The April assignment for Island Batik Ambassadors is a Crazy Quilts Challenge. I decided to make a teddy bear using a pattern by Dream Spinners called "...and the Three Bears". The pattern includes three sizes: 17", 20" and 24". I chose to make the 24" bear. I used Stash Builders from Island Batik and many colors of Aurifil 50 wt. thread and the Aurifil Color Builder set "Hawaiian Blue Ginger". I also used Schmetz needles.
I traced the bear body parts onto template plastic. I cut pieces of muslin a bit larger than each template. I made sure to place the template pieces with the straight of grain. Then I cut all of my batiks into strips of varying sizes.
When you begin sewing your crazy patches, start with a five sided piece of fabric, like a house! Then you take a strip and you sew it to one side. You keep going around in one direction: clockwise or counter clockwise, until your muslin is covered. As you sew your strips on, be sure to trim any previous fabrics sticking out from under the newest strip that you sewed on.
I traced the shapes onto the matching crazy patch muslin. Doing this was helpful when stitching the decorative stitches so I knew what the boundaries were for each shape.
After my individual bear parts were completed, I started sewing decorative stitches using my Bernina. When I thought I was all done sewing the body parts, I realized I had never made two legs. So, I took all of the threads and fabrics out again and made two bear legs.
The pattern tells you to sew the ears together first. Then comes the head! Next you
make the legs and the arms. You also need to sew the front body to the back body. Then comes the hard part: inserting the legs, the arms and then the head. When you are done sewing the body parts on, you will have a bear. Well, almost a bear. You will need to stuff the teddy bear and hand sew up the back, then you will have a bear!
Meet Theodore!
