So I got a few animal ones, so let’s start with this orange bear in cute green shorts!

This kit comes with templates and all the required materials. What you’d need to get on the side is some craft glue, pins and a needle.

Of course the most important part of this DIY pack is the set of instructions. Even though it’s in Japanese, it’s pictorial enough for you to understand without a hint of the language.

So let’s get down to it!

The first thing you’d need to do is cut out the shapes provided in the template.

After which, you can cut out the felt, based on the templated shapes. Remember that you’d need to cut 2 pieces for some parts. This was not stated clearly in the pictorial set of instruction.

Start by sewing the two pieces for the head together, leaving a slot for you to insert the wool in.

Next, sew the “nose” and “mouth” on the white felt and use the craft glue to stick it. Then,paste the provided stickers for the eyes and rosy cheeks. Lastly, paste the pair of ears to the back of the head. And there you have it – a ready head!

Next we work on his torso, followed by his cute shorts. This is the cutest part of this project because these are actual “shorts”! As in you’d need to put his legs through the leg holes kind of actual!

HOW CUTE IS THAT?? Very, very cute

So next, finish up with the arms (sew the pieces together to make 2 arms, and stuff with wool) and then you’d have this:

What you gotta do now is sew them all together. The torso goes to the back of the head. You can use craft glue if you want it to be more secure, but I didn’t. I just made a few extra stitches to hold it together. Same goes with the arms. I improvised a little with the left arm, lol.

So here’s the finished product:

Hope you’ve enjoyed this mini tutorial, and have fun with your very own felt bear!

Related Searches:

If I want to be objective, I’ll say that 2010 has been a year of changes and emotions.

If I want to be crude, I’ll say that 2010 has been a total mindfuck bitchass of a year.

A run down through my year:

1. My limited edition oakley frogskin flew out the car window in Malaysia. FP got me another pair in Feb, but it’s just not the same. You know?

2. I taught myself how to sew. I sewed that pink teddy from scratch, imperfect as it may seem. It’s still a masterpiece to me.

3. I quit coffee for good. Didn’t think it was possible, but I did it. It still amazes me how I can get thru a sleepy day without coffee. I’m awesome.

4. Started the year in Malaysia: Malacca, KL, Batu Pahat. This photo was taken in Malacca.

5. We finally tried the level 30 spicy wings!

6. We got ourselves a Nintendo Wii, as if the PS3 wasn’t enough.

7. FP had an accident that caused him to be homebound for 5 months. We spent a good half of the year indoors and having indoor picnics all the time.

8. FP dabbled in food photography, during our indoor pinics. Awesome shots of awesome food. That must be where this excess weight is coming from

9. WORLD CUP. I had a fantastic June thanks to endless football matches. Lack of sleep was a given of course, but it was so worth it Even though my heart was with Germany through and through, my favourite moment was still the day New Zealand trashed Italy. It was epic.

10. Sour Sally finally opens in Singapore. This made my entire week, the week i discovered about it. Since then, I’ve been downing the froyo with plenty of yummy mochi. I wonder where I can get the mochi, it’s absolutely yummy.

11. Ariel Peterporn saga. This came right in the middle of the world cup, so as you can tell – I had a very interesting June. Can never get the image of Ariel’s big and nice.. watches and his wonderful butt. Yes, I saw both videos. Was awaiting the third one but then.. he just had to turn himself in, sigh sigh. I really hope he won’t be put away for 12 years. I haven’t even watched him live, for god’s sake.

12. Singapore got flooded. Even my neighbourhood got affected, wished I’d been there when it happened but I was at work.

13. Speaking of work, I left the job that I love and ended up in another job, which didn’t last long – for so many reasons. But it gave me the chance to be a mac user for 2 months, so no complaints there.

