Part 1 of bear making tuturoial

First let me start off by saying bear makers all have their own way of doing things.  I'm sharing the way I do them.  I taught myself how to sew and make bears completely by myself through the internet and free tutorials such as this one.  I hope this gets you started in the right direction!!

First I'm assuming you know how to either sew with a machine, or hand sew.  If you do not know how to do either, there is alot of tutorials on line that can help you.  Search the internet and you will find tons.  Also youtube is a great source for teaching sewing.

So you have the pattern in front of you and your wondering what all this stuff means. You can find free patterns online also if you search or you can purchase one from artfire, etsy, or ebay.

 

So first thing first, cut all the pattern piece out.   Take a good size piece of the fur you have chosen and figure out which way the fur lies. This is also called the nap.  Run your hands along it and you will see which way it lays down.  Now turn it over and make sure the fur(nap) is laying toward your body.  You will need pattern pieces: head,ears, inner and outer arm, leg, body, gusset.  The paws and foot pads will be cut out of different material such as felt or suede.  Let's start with the head, the arrow is the way the fur is laying down.  So the arrow should be pointing at you on the back of your fur like this.

 

 

So to review the fur and arrows should be pointing at your body.  That is the same for all the pattern piece with arrows.  You lay it on the fabric pointing at you.  Ok, now you start tracing lightly with a pencil.  The pattern says cut 2, 1 reversed.  That means trace it this way first then flip it to face the other way.  Arrow is still down!!  And that is your first body part traced onto the fabric.  You continue to do that with the rest of the body parts with arrows.  They will all say cut 2 reverse 1 except for the legs you have to cut 2 reverse 2.  Most important just remember to pay attention to arrows.  When you are done cutting body parts out you should have 18 piece cut out.  I forgot to mention the ears.  You need to cut out 4 of them pay attention to arrows.  Don't worry about the paw pads and foot pads for now we will get to them later.  Another thing I forgot to mention is how to cut the pieces out.  You have to have sharp pointy scissors.  You do your best to stick the points in where you want to start and do little snips just on the backing.  If you take big snips you will cut your fur and have a huge mess and your bear won't look as nice.  Take your time and do little snips, just on the backing. 

That's it for part 1.  If your confused or don't understand something leave a comment and I will answer your questions.   I will work on part 2 tomorrow.