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Carolyn Cook Storer and friends

Carolyn Cook Storer picked up sewing skills from her mother and honed them in home economics. They came in handy for making clothing – Storer made her wedding dress – and when she became a mother, she made her first toy. It was a broomstick hobbyhorse whose satiny head was stuffed with a towel.

She made more animal toys for family and friends and eventually took on commissions – one of which was a bear out of real fur. “I wanted the bear to look floppy and not too smart, a little innocent and not threatening,” says Storer, a former kindergarten teacher, who finds wildlife inspiration in vintage Ranger Rick magazines and children’s books. She made mother-and-baby animals – a pig with a bellyful of piglets attached with buttons, for example – and puppets too. “It took two years to figure out how to make a turtle that could hide in its shell,” she says.  at one of Philadelphia’s best toy stores

In 1997, she entered her first craft show, which evolved into a regular gig for 35 years, mostly around Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It was at a juried show where she met textile designer Kevin O’Brien and his creative director Angela Vosburgh. After several encounters, Vosburgh reached out and asked if Storer was interested in collaborating on a collection of animals made from O’Brien’s luxurious fabric remnants.

“The more our company grew the more scrap fabric we had – we would make patchwork pillows and scarves using the remnants in hopes to reduce waste and make one-of-a-kind usable pieces,” Vosburgh explains. “One day, it dawned on us to ask Carolyn if she’d make animals with our remnants.  When she agreed, we sent her boxes of scraps and she took it from there.”

Storer recalls, “My mother had passed away and I thought, ‘What am I going to do now? Then Angela called. They sent me fabrics, tested me out, and that’s what I’ve been doing since.”

Her menagerie includes owls, squirrels, ducks, bunnies, pigs, kangaroos and elephants. To make them, Storer combines machine with handwork for the more challenging construction details like the owl’s feet, squirrel’s nut and the elephant tail which is made by pulling individual threads from a woven fabric and braiding them together. She averages two animals per day, uses a Pfaff machine and double-seams everything. “I think I am a perfectionist,” she says.

Each time Storer ships a box to the studio everyone gathers to see the goods. “Each one is unique,” Vosburgh says explaining how Storer might send a note detailing her inspiration. After The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle passed away, for example, Storer created several creatures in his memory.

Carolyn Cook Storer in her home sewing studio

Storer loves her job. At 84, having relocated to a new home on the North Jersey Shore to be close to her kids and grandchildren, it’s just enough work. “It’s the perfect collaboration,” she says. “When they need them, I make them.”

Jane Dagmi is Editor in Chief of Designers Today.

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