Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Just to let you all know.... you're stars.
Bear Basic's curved needles, you're tips and I've just completed THE BEST ladder stitch ever. I'm so pleased, had to share.
Hope it wasn't just a fluke 

Richard
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Wow! These are brilliant. I think I'm in love with Maude.

Richard
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Hey Everyone

I'm off at the moment with the questions aren't I? 

So, at the moment I'm working on a big polar bear, where the neck edge is a simply gather stitch on both the head and the body... simply enough. However, now that I've come to joint I've noticed I can't get the joint close together to connect because the gathers on both the neck and body are keeping it pushed apart. This means you can get you hand right in the middle of the neck/head which is obviously not what I was going for.
Does anyone have any help? How can I get around this? How can I get the joint tighter? How does everyone else avoid this?

Thanks.
Richard
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Oh I love your hedgehogs Sue. I saw you at Stratford with the little ones which you just cup in your hand... so adorable! I would've said Hi if I'd known you were on here.

Richard
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Fantastic. Thank you everyone.
Think I can see where I need to improve now and I think I was write in that part of it is overstuffing!
Bring on the next limb.
I have to admit though, have checked the legs I've done and part of it was my OCD kicking in as they're not bad. I redid 1 (out of 4) but other than that I'm quite happy... must stop stressing 
By the way, have ordered my curved needles from Bear Basics hehe.

Richard
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Hey

I think I've posted about this before but I'm now desperate.
I simply cannot get ladder stitch. It's the only thing about bear making that makes me want to cry !!

I'm taking it so slow, taking small stitches, pulling every two stitches to ensure its tight, squeezing the fabric together but once I'm finished tied off and thinking I'm in the clear I look in the middle and 3-4 stitches showing which have come loose and are showing stuffing etc.

What am I doing wrong? Could I be over stuffing? But if that's the case how do you get a hard stuff without ruining the chance of ladder stitch?
Once done it's actually not bad, quite smooth now, can't be felt that much but obviously stitching which isn't actually holding a bear together is no good

Any help would be greatly gratefully appreciated.... pretty please.
If any one can provide a photograph of them doing ladder stitch I would be over the moon.

How do any other new bear makers find ladder stitch?
For the more experienced, how long did it take you until you got the hang of ladder stitch?

Thanks.
Richard
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No, thank you Paula.
I just fell in love with him but honestly, he was even better in the fur. I can't stop looking at him and hugging him... I think Blizzard is starting to get jealous 
I was shaking with excitement when I picked him up and glad my happiness showed hehe! Glad you had a really good day, I loved the fair.
Gustav is also now my inspiration. I am determined to make a bear of that quality one day 

Richard
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Oh thank you for the photos. This really was a great event and I went round twice/three times!
Some amazing bears, and some amazing artists. The raffle and competition were a great treat too and I met some great friends, old and new.
Thanks so much to Samantha and her family and Dawn can't wait to see the write up in TBT; you're big fella was lovely, glad I got to give him a hug. And thanks again to Paula for Gustav - for those who read Paula's blog I'm the guy who queued from 10-10.30 and raced through the door to grab him! Best thing I've ever bought, ever!

Kim, how did Cat in the Hat do in the Awards? Saw the fish after speaking you and LOVED it. One Lucky collector there.

Some really great work and there's a million more artists on my list of 'to buy'.
From a beginner artists perspective it was also very inspirational and coming away I think I'm going to give the BBAA under 18 months award a go... why not eh?

So thanks to everyone. Can't wait to be back next year.

Richard
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Have just got home from this event and want to say a thank you to Samantha for organising it and a Hello again to everyone I got to meet and speak too. Was a lovely day and a fantastic event and venue. So many amazing bears I can't even begin to tell you. A great raffle, artist competition and free prize give away too. I managed to bring home an armful called Gustav, from Paula (AllBear) and am still grinning from ear to ear; can't put him down.
Hope everyone else had a good day too?

Richard
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Oh he's marvellous. I love him. Look at the fur, he's totally huggable! I hope you'll feature yourself in TBT for him 
Can't wait to meet him tomorrow. Only 18 hours to go 

Richard
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I do love them all. Hobo is beautiful but Lonesome is completely handsome... love him.
Have to admit though I'm taken with Gustav(might have sneaked a peek at your website).... might have to queue extra early now 

Richard
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Thanks everyone  :lol:, not so frustrated anymore so will give it another whirl.

Richard
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I hadn't reduced the seam allowance, I used the standard but have cut this back since the the hopes this would help, but it hasn't unfortunately. I will try and post a picture later but I'm not sure it will help as you can't actually see the bumps, you can just feel them along a small section of the seam (imagine mmm).

