Fast Making #1 - Trash Teddy
We’re tasked with making 10 things in 15 days. I immediately saw it as an opportunity to make another teddy bear. A month ago, I had to leave then re-enter England to get my visa stamped. Rather than spending a grand to go back to America I went to Billund, Denmark, hoping to go to the Lego House. The flight and hotel was cheap, but including food & buses, it ended up costing more than it would to go to Italy or Spain. Anyway, the Teddy Bear Art Museum next door to the Lego House is cheaper and was more enjoyable IMO.
This is a picture I took of my favourite “tableau”—teddies placed in human settings. This one’s doing final checks on his bisque fired sculpture.
The gift shop had patterns and kits to make DIY teddies. After staring undecidedly at them for half an hour I decided on “Molly”—the end result, seen here, took three non-stop days or so. Considering I’ve never made a teddy and not much hand sewing experience, I think it ended up being… cute enough.
I found some other patterns online and bought a meter of mohair fabric, a pack of assorted felt, toy eyes, and a set of metal joints (for moving parts) after I finished it. It’s one of those things I’ll be obsessed with for a few months then get exhausted of it. But now, realizing that London has turned me into the stereotype of a broke college student, I can’t be spending all my money on everything I want to make, so I’ll use what I already have to make something to fulfil this fast making assignment.
First, I picked out my favourite colours from the felt fabric. No one colour could be cut out for the whole pattern, so it will be a rainbow bear.
Before I cut out the pattern, I drew out which colours go where. This way I avoid having the same colour touching another, or one colour dominating the whole teddy. I ended up going with the first draft, then cut out the pieces.
After sewing the pieces together and adding the eyes and nose, the unstuffed teddy already looks pretty good.
Here, the ears are already sewn onto the stuffed head. It’s my least favourite part of the process—it’s easy to sew them on unevenly and not get the inward shape correct. I think they came out alright, and I learned from my mistakes from the last teddy, though it’s not too noticeable since the fur covers up my sloppy sewing.
The ears are luckily the only thing I need to sew directly onto any other body part of the teddy. Fibreboard & metal joints are inserted into each limb and connected into the body, the friction of them making the parts movable but not flimsy.
The only problem is… the fibreboard circles I already have are too small! I sewed another teddy a few weeks ago using joints too small for its body, and its arms and head were flopping around like it’s going to fall off any moment.
So, I took the box it came in, laid the pattern on the cardboard (the pattern has the circle size printed on it), and lightly stabbed the outline with an awl. I cut them out, making eight 25mm circles for the limbs and two 22mm circles for the head. I stabbed the centre of the circles with the awl so the metal bits can go through.
Then all that needs to be done is to
twist the metal tight enough (pictured here) so the limbs don’t move too easily, stuff the teddy, then ladder stitch the body closed. I ran out of the (very nice smelling) wool I bought in Billund, so I stuffed the tummy and right leg with cotton balls. It doesn’t look any different for it, but the leg is not as squishy as the rest of the body.
And then he’s done! I’m glad how he turned out—he reminds me of a Beanie Baby, which I had a vast collection of as a kid. He took a night and a day to make, maybe 10 hours total.
I hope I can implement teddies/plush work into my MA project somehow. My initial thought for it was some kind of dog toys, but some dogs (practically all puppies) shouldn’t have stuffed toys—the sewing needs to be strong, and the filling needs to be choke-proof.
It’s probably possible to implement fabric/textile making into a dog toy project, but I’ll think of something later. It’s easier to make a safe product for guinea pigs—they’re the least destructive animal I’m designing for, and it will be cheap to design and model something like houses for them. I see more cardboard in my future.
~ks