In summary:

Top 5 Highlights:
1) World Cup 2010 (we should have it every year!)
2) Discovered Tumblr (only awesome people will get this)
3) Sour Sally opens in Singapore! (mixed mochi ftw)
4) 2 words: iphone 4 (blackberry who?)
5) Ariel Peterporn (my hottest asian man has nice big.. watches and a nice butt)

Top 5 Downers:
1) Broke up with FP (got back 2 weeks later, but it was still one of the darkest periods of the year)
2) Left a job I absolutely loved (this is like a second breakup)
3) FP got into a major traffic accident (left him homebound for 5 months, we spent a good half of the year indoors)
4) Sucking at a new job so bad that it was short-lived; it peaked and ended within 2 months.
5) I didn’t get to travel at all this year

So that was my year. Thought it pretty much sucked, but as I was doing up this post and remembering fun and great stuff – it didn’t seem too bad after all. It’s all about perspective.

Before I did this post, I was feeling afraid to face 2011. But now that I feel better about the year, I look forward to a better year.

It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?

Related Searches:

With all the mini felt food projects I’ve been doing, I was itching to try something else.

So I attempted to make a bear. This may sound like just another project if I am a seasoned seamstress. But I’m not. Fact is, I have never sewn a bear in my life and it is precisely because of that, that I did it. I love figuring things out when I have absolutely no idea on how to do them.

I got the template from Martha Stewart’s website (I know, how domesticated is that? but her craft ideas are hard to resist). It was originally supposed to be a bear with a pocket for children to put their baby teeth (so that the tooth fairy can take the teeth and replace them with money).

image taken from marthastewart.com

And on the pocket was supposed to be a name and an outline of a tooth.

But of course I modified it. I don’t need a tooth bear.

So I started working on it after some crazy shopping for felt and other bits and pieces at Daiso.

First I had to cut out the outline of the bear template. My first time cutting out my own felt pieces (previously it was all pre-cut for me, all in one package, remember?)

It felt and looked like some sick acupuncture session for the paper bear, but nevermind. So I then cut the second piece. I decided to make it’s back polka dotted mainly because I was in love with the polka dotted pink and white felt I found at Daiso.

(the polka dotted felt is white on its reverse side)

The most challenging part for this project, in my opinion is the fake “pocket”. Because I had entirely no idea on how to 1) make the bear’s nose and mouth and 2) to sew letters.

And the fact that I chose to make an embroidered heart with the letters LOVE on it was complicated enough, but somehow I managed to figure it out.

The eyes were basically french knots (which I have by the way perfected, based on an unfinished food project involving strawberries) -> simple enough. The nose was done with satin stitches -> which I had to research through Google and Youtube on how to make it. Mouth was just an extension of the nose.

So. For the fake “pocket”, I decided to do a heart. So I drew a heart on the felt with a pencil, and sewed running stitches for the outline, and applied the newly learned satin stitch to fill up the heart outline. Heh heh, talk about being a fast learner. I guess the heart turned out decent enough.

For the words, it was a scribble and then I just stitched my way thru.

So then it was time to sew the two pieces of felt together. In the intructions, it says to use a whip stitch. I had no idea what that is and so did some research, again on Google and Youtube. Tried to follow but everything got tangled up. Gave up, took a shower and finally realised that it is something similar to overcast stitches.

Did a research on whether overcast stitches is the same as whip stitches. And voila! Whip stitches are actually overcast stitches but it it only called whip stitches when sewing 2 or more layers of cloth together.

Pissing off and time wasting. Not that I knew that it was practically overcast stitches, I was back on the ball and happily stitched up the border of the bear.

Confession: I stuffed my bear with white knitting yarn. Because Daiso ran out of cotton stuffing. So I improvised. Nobody can tell the difference anyway. And I love the rainbow bow that I added as a touch up. Nice touch! (If I may say so myself)

It may not be the tidiest piece of work ever, it may have imperfect stitches but to me, this bear is an accomplishment on its own. After I was done with it, I could hardly believe that I had actually made a stuffed bear from scratch. It was such a rewarding feeling.

Next thing to try out would be knitting! But that would be another story altogether.

bear with cacti

Related Searches: