The bear making  has been running a bit slow with the holidays and all that entails, but I was able to make some progress yesterday. I stitched together the pieces of Winter, the bear I’m working on. But, because it is such a dense plush, before sewing it together I first had to trim the long fluffy fur from all the seam allowances on each piece …by hand, with little scissors. I was parked in front of the TV with the bear and my little box of tools so I decided  that I would also  baste most of the pieces together to make it easier to machine sew and not have to have pins sticking out everywhere. It took me forever to trim the seams and baste but it was also very relaxing. I had a cup of tea next to me, my feet up on the footstool…..very nice.
Making Adjustments
The next day was not so easy.  I had to make a lot of adjustments. I always do when I design a new pattern. I have a vision and an idea when I make a pattern, taking into consideration the material I’m working with, however I always know I’ll be making changes along the way. That’s what makes this interesting, although sometimes frustrating, when things don’t turn out the way I think they should at first and I have to figure out what will work. I don’t ever worry, because I am confident that I will always figure out a way to make it work the way I want it to. I’ve been doing this a long time ( 15 years), so I plunge those scissors into the bear with confidence. I remember in the early days, I was afraid to trim a bear’s muzzle….what if I made a mistake, I couldn’t glue it back on! I don’t look at anything as a mistake now….I call them adjustments. Even when the finished bear is totally different than what I envisioned, it usually ends up even better than I imagined. I think making adjustments to my ‘plan’ as I go along is part of being a bear artist and not just a bear maker.
Almost there
So, Winter is all sewn together and it is definitely a polar bear…a cub actually. The length of this fur really made it impossible to make it a realistic adult bear, but I think this little guy ( I’m feeling boy, not girl, but you never know) is turning out great so far. Today I’m going to  start needle felting the face. I love to do that because I can add so much more character and it gives  the bear so much more personality. I don’t know yet if I am gong whimsical or real. Check back tomorrow and see.
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I’ve also added a lot of photos to my Gallery page. Do you see any of your bears there?

Well, it’s finally feeling like Winter here on Cape Cod. We’ve had such unseasonably mild weather, I really can’t complain. Yesterday, I decided to get some exercise and took the dog  to the beach for a nice romp. Brrrr….that lasted about 4 minutes…sorry Boomer.
Speaking of Winter, I’ve started to create my second bear in my seasonal series called, appropriately, Winter. I’m creating each bear as I experience the season. Shivering a bit in my studio with the heat turned low ( heating oil is an  astronomical $3.90 a gallon) is a great inspiration. I’m working with a  very dense, premium white plush. It’s a little longer than I usually use for polar bears so I’m not sure if this one will be a polar bear or not. I designed it  in the shape of a real bear but I won’t decide until it’s put together what it will actually turn into. I have a few ideas, though.

Unlike the last bear, Chester, where I decided to add suede toes and paws after he was assembled, I smartly added these before I sewed the limbs together so I could machine sew them on. Well, I didn’t like how the machine stitching looked. So, I spent last night in front of the TV watching Rick Steve travel around Europe, while I laboriously stitched each toe and paw pad onto each paw by hand.

The stitches don’t show and I’m happy with how it looks. I have one more to do this morning and then I’ll start stitching this baby together! I’ll make decisions after that on whether to needle felt the face or put  loc-line in his or her arms. I’m thinking this might be a ‘her’….we’ll see what happens. Check back to see the progress!