Thanks.
Richard
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Hey Everyone

Help! I'm working on another realistic polar and am convinced this bear is cursed (nothing is going right).

Anyway, have been working on stuffing the head today. It's so neatly sewn, in fact the best I've done, the the nose is well aligned however on stuffing, (at curved points in particular) the head seems to be developing bumps long the seam line, that I just can't get rid of. I was hoping this would be due to lack of stuffing, but the more I stuff the more obvious these bumps are becoming.

Can anyone help? What has caused this? Can I fix it?

Thanks

Richard
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I'll be there as a visitor also. I have one particular artist in mind and will be there early to race for a bear hehe. I think I will also need some supplies.... damn than making you pass Bear Basics on the way through the door 
I really am looking forward to it.

Richard
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Hi Everyone

So, I've had a long long long long day playing about with footpads as I want something special for the polar bear I'm working on.
In fairness its been a lot of fun to experiment and I can't believe it's 9 O'clock

So I've finally got the footpad I'm looking for. It's made from black and white wool felt. With the black felt creating a trapunto pad, which has been stuffed and then the toe section stitched over with three claws.

This looked great but I really wanted to see if I could then get these hardened off and shiney, so as to resemble a real bears paw.

PVA and water tried and failed, nail varnish simply soaked in and finally I waxed. Very messy but it works! Applied, scraped, coloured, buffed with newspaper. The only problem is after all that colour and buffing the white in the back is no longer white!!

Can anyone help here? Does anyone have any good way I can avoid getting the white dirty or even better a way I can now turn the white back white?
Or, if anyone is willing to share (I don't want to steal trade secrets), does anyone have a more hassle free or cleaner way of getting the pads hard and shiny?
To be honest, any help or criticism is welcome.

Thanks.

Richard
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P.S. I've attached a photo of the pad so you can see what I mean, its a bit too shiny in the photo because I've just applied clear varnish over the wax to see what happens and how this will turn out, obviously this is still wet at the minute.

Well i absolutely love him. I think he's fantastic. Looks so huggable. He almost has that loveable grandad feel to him, if you get what I mean?
Great Work. I must take that course myself sometime.

Richard
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Beautiful. Love them all. Especially partial to the guy up top though, slightly reminiscent of Kipling. Think its the face shape, it's very fetching.

Richard
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Oh she's a real grizzly, I love her. That fabric is absolutely gorgeous too. Love the big shape of those hand pads too, they work wonderfully. Great work.

Richard
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Hi Everyone

So this is Alfie. I found him locked in an old suitcase, I stitched up his old wounds where he'd been loved to thread bare and popped him on here to show you.

NOT REALLY. This Alfie who, believe it or not, I just finished making, brand new, today.

In all honesty, had a bit of problem with the back seam and when I'd finished it I found a bit of a bald patch eek! But this turned into one of those serrendipitous moment where, to save him, I stitched some vintage stitches, carried this theme though, with some pencil detail to his paws and some air brush details to his face and ears and actually... I'm over the moon with the results.

He's made from an old pattern of mine and this does show (a little more than I would have hoped) but he was ordered from a friend who wanted a bear just like Henry (the old pattern) so results there I suppose? The fabric is a lovely yellow and have to say was wonderful to work with (if only I could remember where I bought it from). He's filled with steel shot in his tummy and firmly stuffed throughout. His nose is hand stitched (first time round - Yay!) and he has eye white and claw detail.

The only thing I would really change is to make his feet a little bigger but overall I'm thrilled. I altered the body from my last and much prefer this shape (smaller tum and bit of a bum), and I'm improving everytime, which is all I can really ask.

(for those of you who remember, Aflie is the finished bear where I cut on the bias, so he turned out pretty well all things considered  )

Anyway, hope he steals your heart.

Richard
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Oh she's absolutely sublime. Simply beautiful. She's my favourite bunny so far! Superb work, kind of jealous she's taken.

Richard
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Sewwhatandstuffit also had it when I was recently at a local bear fair but unless their website is up yet you'll have to e-mail them to check stock and pricing.

Richard
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Those are my initials yes and thank you, I was very chuffed when the name came to me. It's.... ideal.

Wow, very clever word play from yourself though I must say. I absolutely love it. I'm a huge vocab geek and love reading and playing with words. Clever idea with maps and dictionaries to name bears too.

Richard
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Oh wow. He's marvellous. And I knew who he was straight away before even reading! Please tell me he'll be at Stratford?

Richard
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The stitch does just seem (no pun intended) to work so much easier when you do it the correct way. I am so relieved as it's something I've tended to struggle with.

And the girl in the avatar is my friend Sarah. Known her for years and we get on like a house on fire. I'm slowly trying to lure her in to bears :P

Richard
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