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Winneybears and FriendsNeed to know...how hard do you stuff these tiney bears ?
Any particular brand of stuffing ?
I read to use a firm cotton type stuffing.I have some " gray slub cotton " the kind that is scraps from upholstry of furniture, its gray with slubs in it which is little bits of other ground up fibers...woud that work well ?
Do you add any weight to these tiny bears..what kind do you use ? In a muslin bag ?....Winney
Bine-TeddiesI prefer kapok on really small ones and wool on slightly larger ones. I stuff pretty hard, almost like with sewn bears, especially the head. My Halloween roly poly has bb's in his body, without a pouch.
Winneybears and FriendsI don't know where I can get Kapok here in the USA but I live in Oregon ( the great northwest) where there are tons of sheep and llamas on farms...
I should think that wool would be quite springy...is it?
Lots of spinning goes on here and sales of wooly fibers...I once had a bag full that a sheep raising a friend gave to me......it was still " in the grease" soiled.. I carded then spun some using her spinning wheel ...that was fun.
Then it has to be washed...I have info. on how to do that and dying it too..but for stuffing for these bears that would be a lot of work....but fun .
I have some " uncoated" polyester...it packs dowm more firmly than the regular polyfill and of course there is that real springy polyfill, I only use that to stuff mainly for unjointed soft stuffed critters..........Winney
Bine-TeddiesWinney, I bought carded, clean wool meant for stuffing toys. I find it isn't springy at all, but compacts nicely. I stuff with forceps and press hard, doing small pieces of wool at a time. Guess there are all kinds of wool from different breeds, no idea where mine is from. I have used it for needle felting too.
Posts: 8,574Winney you can get Kapok from e-bay, also i googeled it and found a monastery that sold it. I love kapok for my miniatures. But I didn't use it for the crochet guys, I used fiberfill- also I know you can get colored fiber fill at Deb's store
here's the link: http://tedsfromthreads.com/frames.htm
Deb has punch thread and specialty fibers as well as colored poly stuffing
dilu
Posts: 1,277I just use plain old polyfil from Walmart. I stuff them pretty hard otherwise they don't really take the shape they're supposed to have, in my experience anyway.
Winneybears and FriendsThanks gals....Yes...I am going to order some of the Magic thread and colored fiberfill Dilu , love to see those tiny fuzzy bears.
My main question on how hard do you stuff these chrochet and knit bears... I thought if you stuff them hard...then the stitches will stretch out just like knit backed synthetics...???? then the filling will show ??? I have not stuffed any yet.....Winney
Posts: 1,277Yes, they will stretch. Some will stretch more than others depending on the thread or yarn. Last night I squeezed a bear I had completed a while back. I was surprised that it wasn't as hard as I thought it was. Maype because it's polyfil because I know I stuff them as much as they will hold! I like to stuff mine this way because I have noticed that when I have finished the crocheting part, the pieces don't usually look the right size, especially the body. The length of the body always looks too short. When I stuff it, it does stretch, and becomes longer the way I want it. However, it doesn't stretch so much that it looks bad or is too gappy. The tops of their feet are my trouble areas as far as gapping. I have yet to find a solution to that.
Anyway, once you start stuffing your pieces, I'm pretty sure you will just "know" when to stop.
P.S. If you keep posting crochet subjects, we won't need a special forum for crocheted critters; we'll just take over the mini forum! 
Winneybears and FriendsI thought about inserting card or something in the soles to keep them flat...
and after ataching the limbs to do some sculpting to pull in the limbs to the body...this would NOT interfere with the limbs...this would make the body suck in on the sides to maintain its original shape...
Yup...crochet , fiber bears could have their own forum...??? Whatever works for the advisers can re arrange if they want....LOL....Winney
Posts: 1,277That's a good idea for the feet. 
I just might try that sometime!
Bine-TeddiesSandi, I just got reminded of a tip on how to avoid holes in decreases like on the top of the feet. Don't crochet two stitches together, instead just omit one and pull tight. It happens to me sometimes that I omit a stitch and I can't see where so have to rip out row by row and count stitches. So this should work pretty well. I'll try that on my next bear, just wanted to let you know first.
Posts: 8,574You have Debs web site but might also want Berta's
http://www.threadteds.com/index_EN.htm
she has things available too- she is fast considering it is coming from Norway....she has a great site too
dilu
