Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hi Rachel,

What a gorgeous bear! I have to say I absolutely love all your bears, they all look so happy you can't help but smile 

All the best,

Daria

Thank you Peter!

Hi,

Just wanted to add another little bear to my profile (feels a bit empty with just two ) so here is Grushinka (in Russian it's short for Agrofena), I made her for my mum's 60th Bday.

She's made from a cotton fabric, not sure what it's actually called but it feels like a long-pile towel! She's dressed in a little cream lace dress with a coffee coloured ribbon. This is my first go at making eye whites and I'm pretty happy with it. This is also the first bear I've made from a pattern that is entirely my own and I'm 100% happy with. She is only small, about 6".

Any comments and constructive criticisms are more than welcome 

Daria 

Svetlana, she is absolutely gorgeous! I love her little legs 

Thank you ladies!

Hi Sheree,

I've done button joints before, before I knew anything about cotter pins and washers 
The bears I made ranged from about 4" to 10" and the buttons worked quite well! I even used a button with a loop to sew into the bottom of the head on the 10" bear and use it as a sort-of wobble joint.
I guess you could go as large as the largest buttons you can find would permit you.
Unlike a thread joint, though, you cannot stuff and sew up all the limbs before you start to joint. I sewed the buttons on through the opening in the limbs, I don't know if anyone has any other methods? It was incredibly fiddly as I didin't have any strong thread and had to sew back and forth with normal thread, fearing it would break. So my advice is use strong thread!
Also for a nice design feature you could sew the buttons onto the outside of the arms and make them visible, match them in with the style of the bear. I think it always looks very cute

Hope this helps!
Daria

Hi,

I decided to try the Gyllenship pattern from the Free Patterns section of the forum (http://www.teddy-talk.com/viewtopic.php?id=33561) and this is what turned out. I had this mohair lying around for a while and wanted to make a big bear out of it. When I saw the pattern I knew this was it:)

His name is Luciano as I named him after Pavarotti, there was something in his shape:)
Hope you like him!

Daria

Hi!

It's usually wide because of the arms, I think the joints may be the problem, like you said, Becky.

Gladys, I have a bear I made a while ago and only realised the joints were too small after I had finished it all. He now wears a jumper to hide his floppy shoulders :P

Thank you for your help!
Daria

PS I'm russian but I've been speaking english since school as I grew up abroad and, until recently, lived in the UK:)

Hi,

I'm new to this forum so not sure if this question has been asked before (sorry if it has ).

Is there a trick to making a bear's shoulders narrower? Every pattern that I try (none of them are my own), the bear's shoulders seem to turn out a lot wider than in the picture. What am I doing wrong? I've tried stuffing them less but then the arms are too soft and flop slightly. This only happens to my bigger bears, smaller ones seem okay.

Thank you in advance for your help!

She's beautiful! What's she made from? It looks very dense but softer than mohair?