Thursday, November 8, 2007

First Machine sewn bear!



Ok, the little guy is not actually done (his body cavity is still open and I might redo his arms as I don't like them), but I am soo excited because this is my first finished machine sewn bear. I have actually worked backwards from a lot of bear makers. I started out making micro mini bears, ones that were an inch tall from head to toe. Then I started making bears that were a little larger because I liked the idea of being able to use dollhouse size props with them. So all I have ever done is handstitch my bears, with super teeny tiny stitches (my great grandma taught me to handsew and embroider when I was a girl), but as the bears get bigger, it has taken longer and longer to sew them. Then I put so much time into them that I have a harder time letting them go. So I decided that I was going to start machine sewing larger bears. Of course the materials and techniques for sewing larger bears are quite a bit different from miniature bears. I also found that using larger versions of my mini bear patterns just didn't turn out that great. I actually threw a few heads out before I came up with a pattern that worked. And TA-DA! here is the result. He doesn't have a name yet, and I haven't figured out what his props will be, in fact this bear might even be a girl, not a boy. I just haven't figured it out yet. But he's done and the big plus is that he can even stand on his own-yay! So now I have to decide if I want to just stuff his body with fiberfill or weigh him with some steel shot. ANY IDEAS?

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