Charlie bear and it's variations

Well, I've been bad and I've been away for a while.  I made the mistake of trying to lower my pain killer dose and was poorly for a bit, had some dental issues (might put a post up about it later as some might find it useful!), had the best birthday weekend ever with my best mate, and generally had a bit of a mixed time of it.  I've not done a huge amount of crafting the last month or so, but I am back!

As you may remember from a previous post, I got into bear making, in a big way, and got friendly with lovely Becky who runs Amazing Craft.  She contacted me a little while ago asking if I'd be happy to test a new pattern that she's made, so of course being a tester and really rather enjoying bear making, I happily said yes.

The new bear is Charlie.  He's designed for a beginner, so doesn't have the paw pads that you see in the other bears.  And considering that those parts are the challenging ones, it's good that they're omitted in a beginners pattern.  The pattern can be used for traditional mohair, or another fabric that can be used as a memory bear (more on that later).  The pattern is extremely well written (better than the previous ones I've used), and goes into detail about how to do the nose (which I always struggle with) and how to do the joints, eyes, and head, which some people find tricky.  I find this new style of instructions to be way better than the previous ones, and I learnt a lot from using this one.

First of all, I did a traditional version in some mohair that I had spare from an old bear.  I used the traditional glass eyes and wooden cotter pin joints.  The result is beautiful.  I'm not a huge fan of the feet without the pads, but for a beginners pattern, it's ideal.  Otherwise, he's a very handsome bear.

First Charlie bear in mohair

Next, I decided to give a memory bear a go.  My best mate and I have been to Vegas a couple of times, and we're both fans of going to gun ranges.  Yeah I know, sewing and guns don't seem like likely hobbies that crossover, but shooting is a whole lot of fun!  The range that we go to gives you a big t-shirt and you shoot at it.  I have a couple now and wasn't really sure what to do with them.  I decided that a memory bear might be in order.  As the t-shirt has quite a lot of bullet holes in it, it's obviously not ideal for stuffing, so I got some digital camo fabric from eBay, and after cutting out all the pattern pieces, I used a double sided bonding web to attach the t-shirt fabric to the digital camo.

Pattern pieces placed on top of the digital camo

It obviously meant that I was sewing through 4 layers of fabric each time, and 8 layers on the ears/head, and it ruined my fingers just a tiny bit, but he came out lovely and is now sat in my lounge.  A nice little use for a t-shirt that I had sentimental attachment to, but was sat in a cupboard.

Remington bear (named for obvious reasons) 

Now, the next one, I am really really proud of!  A friend of mine is in the RAF and is being deployed later in the year.  He has a new baby daughter that he will be leaving at home, and this is the first time of being deployed since she's arrived.  So I suggested that I could take one of his t-shirts, and make a bear from it, so she has something that smells of her dad to cuddle while he's away.  I thought that seeing as he's a manly man, he'd say it was a daft idea, but he happily handed over a t-shirt.

Because there is a big seam down the middle of the bear, I decided to make the bear just in the sand colour, but make a miniature t-shirt with the small logo on the back, so it looks like the big logo on the full sized t-shirt.  I also decided to put paw pads into the feet, just because I really like them.  And making a pattern for it was really quite easy after working out the length of the foot seam.  I used plastic safety joints (available on the Amazing Craft site) as well as the safety eyes.  I obviously wanted to make sure they were baby safe, but also means that they're washable.  The instructions from Becky are really great on explaining how to do these.

Now, because I'm seriously fricking proud of this one, I'm going to go bonkers on pictures.  I went maximum autism and on the t-shirt, I used the neckband from the t-shirt as a miniature neckband on the bear t-shirt, and even put in the label.  I'm really quite proud of it, and hope that it gives my friends little girl something comforting to cuddle while he's away until he comes home safely.

The finished 'Tiny Rick'
(Rick and Morty fans have permission to chuckle now)

 So I think you can agree that the one pattern can completely change depending on the fabric used, and some minor tweaks.  Becky is currently doing an offer where people that purchase the physical copy of the pattern  in August (not the PDF version, which is also available), she will put a set of 30mm safety joints in and a pair of 8mm safety eyes for free.  So get on it and get making!  I already have an order from my best mates mum for me to do her a bear from one of his old t-shirts, so I'll definitely be doing more!

 I still have the pattern for the t-shirt, so I think I might make a pdf version and some brief instructions and send them to Becky for her to put on offer on her site, if not, I'll put it up here.