Keepsake Bears

Posted on October 29, 2013 By Blazer Bear

We love making keepsake bears from sports kit and memorabilia. We are often make handmade teddy bears as mascots or unique gifts for players and teams.

Therefore we were delighted to be asked to make two handmade keepsake bears as a unique gift for a professional cricket player. They were to be wedding presents for himself and his new wife. We were given the whites of the Sussex team he plays for to make his keepsake bear and his pink 20/20 kit, which he wears when playing for Middlesex for his wife’s bear.

Cricket whites, also known as flannels, are the uniform, which is seen as the traditional kit when playing cricket. It conjures up the nostalgic very British scene of players dressed in white flannels on a village green on a balmy summers afternoon is a scene. The original flannel material has nowadays been replaced with one that has a high elastic content to prevent damage when fielding. Today, professional players only wear whites at Test Cricket. Since 2000 coloured kit was introduced which is worn for one day internationals and 20/20 matches.

The material was a challenge to work with partly due to the elastic content and stretch, but also the silky nature meant we had to be very careful things did not slip out of place while pinning and stitching! It was the first time we had made a handmade bear from such material and we had a lot to include. The customer wanted the keepsake bear to include the players name, number, team crest and some of the sponsors. The original shirts were obviously adult size and we had to consider very carefully how to fit it all on the handmade teddy bear.

As with all our keepsake bears we try to recreate, as much as possible, the look of the original material or clothing. The Sussex whites kit had blue piping, which we incorporated so as to emulate the piping on the original shirt. To further add to the original look we added the banding to the cuffs.

We also included the cable knit cricket jumper as ears and had a bespoke jumper knitted to fit the cricket Blazer Bear. In 1930 Kent and Curwen introduced the iconic cricket sweater a slightly heavier version of the tennis jumper. Traditionally it was white or cream with a distinctive striped V-neck. It set a global trend amongst cricketers and Kent and Curwen became the official outfitters to the English Cricket Team.

For the pink Middlesex Cricket bear we included their team name ‘The Panthers’ and the pink and blue banding on the shirt. We also used the pink canvas cap, which was used for the paws. The Middlesex players all wear navy trousers when wearing this particular kit, so we made the legs from this material to again replicate the original clothing as much as possible.

We were thrilled to hear that they loved our handmade bears and we certainly will be keen Sussex and Middlesex supporters in the future! We love making Blazer Bears as keepsakes and mascots for teams from sporting memorabilia. We have made sporting keepsake bears now for cricket, rowing, rugby, football, riding and have even been asked to make a swimming one (including a towel) which should be another great challenge. We can’t wait to increase our portfolio!