Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

That glue info is helpful, thank you! I wasn’t thinking of felting armature, rather taking wool roving and tying it tightly so that it’s kind of a hard core to wrap the rest of the stuffing around. Just a thought

Oh and yes I was thinking of tightly wrapping roving as the “skeleton” and then covering and completing the stuffing with the other kind to wool stuffing (carded wool??). Just thought that would bake a nice hard center kind of like how they make waldorf dolls with a tightly wound wool ball in the head to make it heavy and firm

Thank you, this does help! I was thinking too that it would be important to shave down the fur so that I can poke through the backing easily. In my experience it can be hard to stuff firmly enough to get good contact but I’m going to try. I’ll be doing the face, ears, hands and feet.
My only other thought was to felt those things separately and somehow attach, but I hate the idea of using glue and it would be difficult to stitch...

Thank you, this does help! I was thinking too that it would be important to shave down the fur so that I can poke through the backing easily. In my experience it can be hard to stuff firmly enough to get good contact but I’m going to try. I’ll be doing the face, ears, hands and feet.
My only other thought was to felt those things separately and somehow attach, but I hate the idea of using glue and it would be difficult to stitch...

Hello
I’m not a teddy bear maker but I make ape soft toys and am learning a lot from this community to refine my skills. For my next chimp baby I’d like to create a “skeleton” or armature to slip inside my pattern and wrap with wool, just to create some structure and weight. I don’t want to do that with wire (though might like to try at some point) just wool roving. Does anyone have any tips?
Also, I want to try needle felting the entire face and feet/fingers/toes this time (I usually sew those with wool felt from my pattern). Would you recommend I just shave down the faux fur and needle felt directly into the fabric (and wool stuffing?

Thanks!