A bear for my mom

Over the last few days I have been working on my moms birthday present. I of course bought the normal, a book, this one on artistic outdoor camping, and a puzzle book of cross sums, also known as kakuro. But you know how it is, where is the personal touch? So I decided to give her one of my miniature teddy bears. The one in the picture to the right is the first one I ever made (now living in England), isn't he pretty! In my days of craftiness I have finished 6 bears (and 2 more in various stages of finish), each one an individual, and one with wings (now that was a lot of stitching). I'd put up a picture of the one I sent my mom in all his finery, but often in the frenzy of finishing a project and getting it wrapped I totally forget! Sigh.

Now the truth is the bear I gave my mom has always in my mind been meant for her (the tan one with the vest on in the picture below), but I wanted him to have clothes, in specific a smoking jacket. Also one leg ended up a tad shorter than the other in the making process so I always thought that he should have a walking stick. So here I am, my mom's birthday quickly approaching, no wood for a stick (I didn't want to use pine) and no real idea if I can even make decent miniature clothing. But somehow it all came about. One walk in the cemetery and I had a pretty little twig to carve. And a trip to the fabric store and one dollar out of pocket got me a beautiful pale brocade. Surprisingly the carving and polishing of the walking stick went quite quick (well it was only 2 1/2"). And his little smoking jacket (I used some black synthetic suede I got from a friend a while back for the trim) came together over an afternoon and the next morning. I was able to sew a lot of the jacket on the machine, and went to hand sewing to attach the sleeves and the trim. I actually finished in plenty of time. (I really wish I'd remembered to take a picture.)

I hope you like my teddy bears. I think they're cute and they're fun to make.