Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Also a Brit but I lived in Colorado for a year. There were a couple where none of the options were British English, so I just chose at random. They say American English is largely pronounced the way it is as an offshoot of South Western British English, although it evolved differently... Aussie slang words have a lot more in common with British English - when I lived in the US I worked with an Aussie and we'd say things to eachother that no-one else could understand!  I always found it interesting that you have words like *trash* and *sidewalk* that died out from British English around the 18thC and many things most Brits think of as 'Americanisms' are actually just archaic British English (Can you tell I did a degree in English? !) Also we seem to have far more swear words and some of your rude words aren't rude here, and vice versa:

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% General American English

30% Yankee

15% Dixie

5% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

That's right, Amelia - I have only used it as a spinner - I spin the fibres in with others, to get a glittery yarn. But I noticed it said the angelina was 'heat bondable' - was of no interest to me as a spinner, but now I'm making teddies... possibilities opening up! You iron it between two bits of baking paper, and it fuses with itself.

I've also thought silk paper would make great wings, as you can control the thickness/stiffness of it, and put all sorts of nice things in it. I'm thinking of making a 'green man' teddy with silk paper wings with oak leaves on...

Articrose I dunno where you are but in the US you can get it from Bountiful, in Colorado. I think she still has a website! In the UK you can get it from WIngham Woolwork here in Yorkshire who have website and mail ordering. I'm confident you could get it from most firms who supply hand spinners - anyone who caries a good stock of fibres. 'Spin Off' magazine may have some ads that would point you the right way, too. There is ordinary glittery angelina and holographic, which is more 3D. Both are beautiful.

I have only used it for spinning but have just seen some pics online of someone else's wings made with it - and they look stunning. It's very light and delicate too, but because I haven't experimented with it yet, I dunno how stiff it is on its own.

For the UK bear makers, Wingham Woolwork do little £2 (I think) sample bags of different colours angelina and one bag would be enough to make one or two sets of wings, depending on size.

I'm a beginner, so be gentle with me ladies!

I have just made a bear with safety eyes, because it is for my 6 year old. Now I went a bit mad because I like those old bears you get with oversized eyes, so I used fairly large ones on him. They don't suit him.

Too much kerfuffle to behead him & start again - esp as he's got plastic safety joints. But it occured to me that I could minimise the scary eyes if I made some little felt eye-lids.

Anyone tell me how to do this? Is a decent fabric glue enough? I can't imagine how I could stitch them in place invisibly...

Has anyone experimented with angelina head bonadable fibre? The holographic stuff is especially beautiful. I've come to teddies from being a handspinner/weaver and often use angelina in my spinning projects, but now it occurs to me it might make great wings.

There's pics here:
www.joggles.com

And some beautiful fairy wings made from it:

www.dollmakersjourney.com/fibers.html

I'm not much ahead of you - only been bear making for 2 months. By my third bear, I'd switched to mohair - and everyone's right. It's so much easier to work with and is going to look good pretty well whatever you do!

I've found with each bear I've made new and interesting mistakes I didn't make earlier - and as I put one thing right, or work on it - another thing goes wrong! Maybe that's why it's addictive!  I have made my first 5 bears for my sons - and the first two, for my youngest - were dreadful (much worse than your's - in fact, your's is nice!) My 4 year old said he liked my first effort anyway - I even thought of re-making the entire head (it looks anime, but it's not meant to!) But he loves it how it is. It's wrapped and away for xmas, now but I've just made a 2nd one for him... which is far better!

I had two teddy books and have worked through patterns in them - picking ones with different heads, etc to get practice.

To centre the head gussets, I fold them in half, stick a pin in dead centre, then stick that pin through where the two side heads join. Then, when I'm sewing it, I start from the nose and stitch out, then for the other side go back to the central point and sew out.

I had trouble getting the feet identical, no matter how carefully I made the patterns/cut them out. But now it's falling into place, somehow. Same with the eyes - took me a few teds to get the technique. But am still a long way off getting any expression into the faces. I try to isolate one thing to work on each time, and hopefully will improve slowly!

Have been using German mohair - but just made my toddlers' second bears out of cheap synthetic, because they're only 4 and 6 and they'll get a battering. Already relieved I won't be making any more synthetic, unless it's woven backing!