Creating teddy bears in cloth

After working with Magnolia's fluffy, nose tickling, alpaca last week, I decided to have a break from all things fluffy and work with the other end of the teddy bear fabric spectrum this week ...

As regular readers will know, I love Harris Tweed, a beautiful pure wool fabric, woven in a fabulous array of colours and patterns and perfect for making creative cloth bears. For my current project, I have opted for a herringbone pattern, contrasted with a simple stripe (but I'm afraid you will have to wait for the colours to be revealed when he is finished in the next day or so!)

Designing and making a cloth bear is a slightly different process from creating their furry cousins and I tend to pick and choose techniques used in both cloth doll and teddy bear making, to create my own range of 'Tweedy Teds'. 

For anyone considering making a cloth bear, here are a few thoughts that spring to mind:

Keeping an eye on proportion at the pattern design stage is very important, as tweed has a looser weave than the usual mohair backing, which means a body and limbs can easily looked overstuffed and far too wide, which in turn can make poor teddy look very uncomfortable and far too big for his own head!

Closing seams and inserting glass eyes is also a challenge because of course, without fur, there will be nowhere to hide any finishing stitches ... and as any professional teddy bear maker will tell you, finishing work must be as invisible as possible! Nose stitching can be tricky too, as it's not easy to stuff the nose area as firmly as you can in a mohair bear, without distorting the muzzle shape, so the tension of your embroidery thread becomes all-important to achieve a perfect finish. 

When it comes to stuffing a cloth bear, care has to be taken to not only ensure the weave of this wonderful fabric (if using tweed for example) isn't pierced with the pointy end of a stuffing tool (easily done!) but also to make sure teddy isn't lumpy, is suitably firm to hold and won't have misshapen paws ... and speaking of paws, I line those with wadding so they have a nice smooth finish when stuffed. I prefer to add a few plastic pellets in the centre of teddy's tummy cavity to weight, whether furry or not, so I contain those in a separate bag to ensure they don't pop through the weave when cuddled.

Jointing can be done with hardboard joints and cotterpins/nuts 'n bolts, but depending on the cloth used, size of your bear and it's purpose, (ie., will it be a gift for a child* (please see note below) or  is it intended as an adult collectible?) you may prefer to reinforce the fabric at the site of the joint and line the joints. Alternatively, why not try buttoned thread joints? They are often used in doll making and can look fab on teddy bears too, especially if you make your own buttons!

Lollipop, an award winning thread jointed cloth bear 

designed by Paula Carter

For anyone wondering if making a cloth bear is easier than making a mohair bear, the answer I would give is a resounding 'no'.  In fact creating teddy bears from fur-free cloth is a great way of laying bare any teddy bear artist's true bear-making talents! That said, it is great fun to choose fabrics which reflect your own themes and ideas and have the freedom to create truly unique and original teddy bears! 

:-)

*NB: if creating cloth or fur teddy bears for children to play with, please do not use glass eyes or any parts which could be a choke hazard. Use plastic safety joints rather than hardboard/cotterpin joints to attach limbs. If preferred, you could stitch head and limbs to body with extra strong thread, rather than jointing. Don't include plastic pellets in the tummy cavity and most importantly, check very carefully that all pins have been removed from teddy before he is given to the child to play with.

Teddy bear making, the process

When I recall my days of making and selling a minimum of three bears each and every week, I realise I must have been driven to work many more hours in my single parent days! These days I prefer to work at a more gentle pace, particularly as my poor hands don't cope so well with long hours any more ... bear making takes its toll on finger joints over time, unfortunately.  Anyway, we should all make a little extra time to smell the roses now and again ... it's good for the soul!

Even a fairly straightforward classic teddy bear takes about twelve solid hours to create - from drawing and cutting out the pattern, trimming the mohair edges by hand to give a professional finish, then pinning the pieces together ready for sewing, setting in paws, stuffing, making the head, assembling, jointing and finishing.  Yes, making a traditional teddy is a very involved process.

So I'd share my latest bear's work-in-progress photos to show the process. The picture above shows a stuffed head with muzzle closely trimmed on top.

I usually pin the ears roughly in place at this point and use a couple of black pins to give me an idea of where to place the eyes. Then I start to scissor sculpt the rest of the muzzle.

I always work on the head first and when I'm happy with the muzzle, move on to nose embroidery.

Once the nose and mouth are sewn, I think the bear really starts to take on his personality!

But as you can see, it's only when the eyes (vintage boot buttons in this case) are inserted, he comes to life ...

