Pulling Toes Is Not Easy

Normally I first show you how I've copied one of Joanne's techniques but today I'm sending you to her blog first!

 http://desertmountainbear.blogspot.com/2010/01/pulling-toes.html

Above is one of my hand paws after "pulling". You may notice that it's not as well done as Joanne's. This technique is going to take some practice on my part and I'm also going to take advantage of some time spent working with her in May.

I'll show you how I'm preparing to do that, I'm working on the foot pads.

With thin leather and strong thread I've placed a knot behind the leather.

I've stitched the toe part leaving an opening.

Stuff & stitch.

Do the same with the bottom half.

I'll be very happy when Joanne shows me in person how to pull toes!

And in the mean time try to live with my beginners attempt.

Trimming A Teddy Bears Ears

This is Spirit Bear and you can read about it here: http://www.inhumane.org/data/THenricksen.htm and picture by Andrew Cremata

This is the type of bear I am attempting to make.

I've already begun on some detailing and I thought I'd show you how it went.

If you take a look at Spirit's ears you'll notice the hair is short in the front and you can see it's brown skin around the edge.

The ear on the left needs to be done and the ear on the right is finished, well almost!

You'll need a small comb, scissors and the tweezers definitely.

The ear fits on my finger which make trimming easy.

Use the large teeth for this and just comb through once.

Start at the bottom...

this entire side is short so cut right against the comb.

Joanne will appreciate this because she had been a hairdresser!

All trimmed!

Remember that brown skin edge on Spirit bear? This is when we'll need the tweezers. Pluck a 1/8th" edge around but only on the trimmed side.

Good!

Here's where I took some liberty, on Spirit you don't see fur coming from the back of the ear but I chose to leave a short fringe around. That means some light trimming around the edge.

 Next, I noticed the the brown rimmed edge needs to stand out more so...

I sewed a little running stitch 1/8th" in, only just catching the back of the ear.

You should notice the brown, on the ear on the right, is showing better.

Looks good but one more thing isn't right. These ears are puffy in the center and not cupping the right way. I shall take matters into my own hands!

Get out some fabric glue, ok I used felt glue. I fetched 4 tablespoons that were the same size as my ears. Here's what you'll do, put some glue all around the tip of a Q-tip, open the bottom of your ear, lightly glue the inside but don't glue the bottom edge.

 With the trimmed edge facing up put your ears like a sandwich between the tablespoons and clip together in the center. You want them gently held together not vice gripped!

I took them out before fully dried and allowed them to finish drying without the spoons.

Perfectly cupped!

Sewed on and looking good!

Hey Joanne, the ears were so easy to sew on following your darts!

This is where we are now then. It's time to start on the eyes, paws and nails. The below post explains how Joanne Livingston designed her realistic bear heads.

http://desertmountainbear.blogspot.com/2011/12/bear-heads-from-picture-to-fabric.html

I'm lovin this Joanne.

Bear Is So Posable

I think I have the arms right on the first try, boy was I sweating it! Bear's head and back are pinned to make sure.

Here I've pulled the spine up to show Joanne where it ends.

I turned around for a minute and bear started fooling around on the counter.

Since bear is feeling it's own I thought I'd better get it's head sewed on.

You can't even tell that the head and body are 2 pieces now. Bear is really feeling bear like now, I'd better get moving on it's windows to the world!

Joanne's post below got me to where I am now:

http://desertmountainbear.blogspot.com/2011/12/giving-bear-some-backbone.html

Arms for Bear

Wrap the Lockline...

sew it to secure...

and then have a heck of a time getting it all inside the arm right! I've discovered that having a couple of regular nuts around is helpful in keeping things where they belong for the time being.

Got A lot Done

Joanne suggested wrapping the neck with felt because you wouldn't need a lot of stuffing here then. You do want this area to move though.

Now it's all about getting everything the right size/length/placement.  

This is what Joanne says about the spine: "The spine goes almost all the way down, I stop maybe an inch from where he is sitting on his butt.  If it is too long it will poke out there right where the bottom curves in.  I have found when I stitch in the spine that I do not stitch the last inch or so."

The top edge of the body is fray checked and hemmed. 

Back to legs, these are the back legs, I checked the length of the Lockline making sure it didn't go all the way to the tip of the toe. It then gets wrapped with felt and stitched to secure. 

It's all a testing game now, lots of stuffing, unstuffing, pinning, unpinning and moving limbs over a smig.

I think I've got it.

Feet aren't splaying! 

Now time to fix the length on this spine like Joanne suggested.

Still lots of fiddling to do, the arms will be a challenge.