.: asylum for the sane :.

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 auntie 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

I think I might have a new hobby. And it involves needle and thread. Given my thread record with sewing projects, it was an amazing wonder that I completed this one at all.

I spent the entire day today working on this little gem. Pretty isn’t it? It’s imperfect, as far as I can tell. But to me, it is equivalent to an entire day’s effort. And I don’t care if the stitches are untidy or ugly. They are untidy and ugly because sewing is never my forte. But it will get better with more time and practice.

I love my whip cream lol. It looks awesome. So out of the point, but it’s true!

I was craving for a creative project. I had been on a dry spell; haven’t done anything close to creative and I was getting worried for myself. I was worried I was getting stupid (lol) because I have this belief that writing and craft works makes you smarter. And since I haven’t been writing either (I know, sad sad!), I knew I was gonna be in deep shit if I didn’t find something worthwhile to do.

So a trip to Daiso last Saturday found me this little packet of happiness. And I only had the time and enthusiasm to start on it today. Was so so excited, lol.

I went to get some materials that I didn’t have (mainly fabric glue, pins and needles) before I started on it. As you can see, the fabrics were already pre-cut for me so it was not exactly rocket science. But still! There were some stitches I had absolutely no idea how to do despite the diagrams within the instructions.

Such as.. french knots and reverse stitching. *lost*

So I consulted Youtube for some advice. Viewed a few demos and thankfully because I am such a visual person, I managed to emulate the methods. My strawberries, which needed french knots are partially powered by youtube. The whipped cream was fully powered by youtube -> reverse stitching here!

This was strawberry number 1. It pissed me off coz it looked weird coz the french knots were all over and i didnt know how to close up the gap after stuffing the cotton it it. Then i re-read the instructions and found out that i had to stitch first then stuff the cotton in.

Oh. Okay.

But the second strawberry took a much lesser time to achieve. Maybe this is what they call practice makes perfect. I’m nowhere near perfection but hey it got better.

And if you see on the dark brown felt, I used a white thread for the overcast stitches (talking like a pro now). It was only when I’ve glued everything nicely that I realized that I should have used the brown thread. There I was wondering why I had a brown thread lying around for the duration of the project.

But anyway, if I didn’t tell you that, you wouldn’t know anyway

I spent close to 6 hours working on this project. And as tiring as it was, it was still worth the time. I learned all abt new stitches, which I never knew before. I managed to complete a sewing project (first time ever!) and I now have a pretty fruit pie to look at.

Did I mention that it is also a magnet? It is! I made a magnet today!

/dances.

I am so easily pleased.

And now, I wanna raid Daiso for more felt food projects. And after I am stabilized, I can try on bigger projects.

But that’s another story.