When both eyes are in place and he can look straight at me, my teddy bear is ready to be assembled.

After I have jointed the head to the body, I half stuff his limbs and measure where I want to fix them.

When making a traditional bear, the traditional method of jointing limbs and head is to use two hardboard discs, one inside the body cavity and the other in the limb, then make a crown joint using a cotter pin and washers to secure.

When teddy has been assembled, it's time to stuff him, add his growler and close all seams by hand.

Lastly, there are claws to be stitched and ears to be sewn on; again by hand.

To finish teddy, I like to give him a thorough brush with a teasel brush to remove any fur trapped in the seams and generally spruce him up before deciding how to accessorize.  As this is a traditional teddy, I opted for a smart satin bow.

Before teddy can be offered for adoption, I like him to have studio photographs taken for my website as it's important to represent the colour of his mohair as accurately as possible and the Iphone pics snapped in my workshop aren't really suitable ... and of course, a beautiful photograph taken on a decent camera is hopefully worth a thousand words!

So that's the tale of how one of my traditional teddy bears is made.  I may not make quite as many teddies as I once did, but I guarantee each bear I do create is made with as much love and attention to detail as ever his predecessors were.  They are, as always, special teddy bears for special people.

Oh and if you were wondering - yes!  The bear in this post is now available for adoption from my website. His name is 'Elliot'!

Thank you so much for your kind interest :-)

www.allbearbypaula.com

Update: Elliot has been adopted.

A happy, smiley tutorial!

A while ago I promised to put together a step-by-step tutorial to show how I create an inset open mouth, so here goes!

First I draw around the pattern piece I've designed for my bear's mouth.  I've chosen to use pink Ultra Suede for this mouth.

Then I start to mark my seam allowance ... I've used black pen so you can see clearly.

This is my finished seam line, with the four corners of the mouth marked, so I can clearly see where to line it up with the chin seam (top and bottom) and at the widest point of the mouth opening (left and right).

I cut out my head pieces.  This bear will be made from turquoise mohair with a white alpaca muzzle.

Before I go any further, I need to sew the muzzle to the head and stitch the ears together.

This is how the head looks before the head gusset is sewn in.

Now it's time to iron a piece of interfacing onto the back of the Ultra Suede mouth piece to strengthen it.

Next, I trim the excess interfacing away from the mouth piece.  You can still see the sewing markings through the interfacing.

Using a sharp pencil, I then draw where I want my bear's mouth edging to be.  This needs to be deeper than the seam allowance.

Using a black fabric marker pen, I very carefully colour round the edge of the mouth piece, taking care not to mark beyond the line I drew before.

While I wait for the mouth piece to dry thoroughly, I pin in the head gusset and baste the nose into place.

Then I colour the black area a second time and leave it to dry again.

While the mouth is drying, I machine sew the head gusset in place and remove the pins.

The next step is to pin the mouth piece into the muzzle opening, so that the sewing line is now visible and the thick black edge is inside the bear's head.  Using long pins with coloured heads, I line up the markers I have drawn at the four corners of the mouth -  top and bottom chin seam and sides at the widest part of the bear's smile.

Then I add a few more pins to make sure the mouth stays put!  The next step is to baste the mouth piece into place (I oversew) and remove the pins.

You can see the baste stitches in this pic.  Now I'm going to machine sew my mouth piece, the same way I would sew in a footpad.

I add a few additional back stitches along the sides of the mouth of the seam by hand to reinforce the mouth, as this will be the weakest point when the bear is stuffed.

This is how my laughing bear looks at this point, with his head turned fur side out.

The next step is to stuff the head firmly, paying carefully attention to the nose and chin area.  This is trickier than stuffing a classic bear head, so patience is required!  In the pic above, I've stuffed the head and am running an extra strong thread across the bridge of the nose to create indentations for eye placement.

Using coloured pins, it's time now to pin on bear's ears and decide where to place the eyes.

I complete the head by trimming the muzzle, embroidering the nose and inserting eyes (for this particular bear, lashes too)  Then I attach the head to the body and finish by assembling and stuffing in the usual way.

 And as if by magic, my happy, smiley bear comes to life!

Ever wondered ... ?

Ever wondered how to embroider a stripey nose for your bear?

I make my striped noses very simply.  No templates, no glueing, no measuring.  Just plain 'ol stitching and careful tensioning!

I always start in the centre and work out to the side ... then back to the centre and out to the other side.  My noses require two layers of stitching.  To make a stripey nose I simply use two separate coloured threads and two sewing needles and stitch one, then the other.

