Stitches for bear making

Hello - welcome to my blog!  I am writing this post in conjunction with a sewing pattern for a little 9 inch teddy bear which I hope to release soon.  I hope it is helpful - particularly to those who don't have a lot of sewing experience.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I'll be sure to get back to you.

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This post covers:

• Choosing the thread
• Anchoring the thread for a back stitch
• Sewing an ordinary back stitch
• Ladder stitch (for sewing up openings after stuffing), and
• Satin stitch (for embroidering the nose).

Please note that the last two stitches do take practice.  I have been making teddy bears for years, and I still have to undo these stitches sometimes and start again.  Be as neat as possible, but do not worry too much if they are slightly askew.  Remember, some flaws just add character to the bear!

CHOOSING THE THREAD

Choose a thread as close in colour as possible to the fabric you are using for the bear.  This is very important - particularly with non-fur or short pile fur fabrics.  When you turn the bear right side out and stuff him, the stitches will become visible.  If they are the same colour as the fabric, you will barely notice them.  If they are, e.g. black stitches on a blonde bear, you will certainly see them!

ANCHORING THE THREAD FOR A BACK STITCH

I haven't been able to find an online tutorial to link you to for this, so I'm afraid you will have to make do with a rather laborious description from me(!)

Step 1:  Take your two identical pattern pieces and match them right sides together.  The 'right side' is the side that will be showing on the outside when you have finished the bear.  Pin the pieces together if you wish to.  Take note of any gaps you may need to leave for stuffing (these gaps will be marked on the pattern) and decide where you will start sewing.

Step 2:  Take a small stitch (i.e. a couple of millimetres long), bringing the needle into and out of the fabric, about 5mm inside the edge.  Pull the thread nearly all the way through, leaving a 'tail' of 1-2cm.

Step 3:  Take a second stitch close to, or even on top of, the first - pulling the thread all the way through the fabric so it sits flush and flat.  Be careful not to pull too hard and lose your 1-2cm tail of thread though.  You will not see these stitches when the bear is finished, so exact placement does not matter too much.  Just make sure they are small and flat and close together.

Step 4:  Take a third stitch close to, or on top of, the second.  This time, when you are pulling the thread through the fabric, do not pull it so the stitch is completely flat.  Instead, leave a little loop.  Push your needle through this loop and pull the thread all the way through until the loop pulls flat again.

Your thread should now be anchored firmly in the fabric.  In cases where extra strength is required - e.g. where you are sewing up the openings after stuffing - you might wish to repeat step 4, but don't do it too many times or it will be lumpy.

When you have finished sewing around the pattern piece (leaving any gaps required for stuffing), you need to anchor the thread again.  Use the same method as you did starting out.  Take three stitches very close together, or on top of one another.  When you are taking the last stitch and pulling the thread through the fabric, leave a little loop.  Tuck the needle into the loop and pull the thread all the way through.  Cut off the thread, leaving a 1cm 'tail' behind.

BACK STITCH

If you are hand-sewing your bear, this is the simple stitch you will use to sew around all the pattern pieces.  There are several Youtube tutorials available which will show you how to do this.  Wendi Gratz has a good one here.

LADDER STITCH

When you have sewn your bear, jointed him, and stuffed him, you will need to sew up the openings that were left for stuffing.  For this, you use ladder stitch.  Again, Wendi Gratz has a brilliant Youtube tutorial showing how to do this.  Find it here.  

Keep in mind that your bear will look very different from the item Gratz is sewing in the video above.  If you are using fur fabric, your edges will not fold in, or pinch together, so neatly.  That does not mean that your finished seam won't be neat.  Just make your stitches 5mm inside the edge of the fabric, rather than on a neat folded edge, as in the video.

A note about finishing a ladder stitch

In the video linked to above, the stitching is finished and anchored in the same way described at the top of this post - albeit the needle is put through the loop of thread twice for extra strength.  It is then re-inserted next to the last stitch and brought out elsewhere, before the thread is cut off.  This is a method of burying the loose end inside the bear.

It should be possible to bury the knot too.  When you re-insert your needle and bring it up elsewhere, pull the thread all the way through, then give it a sharp tug.  The knot you have made at the end of the ladder stitch should just slip through the fibres of the fabric, so it ends up on the inside, no longer visible.

Again this is something that may take practice.  Don't worry if it does not go right.  Having the knot visible is not so bad - particularly if the thread is the same colour as the fabric.

SATIN STITCH

When you are embroidering the nose of your teddy bear, you will use a satin stitch.  To anchor your satin stitch, you will use a slightly different method from that described above.  Thread your needle, so one end of the cotton is much longer than the other, and tie a knot at the bottom of the longer end.  Push your needle into one of the seams of the muzzle of your bear, somewhere near the nose.  Try to push it between the stitches.  Bring it out at the base of the nose template, right next to the felt.  This needs to be quite exact if you want the nose to be neat.

Pull the thread all the way through, and when the knot reaches the seam, give it a sharp tug (or two).  The idea is to pull the knot through the seam so it ends up on the inside of the muzzle, out of sight.  

Pull the thread taut.  You are now ready to begin embroidering the nose with satin stitch.

Gratz has another Youtube tutorial demonstrating this stitch, here.  Note that she has outlined the shape she wants to embroider, instead of using a felt template as I have in my pattern.  I prefer the template, because it hides any gaps in the stitching.  Just embroider over the top of it, as the outline is embroidered over in the video.

Another note: in my experience, when embroidering teddy bear noses it is much easier to be precise about the location that the needle goes in than it is about the location it comes out.  For this reason, I prefer to start with the thread emerging from the bottom of nose, so that the needle goes in at the top edge and the top edge is as neat and straight as it can possibly be.

