Handmade Teddy Bears

Posted on October 14, 2013 By Blazer Bear

Handmade Teddy Bears make wonderful unique gifts and can be treasured for years to come. Here at Blazer Bear we have had a great week making a number of Handmade Teddy Bears out of many uniforms and different memorable items of clothing.

The week began with making two handmade teddy bears out of 2 World War II jackets as a special keepsake for a granddaughter and grandson. The fabric from these jackets was challenging to work with but the resulting bears we were delighted with. Each bear was made extra special with the inclusion of some precious ribbon from his wife’s wedding bouquet stitched loosely behind the ear. (Very scary sewing such a precious tiny piece of fabric!!). To complete the bears, we made a couple of scarves from a favourite jumper that Grandad wore. This was great as it meant we could incorporate the badges that were on the jackets lapels.

All our Bears are cut from the same bespoke pattern designed and made by us – we do constantly review and tweak the pattern to ensure our bears are the most handsome and best looking as possible. However no two handmade teddy bears are ever the same! As the process of crafting evolves with the inclusion of varying items of the uniform into paws, ears or down the bears middle, each teddy bear takes on a persona of its own! Ultimately we aim for each bear to reflect the original item of clothing. For example the lovely rugby bears we made this week reflect the contrasting colours of the rugby tops with the collar being made into the ears, depicting the fact that the collar is at the top of the shirt. As the binding inside the collar is a key part of the rugby shirt we have incorporated this into the cuffs.

As Blazer Bear began with bears being made from Blazers, the ‘Blazer Bear’ is an excellent example of how we like each handmade teddy bear to represent the original garment and uniform. The blazer pocket is on the Bears left as it is when a Blazer is worn, and we have recently started to include the tie as piping down the bears’ middle reflecting a quirky take on how a tie is worn. The dress/ skirt / trousers (anything!!) included for example in the paws is a nice reminder of other aspects of the uniform.

Other bears which have been fun to make this week were a number of bears made from customers’ school fleeces and a number of plaid kilts. We do love making all our handmade teddy bears and the challenge of exactly matching up the plaid of the kilts both vertically and horizontally as you look at the bear is something that stops talking in the workshop!!

We have a lot of fun making our handmade teddy bears in our workshop; our lovely talented helpers Kirsty and Alison have been joining us more recently as we are getting extra busy for Christmas. We aim to create a relaxed but efficient work atmosphere – we put a lot of time and thought into each and every one of our handmade teddy bears – ensuring that our customers resulting bear represents everything that is important to them. We truly love making our bears and we would love to craft one for you – from any memorable clothing . We look forward to hearing from you :)