Alternatively, multi-coloured embroidery thread gives a great effect too!

This is a fun, simple way to give your bears even greater personality - go on, give it a go, you know you want to!

Making a Teddy Bear

Have you ever wondered how a teddy bear is made?  Each artist bear maker develops their their own methods through trial and tribulations, so a few months ago, I decided to create a bear in 'real time' and photograph his progress, step by step to show you how I create my bears. 

This is the story of how 22" Caspian was created.

He was pre-sewn yesterday.

This morning: head stuffed, ears and eyes positioned and pinned, nose area trimmed, half of muzzle trimmed. Now it's time for lunch! 

Nose stitched.

 

Mouth stitched and left half of muzzle finely trimmed.

Remainder of muzzle finely trimmed.

Eyes next ... but first it's time for a coffee break!

 Eyes inserted but eye area needs a trim so he can see where he's going!

That's better ... eye sockets trimmed to show off his baby blues.

 A little shading to make the eyes really 'pop'.

A little more muzzle trimming and hey presto, one teddy bear head ready for its body!

It's 4pm, so there's still time to joint his head to his body and perhaps stuff the arms and legs before I have to cook dinner. 

 

 Now he has a body ...

... and a pile of half stuffed limbs!

 Measuring where the arms should be placed.

 Arms attached. He's starting to look more like a proper bear now!

 Arms and legs attached.

 Unstuffed - this bear needs a substantial meal!

 Get stuffed bear!

 Well, I think that's my lot for today. It's time to cook the evening meal before my family comes home from work and it's too dark to take any more photos.

Everything is attached and bear's tummy is full, he even has a growler. His arms and legs will have to wait until the morning for final stuffing (they are only half stuffed at the moment) and I think I'll fiddle with the ears tomorrow too because I'm not sure about their position at the moment. So, if all goes well, he'll have his ears sewn on, stitched claws and a waxed nose by tomorrow afternoon.

A good day's work so far ... this has been fun!

 

 Day 2 and here we go again!

First, bear needs to have his back seam closed. Ladder stitching does the job beautifully.

 

 See, now he has an invisible back seam!

 Bottoms up bear, it's time to stuff the top half of your legs ...

 Sitting pretty! Legs stuffed, arms next ..

 One arm stuffed, the other one still to finish ... and those ears!

 Arms finished but his ears are really bugging me now!

 Not quite the look I was aiming for ...

 Howsabout placing them slightly lower ...

 ... like this? Nah, too cutsie for this ol' growler!

 Isn't this where they were to start with?! Well, maybe not quite ... they do suit him better a little higher though.

Right, time to make the final decision and sew those ears on.

 That's better! A tiny bit more trimming into the top of the muzzle area and with a little gentle sprucing up he's almost finished ...

 Come on bear, give us a twirl!

Lovely profile ...

Yes, this side is lovely too!

 

Hey, you're a handsome chap ... but ooops, I haven't sewn your claws on yet! Better do that next - and get that nose waxed.

We're almost there ...

Back later - yes, it's teabreak time! I'm going to put the kettle on now!

 

 Now to wax his nose.  Waiting patiently while the wax melts ...

 First coat of beeswax ... yuk, snotty!

Initial buffing for first coat ... looks okay, but hopefully will be even better after the second coat.

Second snotty! Poor ol' bear! Atishoo!

But all that ucky snottyness was worth the effort, now bear has a smart shiny nose and yes, that's him, sat by my computer screen admiring his work in progress photographs as I type!

We're not quite finished though, I still have his claws to stitch, but Fo's due here for her cup of tea soon, so I may have to do that a little later.

Finally I'll have to decide whether to trim him, or leave him bare ... hmmmn .... what do you think?

And then tomorrow he can have his posh pics taken on my posh Canon camera ...

 

Almost teatime on Day 2 and bear's claws are now underway!

He's a classic bear, so I've given him simple stitched claws ... very neat!

  Is it time for my trim yet Mum? Look all my claws are stitched now ...


A ribbon bow? Really? Are you sure about this? Yes bear, I am sure. It suits your baby blue eyes!

And finally, after many practise shots, a lovely professional photograph of my finished bear.  All in all, he took about three days to finish. 

I am delighted to tell you that since making him, Caspian quickly found a lovely new home in America, has been featured in the US 'Teddy Bear Review' magazine and was also a finalist in the 2010 Australian 'People's Choice' Awards!