Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

It would be to protect the fabric. My mums childhood bear made by her grandma had metal discs instead of board and they have sliced the fabric round where it has contact with the discs

Julie

Hi and welcome

The only way to tighten the joint would be to open the bear up, remove the stuffing and tighten the joints up.

Unless you have made a good few bears, I would send it to a repairer/restorer.

Julie

I got my last lot of weighting from mohair bear supplies, I got their steel pellets. I put them in the feet and bums of my bears.

Julie

I am new to selling too, just finished setting up my online shop.

Price wise I broke down the cost of materials and my time and chose what I would be happy with. I spent a little while also looking at the prices of similar sized bears too to make sure I wasn’t wildly out of the expected average price ranges.

Best of luck

Amara is a 9” cotton plush dancing elephant, she is available now in my folksy shop https://folksy.com/items/7457106-Amara- … g-elephant

In addition to the above it might also be worth increasing your seam allowance a little. On cotton pads I use and iron cotton interfacing for that bit extra strength.

I use a machine on most of mine now but when I hand sew I use a tiny backstitch - think about sizing it to a small stitch on a machine kind of size and I pull the thread taught, if your stitches are small then it shouldn't pucker your fabric too much

Julie

Hi,

I don't know of any specifically but I have seen some books mention using soft pastels. Either pan pastels or sticks ground into powder (I saw someone in a youtube video do this with a mini tea strainer sieve).

Otherwise I think people colour them with copic markers

Julie

I have used Christie Bear - she is great and has a nice selection of stock and is super helpful.

Most of my mohair though is from Mohair Bear Making Supplies and to be honest it was because they were at a Hugglets show and I was able to go and browse the fabrics in person. If you can get to a show to do that even if you don't buy much it is well worth doing. You then have an in person idea of what the different fur types are like in person and I have found it has made decisions when buying online so much easier.

Their mohair lately has been mostly Hembold and Schulte which are well covered by the others also, but I think he tries to stock a different selection of these to Christie Bears and Bear Basics. I do find they get some other brands in too. I had some of their Jerry mohair a while back which is lovely to work with and I wish I had bought more as I can't get anymore in that colour They do however generally have a great selection of faux furs - of varying quality mind but reflected in the price they charge. They have a mixture of knitted and woven backed ones. I also really like that they put quite a lot of their mohair stock on eBay, which is really useful if you only want to buy a few bits because you then benefit from having free postage (and nectar points if you link you nectar card to your ebay account), whereas if you order on their website you get charged postage.

I find they all have their strengths. I haven't yet ordered from bear basics but they also look to have some of the better selections and priced paw pad fabrics and I really like their eye's on pins sets to try out eye positions and sizes so I shall eventually treat myself to a pack of these.

Julie

I haven't tried inserting a music box but had been thinking about it. I thought about inserting it and then seating the key between ladder stitches when closing up the back with some extra stitches around it to reinforce that area.

I have some general bear making books I was going to look through for some extra information on these so I shall ping some other solutions here if they are different from the above :)

Julie

I trim the seam allowances so they aren't too fat and sit flatter

If the top of the leg is already open and you can get a disk through the hole in the body you could joint it the other way round. So put the pin head in the body with the disk and a washer, then close the body hole around the pin, thread it back through the hole in the leg add the disk and washer and recurl the pin.

Hey everyone,

Thank you for the comments - sorry I haven't been on a long time and completely forgot I made this post! (Forgot about the subscribe button to get email alerts - oops)

Since then I have been making lots of bears and sold a couple to :)

Julie

Thank you for your response.

I was looking at using a straight stitch, having gone over twice, or would a combination of a straight stitch and a zigzag be stronger?

I am new to sewing machines in general, although my sewing machine is a vintage crank handled model :)

Julie

Hi all,

I have started a new bear and trying my hand at using a long dense fur. It has a lot of bulk so was going to trim it along the seam allowance.

The only thing is I don't know how far into the seam allowance to go. Half way? Just a bit less than the allowance? Right up to the allowance? Or just over it?

Thanks

Julie

I have PMed you with some good? news

Julie

I have not been around on the forum for a while.

I am so sorry someone snatched your beloved bear, he certainly looked well loved. I am currently under diagnosis for Asperger's and I am enjoying making bears (I am just a beginner).

He does look like his muzzle is one piece. Did he have jointed legs or were they all one piece with his body? Its hard to tell from the photos. It looks like your backpack handles have been attached separately. There is a book called Teddy Bear Studio by Ted Menten might be useful for learning about the way patterns are put together. It does tell you how to adjust them so that might be a way to go to find something that makes up similar and tweak it. I am planning to have a go at some of my own but using a upholstery fabric (non-stretch) to practice with as it is much cheaper than the fur fabric.

It's worth keeping in mind a full freshly stuffed bear will look differently in shape, if you want the well cuddled look you may want to consider understuffing him but I am not a sure how this would affect jointed limbs You can also shave patches of fur to create the bald looking areas if you wanted the feel of an aged bear.

I hope you get some luck with someone being able to create a pattern. I will have a quick look through some of my books to see if there is anything vaguely similar that can be adapted.

Julie

If the seam allowance is not included you need to add it when cutting and stitch down the drawn line on the pattern, it may not look a lot but can effect the shape of the paws and narrower parts of the head. I have just made this mistake and now the edges of my paws fold upwards as the height of the toe was no longer deep enough :-/

If the seam allowance is included you cut on the pattern line and stitch inside it.

Happy stitching

I realised this once I hit the button. Ah well someone hopefully might have it in their stash. I don't mind covering copying and postage costs.

Got a bargain piece of lovely mohair so looking for a big project!

He looks gorgeous!

BeauT bears if you are still willing to send out a copy of this pattern I would love one! I haven't been able to find a copy of the magazine.

Julie

He's lovely! I think it could be Lin on the paw. I am sorry I don't know the maker.

Is there a tag or something on his ribbon? That may give some clues.

J

Depending on how badly he was chewed could you get him repaired instead?

I hope you find something.

Hi all,

I was wondering how different does a design/pattern have to be before it is your own?

Most bear patterns I have come across are made from relatively standard shapes in differing proportions. I have been using some patterns out of a book, but changing the fabric, eyes and paw styles. I would also like to play around with some colouring around the features of the faces and my paws later on. Do these changes mean it is now my own design, even if it evolved out of someone else's pattern originally?

Julie

Hi all,

Here is my first little bear - I haven't decided on his name yet.

I completed him a little while ago as part of a bear making course held at my local sewing shop, the course was run by a lovely lady called Helen. The pattern was provided to us.

I am pleased with how he turned out, and although he had some popped seams around the face (stitched too close to the edge of the fabric), I was able to repair him with a ladder stitch.

Any comments/suggest are more than welcome :)

Julie

My little bear

He looks lovely!

My fingers felt the same after my first proper attempt (my first attempt was a nose for a bear). I have decided to invest in a set of needle felting finger protectors before I do anymore!

Julie

Your bear looks gorgeous!

This happened on my first bear down the nose. Luckily I had enough fabric which was stable enough (I stitched too close to the edge of the fabric) to stitch him closed with a curved needle using ladder stitch and didn't have to unstuff and restitch him or stabilise any edges.

I made sure I didn't stitch too close to the edges on my second bear and the seams look to be holding after the first session of head stuffing.

I really hope I don't get the same issue again.

J