and huggable.

This time, my hook was creating a whole group of quirky little Doctor Who creatures.

And I walked away from this order with something too—a new construction technique that I genuinely loved learning.

That is another side of custom crochet that I don't always get to show.

Every project is different. Sometimes I am designing and problem-solving from scratch, and sometimes I get to work from another talented designer's pattern and discover a new way of doing something that I may not have thought to try before.

Completely different projects.

Same fandom.

Same story behind them.

And another reminder that custom orders don't always have to make sense to everyone else.

Sometimes they just need to mean something to you.

Maybe there is a character you have always wanted.

A show your family quotes constantly.

Something you and your best friend have loved for years.

Or maybe you already have one custom piece and know exactly what needs to come next.

Those personal connections are what make these projects some of my favorites to create.

Because apparently, once the TARDIS lands in the Custom Order Gallery, you never quite know what might show up next.