Erica made Ruthie a stuffed animal.

One of my friends had her first child this year. (Congrats Courtney & Alex!!) I was going to sew her a mommy/daughter pillow set for Christmas but I had already made pillows for her baby shower gift and didn't want to be redundant. I decided I would try to make a rag doll (or I guess this is a "rag bear") instead. It turned out okay for my first stuffed animal ever but I don't think I will be moving into the toy business any time soon. LOL

I made this while I was at the Holiday Handmade Craft Show a few weeks back. The show died down after lunch -- there were bad storms forecasted-- so I had a lot of downtime. I didn't have a pattern so I had to just imagine what a stuffed teddy bear should look like and make it up as I go. Luckily, one of the volunteer's daughters helped me with this project. It's always good to have kid input when you're making a kid project. Shout out to Mary Kate (age 8, third grade, not scared of bugs and can finger crochet with both yarn and Wal-Mart sacks)--thanks for your help!!

Handsewn stuffed bear tutorial-

       Materials needed: different colored/patterned scrap cloth (I used t-shirts, of course!), sewing machine, scissors, fabric chalk, hot glue gun & glue sticks, pins, cotton stuffing, needle &thread, googly eyes, any other accessories (I used felt, some wings off a dog Halloween costume and ribbon)

Pardon my mess...this picture might or might not show all the materials needed.

1. This bear is made out of 8 small stuffed pieces --> 1 head + 2 ears + 1 body + 2 arms + 2 legs.                Draw & cut out two pieces of each part of the stuffed animal. I folded my cloth in half so I would have two pieces when I cut it out (it made for less to draw & trace). I also pinned around the perimeter before I cut so my two pieces would stay together.

       I didn't have much for patterns since I was at my craft show and I didn't bring all my art/sewing supplies. But I got some good ideas from Mary Kate. The body is the size of the entire Styrofoam plate and the head is the inner smaller circle.

My work space is entirely too small : (  Mary Kate is there helping me!!

2. After cutting out the 8 pieces --well 16 pieces, actually-- needed for the bear, sew the pairs together (that's why we needed two of each). Leave an opening on each piece for the stuffing. 

       If you're adding anything (the big heart, for example), sew it on now. If not, add stuffing into the pieces and sew the opening up. I use a sewing machine for everything, but if you don't have one, this project can be sewn by hand. 

3. Arrange your pieces to form a bear. Stitch the parts together by hand. 

4. Use hot glue to glue on the googly eyes and any other accessories. I wanted this to look like a rag doll so I glued on different colored ribbon and felt hearts for decoration. I finished the bear (shown below) at the show and added the ribbon later when I got home. The finished project is the first two pictures I posted on this blog.

       I stitched the wings onto the body piece (toward the end of step #2) but I think I probably should have waited and hot glued them on last instead because they ended up being lower than I wanted and a little lopsided. But they looked fine when I stitched them to the body. I guess that's why you wait til last to add on details. 

I had all the pieces sewn together but I couldn't finish this at The Crown Center because I didn't have a needle & thread. Mary Kate wanted the bear done right then and there so she and her two brothers went around asking all the adults if they had any needle & thread. It was pretty adorable. Her youngest brother didn't understand why I couldn't just use my pins because they looked like a needle. The closest thing they could find for me was knitting needles, which were technically a type of needle but not exactly what I needed. 

       Wes came up after getting off work so he could help me pack up. I called him and asked for needle & thread (I had tons at home but forgot to bring them) and he saved the day. The bear was complete!! 

Courtney & Alex are really into anime and fantasy and I assume they will raise their child on Fairy Tale and Blue Exorcist so I wanted to give this bear some element of fantasy. Glittery purple wings was all I had. I don't watch any anime so I really don't even know if characters have wings but in my mind they do, so thus, the bear has wings.