Prices and lead times checked October 2026.
There is no breed design to buy here. Every portrait is designed from your own photo, so the breed only matters because of what it does to the stitching: coat length, how many thread colours the coat needs, how much the coat contrasts with the fabric, and the shape of the face. The guides below cover sixteen breeds and what changes in each one. Clothing starts at the £55 t-shirt, the iron-on patch is £25, and the lead time is 2 to 3 weeks.
Most gift pages sorted by breed are really sorted by clipart. Somebody has drawn one dachshund, or one tabby, and the page sells you that drawing. This page does the opposite. We do not hold a single breed design, because everything we make is designed from the photo you send us. What the breed tells us is which problems to expect, and those problems are genuinely different from one animal to the next. A black Labrador and a golden retriever are not two versions of the same job.
Key takeaways
- There are no stock breed designs. Every portrait is designed from your own photo.
- Breed matters for the stitching, not the catalogue. Four things change: coat, colour count, contrast, face shape.
- Dark coats need the right fabric colour or they read as a silhouette rather than a dog.
- At least six fur colours go into a golden retriever. A black cat needs almost none.
- Crossbreeds and unknown rescues work exactly the same way, because we start from the photo.
- About 70 per cent of the cats we stitch are tabbies, which is why tabby has its own guide.
- Cheapest embroidered item is the £25 patch. Cheapest adult clothing is the £55 t-shirt.
- Lead time 2 to 3 weeks, made to order in Cambridge. Free UK delivery over £75.
What actually changes between breeds when you stitch them?
Four things, and they are not the things a gift guide usually talks about. How long and how textured the coat is. How many thread colours the coat needs. How much the coat contrasts with the fabric it is going onto. And the shape of the face, because a flat face, a wedge and a round face all need a different angle from the camera. Get those four right and the breed looks after itself.
This is worth a minute of your time before you pick a guide, because it is the part that decides whether the finished piece looks like their animal or like a nice embroidered dog.
| What changes | Why it matters in thread | Where it decides the portrait |
|---|---|---|
| Coat length and texture | Smooth, long and curly coats are three different jobs. Texture has to be visible in the photo, because we cannot infer it from a soft brown shape. | Cockapoo, dachshund, Maine Coon, cocker spaniel |
| Number of colours | A coat that shades from one colour to another needs every step in between. Gradients are the hardest thing to stitch well. | Golden retriever, German shepherd, ginger cat |
| Contrast with the fabric | A very dark coat on a very dark fabric loses its internal detail and reads as a silhouette. The fabric colour does half the work. | Black Labrador, black cat |
| Face shape | Flat, wedge-shaped and round faces each need a different camera angle. The wrong angle flattens the thing that makes the breed recognisable. | French bulldog, Siamese, British Shorthair |
| Pattern | Where markings are the animal rather than a detail on it, their exact placement has to be right or the owner spots it immediately. | Dalmatian, tabby, brindle or pied French bulldog, roan cocker |
The fabric contrast point is the one that catches people out most often, and it is worth being concrete about. Roughly 60 per cent of the Labradors we stitch are black, about 25 per cent are golden and the rest are red or brown. Those black Labradors look best on aloe, beige or pastel blue, and they also work well on green bay and forest green. Put the same portrait on black and you have spent £70 on a shape. If you are buying for a dark-coated dog or cat, choose the fabric colour before you choose the item.
Which dog breed guide do you need?
Nine guides, each written around what that breed does to the stitching rather than around a list of mugs.
Cockapoo gifts
No breed standard, so no two cockapoos look alike and no generic design can be theirs. Tight curls or loose waves is the whole job.
Cocker spaniel gifts
Owners judge it on three things: how the ears fall, the heavy feathering, and roan colouring. Includes an honest note on when to shop elsewhere.
Springer spaniel gifts
Not recycled cocker ideas. Different head shape, bold liver and white patches, the tail question, and clothing that goes out in the wet.
Labrador gifts
Black, yellow and chocolate are three different orders. Includes how to photograph a black Lab so the eyes and muzzle still read in thread.
Golden retriever gifts
At least six fur colours go into one golden retriever, before you reach the chest, leg and tail feathering. Cream, gold and red all differ.
Dachshund gifts
Smooth, long haired and wire haired are three separate jobs, plus dapple patterns and the low camera angle this shape of dog needs.
Dalmatian gifts
Every dalmatian's spot pattern is unique, so the spots are the portrait rather than a detail on it. Includes the part owners check first.
