Building a Bear
Building a bear is a thrilling experience for me to go through. It looks tedious and overbearing from the start to finish, but for me I love being able to form and create these cute little friends out of fabric. The sewing and the sculpting process can take a long time just to be precise on the placement of all the threads holding the little life together.
In this photoset I show a look in to how a bear is born, this is a mini bear so she was a lot more delicate to make then a regular sized teddy bear. This is Rosaline Bear, she was my first attempt at a little one and I learned a lot through her.
The first thing I do is find and source fabric, I was just dreaming of getting my hands on a blue sparse (as featured) and then found the rose spares and lost my mind! teddy mohair is very difficult to find and generally always has to be order from overseas (United Kingdom) or finding a collector to buy from. I have a small collection of mohair and faux fur which I use to make bears for children. If paired with saftey eyes, and saftey joints, faux fur bears are safe to wash on a delicate washer speed! Traditional vintage handmade bears are collectables, if you are a collector I would love to give you a certificate of handmade authenticity. To anyone not a collector I would love to get you one too if you want! Bear making is an old art and as these bears age, they will become an amazing collectable just like your grandmothers teddy bear from when she was a girl did! Rosaline Bear is made in vintage style, her eyes are saftey eyes though, I do have 1 size of glass eyes available at the moment (ft. Timothy Cavebear) and plan to be getting more soon for commissions, since vintage teddy bears are my favourite. She has sewn joints because I lost my mini cotterpins when I was making her :( But have more on the way! Yay! all bears will have cotterpin jonts unless for commission purposes or stated otherwise.
Once the mohair is all cut out (Careful not to damage the pile!) all pieces are sewn together, by yours truly's little hands, and stuffed ever so softly. they are then sew onto the body, I leave the head off till last so I can finish sculpting the it -felt the nose, and sew on the mouth and ears. Once all 5 appendages are on the body, I weight the bear with metal pelts, plastic pelts, or another stated substance so it can sit up properly. Finally the last seam is sewn and the bear is ready to get dressed or be decorated, perhaps some more teddy/fur sculpting. Then they are ready to take their gander at life.
Once I have completed a bear I worry if they will be safe on their travels, and hope that I made their seams strong enough to take time on. But none the less send them off to start their journey <3