And that's about it: these three stitches should get you through the process of making your first teddy bear.  Good luck!

In this post I have linked to Youtube videos made by Wendi Gratz of Shiny Happy World.  Check out the link to her website.  She has lots of other great videos on quilting, embroidery and soft-toy making, which you can find by checking out her Youtube channel.

  

Mohair teddy bears: how to choose alternative fabrics

Hello - welcome to my blog!  I am writing this post in conjunction with a sewing pattern for a little 9" teddy bear which I hope to release soon.  I hope it is helpful.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I'll be sure to get back to you.

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Mohair is my favourite fabric for bear-making - not just because of its beautiful lustre, but because its physical properties make it one of the easiest fabrics to work with.

However, given that it costs £40 - £140 per metre, you might want to explore cheaper alternatives - particularly if you have never made a bear before.

I've been thinking about those physical properties that make mohair so perfect for bear-making.  If you know these, you can look for alternative fabrics with similar properties.

They are as follows:

Woven backing:  Mohair does not have much stretch to it - in large part because it has a woven, rather than a knit, backing.  Look for alternatives that are woven.

Strength/thickness:  Mohair is a fairly sturdy fabric with little 'give' to it.  So, for example, if you are making an unjointed bear, you can stuff one limb without pulling the other limb out of shape too much.  It is also relevant with jointed bears: the fabric needs to remain firm and in position when the joint is moved.  Mohair will do this whereas, for example, quilting cotton, will twist and distort around the joint.

The thickness of the mohair also ensures that the texture of the stuffing does not show through.

To replicate these qualities, you could use a heavy upholstery fabric with a light interfacing, or cotton with a heavier interfacing.  You can buy interfacing from most fabric supply stores.  Try the fusible type, which will bond to your fabric when you run a hot iron over it.

Lack of fraying:  There are exceptions, but generally I have found that mohair doesn't fray much. This is particularly important in the final stages of bear-making, when sewing up the openings left for the insertion of stuffing.  As the raw edges are pulled together around a solid mass of stuffing, the fabric comes under great pressure.  If you are using a fabric prone to fraying then the stitches, when pulled, may simply rip through the small seam allowance, leaving a ragged hole behind.

You could use Fray Check on the edges.  It's a sort of varnish-like liquid which you can paint onto the fabric and, when it dries, it sticks the fibres together to prevent fraying.  It does come with its own problems though.  It tends to dry hard, so you have to stitch just beyond it, and then holes tend to appear around the base of the stitches, where they stretch the fibres of the fabric.

Stay away from fabrics which you know have a tendency to fray.

Pile/fur:  I suspect that the cotton backing of mohair fabric is actually strengthened by having mohair fibres woven into it.

Beyond this though, choosing a fabric with a pile conceals many flaws - untidy stitches, wrinkles, knots where the sewing thread had been tied off.  Even a fabric with just a little surface fuzziness, like fleece, could be an advantage.

Below are listed some alternatives to mohair that I have tried successfully.

1.  Fleece:  Too stretchy on its own, but you can line it with interfacing - the kind that you iron onto the back - and then it becomes absolutely perfect.  The one drawback I have found is that it can be difficult to embroider the bear's nose over fleece.  In the picture (below left) I have just sewn a patch nose, and abandoned any attempt at embroidery.  One solution to the problem is shown in the picture (below right): replace the fleece of the muzzle with a sturdy piece of lined cotton.  This should be easy to embroider over.

2.  Faux fur:  You need to take care with faux fur.  The inexpensive kinds that you can buy in ordinary fabric/haberdashery shops often have a knitted backing.  The types that I have used have had some kind of stiffener applied to prevent stretching, but this never seems to be completely successful.  It may be a good idea therefore to line your pattern pieces with fusible interfacing.

I made this giant panda (below) out of faux fur, and lined each pattern piece with cotton fabric before sewing.

3.  Cashmere:  You can buy a man-made cashmere fabric from online teddy bear supply stores.  (If you are in the UK, try Christie Bears, or Bear Basics.)  I make tiny mooses out of it.  In the picture below, the figure on the right is what the moose looked like before he was turned right side out.  You can see that there is a sort of white silicone-type mesh attached to the back of the fabric to give it strength and stability.  It works well for small patterns.

4.  Cotton:  The little patchwork bear (below) was made by first cutting out the pattern pieces in plain cotton, then layering and sewing scraps of colourful cotton and denim over the top.  With this double-thickness fabric, the bear came together quite well - although not without the odd wrinkle here and there.  The cotton was prone to fraying too, so his stitching was not very neat in places.

5.  Linen:  I use upholstery linen to make crows with.  I line the pieces with fusible interfacing first, then Fray Check the edges.  It is very prone to fraying - even with these precautions - and trying to sew up the openings after stuffing can be tricky.  For this reason, I wouldn't recommend it if you've never tried bear-making before.

On the other hand, it has some advantages.  It has the strength/thickness which is listed above as one of the best qualities of mohair.  I really enjoyed working with it: it's definitely worth a try if you have a little more experience.

I have only tried 100% upholstery linen.  I cannot vouch for ordinary linen or linen-mix fabric; it could be that these are stretchier and less stable.

A note about velvet:  You might have expected to find velvet on a list of good alternatives to mohair.  I have tried it several times.  It certainly looked stunning on each occasion but the modern fabric in particular frayed terribly, and was tricky to sew up after stuffing.  The vintage mohair wasn't so problematic.

If I find any more good alternatives, I shall be sure to add them to the list.  I would love to know if there is anything which you have found works well!