French bulldog gifts
The head on angle and the bat ear shape do the work, plus how brindle and pied markings actually come out once they are in thread.
German shepherd gifts
The black to tan saddle is a gradient, which makes it the hard part. The guide covers which photo gives us enough to work from.
Which cat breed guide do you need?
Seven guides. Two of them, tabby and ginger, are coat patterns rather than breeds, which is exactly why they need explaining.
Tabby cat gifts
Tabby is a pattern, not a breed, and it comes in four forms that stitch differently. About 70 per cent of the cats we stitch are tabbies.
Black cat gifts
A black cat gives a portrait almost no internal detail, so the eyes and the outline carry all of it. Fabric colour matters more here than anywhere.
British Shorthair gifts
A dense blue coat gives a portrait very little to hold onto. The round face and the copper eyes are what carry it instead.
Ginger cat gifts
Ginger cats are tabbies with the volume turned down. The markings are faint, so the photo has to be good enough to show them at all.
Ragdoll cat gifts
The points darken with age and with cold, which changes which photo you should send and which version of the cat you end up with.
Maine Coon gifts
The crop decides everything. The ruff and the lynx tipped ears sit at one end of the cat and the tail at the other, so something has to go.
Siamese cat gifts
A Siamese portrait is decided at the edges: the wedge head, the big ears, and the sharp boundary between pale body and dark points.
What if their breed is not listed?
It makes no difference to the order. Every portrait is designed from the photo you send, so any breed works, any crossbreed works, and a rescue whose breed nobody knows works too. These sixteen guides exist because those breeds raise specific questions often enough to be worth answering, not because the product is different. If your animal is not on the list, you are not missing anything.
We would rather say that plainly than pretend the list is a catalogue. A page like this one can look as though there are sixteen products and yours is not among them. There is one process, and it starts with your photo.
Alongside dogs and cats we stitch horses, rabbits, hamsters, birds and reptiles, and multi-pet designs are available if there is more than one animal in the house. Two different breeds on one item is a normal order rather than a special request.
If you are buying for a crossbreed, the case for a portrait from a photo is actually stronger, not weaker. There is no breed standard for a crossbreed, so there is nothing for a generic design to be faithful to. The cockapoo guide sets this out at length, and the logic applies to any mix.
What does it cost, and how long does it take?
Prices below are starting prices, verified against the shop in October 2026. The breed does not change the price.
| Item | From | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Iron-on patch | £25 | The cheapest embroidered portrait we make. Goes onto something they already own. |
| Canvas tote bag | £50 | The lowest priced finished item, and it goes everywhere they do. |
| T-shirt | £55 | The cheapest adult clothing. Warmer weather, or a second piece. |
| Velvet cushion | £55 | A gift that stays in the house rather than in the wardrobe. |
| Sweatshirt | £70 | The safest first order, and long sleeved, so sleeve embroidery applies. |
| Hoodie | £80 | Dog walkers. The one that gets worn in the rain rather than kept for best. |
- Day 0, you orderYou upload the photo at checkout and tell us anything we should know, including the fabric colour if the coat is dark.
- Within a day or two, we review the photoA person looks at it before any design work starts. About 70 per cent are approved with no edits. Roughly 1 in 25 come back to you for a retake.
- Then, the designThe portrait is designed from your photo and sent to you to approve. Unlimited revisions, so coat texture and colour can be adjusted until it looks like them.
- 2 to 3 weeks from order, it is stitched and shippedMade to order in our Cambridge studio and shipped worldwide. Free UK delivery over £75, or £3.99 Royal Mail 48 Tracked below that. Duties and taxes are covered on international orders.
Before you order, by breed
- Dark coat (black Lab, black cat): pick aloe, beige or pastel blue rather than black or charcoal
- Curly or long coat (cockapoo, Maine Coon, dachshund): daylight photo where the texture is readable
- Patterned coat (dalmatian, tabby, brindle frenchie): a photo that shows the markings where they actually are
- Flat or wedge face (French bulldog, Siamese): straight on, at the animal's head height
- Coat over the eyes (cockapoo, some spaniels): send a second photo with the eyes visible
- Read that breed's guide first. It takes four minutes and saves a revision round
When is Lucy & Lola not the right answer?
