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DoodlebearsWhat the heck am I doing wrong I have made a bear from the same pattern as another bear that I made and the poor thing looks so odd. It's limbs are twisting to one side. I unstuffed the legs and restuffed them nice and firm, thinking this would help but it didn't. Any ideas anyone. I have made hundreds of bears over the years and never had this happen before. I'm at a loss and a little upset because I used really expensive mohair for this bear.
Hugs, Jane. 
Jane,
What a pain...but I've had that happen to me and I think what I did was I turned some pieces so that the grain of the backing mohair was running diagonal instead of up and down...does that make sense??????? I was trying to get the pile of the fur to go in the correct direction so I cut the pieces sort of on the diagonal and when I sewed them to the pieces cut running straight up and down everything went twisted...especially the head the muzzle twisted and it didn't matter what I did the stitched line from the nose to neck twisted to the side...sorry if this doesn't sound right but it's a bit hard to explain...gee reading back over it...it will be a miracle if you can understand it...I know what I meant and I can't :crackup: :crackup:
DoodlebearsHi Denise , yes I know exactley what you mean, but I haven't cut any of the pieces that way, they are all cut straight with the grain of the backing, so I don't get it at all. I made the same pattern up before and had no bother. Thanks for the tip though, I will make sure I don't cut on the diagonal.
Hugs, Jane. 
Jane,
What type of mohair was it? This problem does happen with some mohair especially the ones that have gone thru more processing than others to get the finish required.
So sorry Jane 
I have noticed sometimes the backing on some of the mohair stretches and does not want to go the
way you want it to.
Hugs
Carolyn
:hug:
Jane
I have just copied the following from my class notes
“The fabric backing can have lots of sizing and when it is on a roll the grain lines are sometimes not square on the fabric. The backing is often 'hard'. When you lay the pattern out on the piece of mohair it looks ok with the grain but the more the fabric is "played with" the more the sizing (or stiffness) in the fabric disappears. Before I trace out any bear I always stretch the piece of fur across each diagonal and then check the grain lines are square by folding it in half and half again to make sure all the corners match.”
When you make larger bears that are stuff firmly they can distort or turn if they are not cut on the straight grain of the fur.
I tend to worry about the fur direction on the head pieces only. For the rest of the body I like the fur direction to go down the pieces but I make sure the straight grain is the same on the opposite pattern pieces. I always make sure the back of my leg pieces go with the straight grain. I hope this makes sense as it is easily shown but not easily explained.
Canna Bear PaintIf you favor one side while stuffing, it can twist all the limbs in one direction. It is also possible to twist them during the jointing process. I had the unfortunate opportunity to discover the latter myself last year, and don't recall ever seeing anyone else mention this before. Anyway. I had a horrible time for a while last year as about 1 out of 10 bears that I jointed and stuffed would be twisted all in one direction, and it drove me CRAZY. I finally figured out, through process of elimination with every other conceivable thing that it could be, that it was the jointing process. This came about during an effort to make our bears even more tightly-jointed. I would tighten up the bolt as tight as it would go, back twist just a little, and then check the tightness of the joint by rotating the limb back and forth. I did this with all the limbs, checking their tightness and comparing each limb's degree of tightness to the others and making minor adjustments to the tension. Anyway, this is all normal jointing practice.
However. I learned that when I checked each limb by rotating it around, I was always rotating in the same direction. With the joint so tight, the fabric was being pinched and pulled between the discs, and getting slightly snagged under the disc *always in the same direction* that I first rotated the limb to check the tightness. I was getting so fed up with this happening that I finally did a test. I fully jointed and stuffed a bear completely, making the limbs extremely tight and purposely rotating all of them in the same direction when I tested their tension. The finished bear's limbs all pointed to the left. I immediately undid the bear, removed all the stuffing, removed the nuts and started fresh with new ones. This time, I made the joints every bit as tight as the last, but made sure not to rotate the limbs in the same direction each time I checked the tension AND as one last step went all the way around the disc (inside the limb and inside the body) and pulled outwards on the fabric in every direction to make sure there were no snags caught between the discs. The bear got stuffed and sewn up, and was perfect. Point proven! As to why only 1 in 10 of our bears were suffering from this, I think it's just attributed to differences in fabrics, with some being thinner / thicker backed or more / less flexible than others (that, and several of our bears would have been cotterpin-jointed, and would not have suffered this malady).
Would also mention that fabric does "learn" what direction it stretches in, so if there was a delay between the time that you stuffed the bear the first time and the second, it probably stretched irreparably in the one direction.
Good luck! Hope you figure out your bear's problem with less time and frustration than it took me 
Kelly
DoodlebearsThanks everyone. I have now given up on the bear. I have no time to play around with him as I am preparing for a show next month. Maybe I'll come back to him at a later date...or not. 
thanks again, hugs Jane.
