Wiliam the BIG 33" bear

This is William. He likes cuddles and watching Netflix. He's also very sensitive about his weight, but I've told him that all the best people are fat too!

William is our latest kit bear, would you believe it!? I don't imagine we'll have too many people rushing to make this big bear up themselves, but if you do decide to give it a go - it's definitely a rewarding crafting experience.

The fur we have made him out of is our new 'Chupacabra' super dense faux fur. It's very long, very thick and very strangely coloured. Looking at these photos you wouldn't be wrong in assuming he has an almost inky-blue tinge to his fur. But in actual fact - he's more of a charcoal/slate grey with a warm hue to the tips. The blue colour does seem to magically appear when this fur is taken outside though. I don't really understand why... I thought maybe it was just my camera picking up on particular lightwaves - but even to the naked eye that blue tone is present in daylight rather then indoor light.

So, if this is intriguing you too, you can always grab a piece of this fur and see what magical things you can make from it!??

Toothpaste bear kit

This fluffy cherub is our newest kit offering - made using our newly imported 'Toothpaste' multi-tonal blue faux fur and a contrasting belly and cheeks made from our white/silver sparkle faux fur.

This sweet bear is great if you're looking for a little more of a challenge after making standard teddies for a while. The blue/white combo is a lovely striking contrast and at 15-16" tall, this is a great medium-sized bear, so not too fiddly :)

Orchid Kiss kit - using our FREE pattern

This sweet bear is 'Orchid Kiss', made using our new faux fur of the same name. We used our 'FREE PATTERN' to make this girl, and she turned out beautifully! I can't wait to see all of the Orchid Kiss bears that you guys come up with - kits for her are available here!

Because the instructions included with the FREE pattern are quite basic, we have put together a document with additional details and images to help you get those cute chubby cheeks, sweet embroidered nose and pulled 3D toes.

Below are some of the instructional images. The first photo shows the start of the cheek-trimming process. We cut the fur down the chin seam and from the eye-placement position around the curve of the face and down to meet again at the base of the chin. Once we've roughly marked out the cheeks in this way, we then start removing the ends of the fur millimeter by millimeter. On tipped fur like this Orchid Kiss fabric, a great starting point is actually just removing the darker tip colour, then trimming back further from there.

After a while you'll end up with two roughly shaped cheeks like this. They certainly don't need to be perfect at this stage though.

Once we have the cheeks trimmed we then insert the eyes. The instructions on the pattern will cover this as well, but it's simply a matter of anchoring your thread to one of the eye sockets, sending your needle through the muzzle over to the other eye socket and then back again a few times (making sure to grab enough fabric with each turn that your thread doesn't just pull back into the head). Once you have the indents for the eyes, cut a SINGLE thread in the backing of the fur in the eye-socket to create a hole just large enough for the wire loop at the back of the eye, and then insert one eye pulling tightly. Repeat for the other eye finally anchoring off the thread at the base of the head or chin.

Then it''ll be nose embroidery time. If you feel more comfortable using a nose template and embroidering over it, simply draw the approx nose shape and size you want onto a scrap piece of black felt or fabric and tack it in place - then embroider your nose stitches over the top of it like we have below. I prefer NOT to use a template as I feel it gets in my way, so I embroider directly onto the face. The first layer of stitches act as my foundation. I pull them tightly and evenly and also use them to roughly mark out how large I want the nose to be. Then it's just a matter of sewing over and over with neat, evenly tensioned stitches until you can no longer see the purple of the fabric poking through!

The photo above shows the start of the mouth. Bring a length of nose thread straight down from the centre of the nose following the chin seam. Push the needle into this spot, then out again off to the side of the seam to where you want the 'mouth' to be. Thread the needle back under the original chin-stitch, and then off to the other side of the mouth. If you pull reasonably tightly you'll end up with a cute little mouth indent and rounded chin.

Then all that is left is to sew on the ears and you'll have one sweet little purple bear looking back at you!

We also talk about sculpting cute 3D toes with the additional instructions included with the Orchid Kiss kit, and the edited pattern images below show what we are referring to. 

We've also marked out the approx joint positions too as I know a lot of new bear-makers can be a bit unsure about where to place the limbs. There's really no hard and fast rule with joint placement (besides the fact that the legs go lower then the arms! lol), but this guide will help. I never pre-mark joint hole positions as a lot can change during sewing. I wait until I have the body and limbs sewn and turned right side out, I place the joints inside the limbs, then I lay them over the body and eye-ball the placement that looks right to me. Then I cut the joint holes and assemble. :) 

If you'd like to grab one of these kits you'll find them on our website and in our etsy store. The first kits will include the matching lavender satin ribbon as well, but only while stock lasts :)

Suki-Lou

This big cutie wanted to pop on over and say hi. This is 'Suki-Lou', a bit of an experimental idea of mine to push the boundaries of teddy proportions. We have made big-headed bears before, but never one with a head THIS big!!

To give you an idea of just how out of balance she is, the head would usually be seen on a bear around 23-24" tall and the body would normally be that of a 14" bear. Combined we ended up with an 18" cutie, who is JUST able to sit unassisted thanks to a belly full of bead shot!

Suki-Lou is now adopted, but if you're interested in a quirky bear like this for yourself, you're most welcome to check out our Custom Order page for our order process :)

Theodore and Martha

Meet Theodore and Martha - a lovely new custom ordered set we completed at the end of last week. These two are both made from long pile alpaca in a factory-dyed dark chocolate and a hand-dyed pale harvest gold (the colour looks a bit washed out in these photos though).

Both bears are being packed for their journey as I type.