Worth saying plainly rather than at the bottom of a FAQ. If you want a generic breed design, a print shop or an illustrator with a breed range will serve you better and cost less, and this page is the wrong page. If you want a figurine, a sculpture or a painting of their animal, those are different crafts and we do not do any of them. If you need it this week, the lead time is 2 to 3 weeks and we will not pretend otherwise to take the order.
And if your budget is under £25, nothing custom and embroidered comes in below that. A well chosen printed photo in a decent frame beats anything we could sell you at that price.
If you do want the version that looks like their actual animal, coat and all, the sweatshirt is where most people start. Over 75,000 pet parents have ordered from us, and we hold a 4.9 average from more than 10,000 five star reviews.
We were founded in 2021 by Lucy and Andy with one embroidery machine and a rescue dachshund called Lola. There are 29 machines now, and everything we make is embroidered rather than printed, apart from a small range of large-scale print graphic sweatshirts. Every photo is reviewed by a person before designing, and revisions are unlimited before anything is stitched.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have a design for every dog and cat breed?
No, and that is deliberate. We hold no breed designs at all. Every portrait is designed from the photo you send us, which is why a crossbreed or an unknown rescue is no harder to order than a pedigree. The sixteen guides on this page are about what each breed does to the stitching, not about sixteen different products. There is one process and it starts with your photo.
What does breed specific actually mean on a pet gift?
On most sites it means somebody drew one animal of that breed and printed it on things, so it looks like a breed rather than like your pet. Here it means the breed tells us which problems to expect: how long and textured the coat is, how many thread colours it needs, how much it contrasts with the fabric, and what angle the face needs. Those are the four things that decide whether the finished piece looks like your animal.
Which breeds are hardest to get right in embroidery?
Three kinds. Very dark coats, because a black coat on dark fabric loses its internal detail and reads as a silhouette. Gradients, such as a German shepherd's black to tan saddle, because every step between the two colours has to be there. And faint markings, such as a ginger cat's, because if the photo does not show them we have nothing to stitch. None of these are impossible. They just need the right photo and the right fabric colour.
What colour should I choose for a black dog or a black cat?
Aloe, beige or pastel blue are the best three. Green bay and forest green also work well. Avoid black and charcoal, because the portrait has nowhere to go against them. Roughly 60 per cent of the Labradors we stitch are black, so this comes up constantly, and it is the single most useful decision you can make before you order. The black Labrador and black cat guides both go into it properly.
What is a good gift for a dog mom whose breed is not on your list?
Exactly the same as if it were. The list is not a catalogue, it is sixteen articles. Any breed and any crossbreed is designed from your photo in the same way, and we also stitch horses, rabbits, hamsters, birds and reptiles. The sweatshirt at £70 is where most people start, and because it is long sleeved it includes sleeve embroidery, usually the animal's name.
What is the cheapest embroidered pet gift you make?
The iron-on patch at £25, which is a portrait they can put onto something they already own. The cheapest finished item is the £50 canvas tote bag, and the cheapest adult clothing is the £55 t-shirt. Nothing custom and embroidered comes in below £25. If your budget is lower than that, greeting cards are £2 and a vinyl sticker of their portrait is £20, but those are extras rather than the main gift.
Can you put two different breeds on the same item?
Yes. Multi-pet designs are available and a mixed household is a normal order, not a special request. Send a clear separate photo of each animal rather than one photo of them together, because in a group shot one is usually half hidden behind the other. If the two have very different coats, say a black cat and a golden retriever, mention it, because the fabric colour then has to suit both.
Which cat do you stitch most often?
Tabbies, by a long way. About 70 per cent of the cats that come through the studio are tabbies, which is why tabby has a guide of its own even though it is a coat pattern rather than a breed. If you are buying for a cat owner and you are not sure what their cat is, the tabby guide is the most likely match and it explains how to tell which of the four tabby patterns theirs has.
How long does a breed portrait take to make?
2 to 3 weeks depending on how busy the studio is, with the current figure shown at checkout. The breed makes no difference to the timeline. That window includes the photo review, the design and your approval, so if you are buying for a date, count back 3 weeks from it and order before then. Everything is made to order in Cambridge, so there is no shelf to pull a finished one off.
Do I need to know my dog's breed to order?
No. We never ask for it. What we need is a photo clear enough to show the coat texture, the markings and the eyes, and a note about anything we would not be able to see. Plenty of orders are for rescues whose history nobody knows. Knowing the breed is useful only to you, for picking which guide on this page to read before you choose the item and the fabric colour.