Teddy Bears For Mike

This is the story of some very special custom handmade teddy bears that I made for my friend, Lori. When Lori's brother passed away suddenly last year she asked if I could make some of my custom teddy bears out of his old t-shirts as memorial gifts to all of his siblings, nieces and nephews. I told her I would be honored. 

It took me about six months to make fourteen teddy bears. It's a big family. Fortunately, I had a few months to get them all done.

Lori lives in Alberta, Canada and I live in Maryland, so we had to do all this long distance. Lori picked out the first t-shirt I would use and mailed it to me. It had a big beautiful dragon on it and I saw lots of possibilites for the bears. We met via Skype so I could show her how my pattern pieces could be placed so that different parts of the design ended up on different parts of the bears. A few hours later I had a pile of tiny t-shirt scraps and nine stacks of teddy-bears-to-be and I got busy sewing.

I took photos of each teddy bear in progress and shared them on Instagram and Twitter so my friends could keep track of the story of this family of bears as I went along. 

Hint: If you're planning to do a lot of hand sewing, take care of your hands. Keep your favorite lotion nearby. And I highly recommend leather thimbles.

When I was close to finishing the first nine bears Lori sent me another shirt for the remaining five bears, a white shirt with an argyle pattern and an interesting texture. Again, I had fun choosing which parts of the design would end up on what parts of the bears. 

All fourteen teddy bears were completed and delivered in time for Lori to distribute them at the Brown Family Reunion last month. She lined them all up on a bed and brought everyone in to see them and choose the one they wanted to keep. Lori says, "Losing Mike was devastating to our family, and missing him is part of every day. Having a small piece of him to hold onto, with these beautiful bears, is a comfort.... The bears are another way to heal our broken hearts." 

You can go to my Flickr gallery of Mike's Teddy Bears and see a photo journal of this project with views of the teddy bears in progress and all four sides of each finished bear. 

Find more custom teddy bears in my Etsy shop 

and let me know if you have a special project you'd like me to make for you.

Two Special Bears

This is the story of two very special bears. They were born the day my Twitter friend, Linda, asked if I could make teddy bears from an old bathrobe. I'd been making bears for years with recycled clothing so I said, "Sure, I can do that!" Then she told me what she wanted to do.

Linda and her sister lost their father about a year ago. I remember how we had talked on Twitter about the loss of a parent and our group of friends gathered around to encourage and uplift her.

Linda told me that she had her father's favorite robe with his initials on it and she wondered if I could use it to sew two teddy bears, one for her and one for her sister, and put one initial "L" on each bear. She even emailed me a photo of her father so the blue eyes of the bears would match his. I told her I would be honored to do a project like that. 

I decided to complete the construction of both bears before trimming the initials close and turning the edges under to sew them on. I saved the faces for last, as I always do, and added ribbons around the neck matching the color of the initials. 

When Linda received the completed teddy bears she tweeted me and said, "All I can say is...wow...amazing...speechless...they are just beautiful bears!" She also said her mother was "blown away". I do love a happy customer!

You can click on these photos to see them full size:

If you'd like me to make custom teddy bears for you

leave a comment and tell me what you have in mind

or you can find them in my Etsy shop.

A Bear With Spirit

Now this custom teddy bear has team spirit!

A friend of mine sent me an old sweatshirt to recycle, complete with team logo. I cut out the pieces for the bear so that the team logo will appear on the left side of the bear's chest. I haven't put it all together yet because I still need to embroider her nephew's initials on the bear's backside in thread that matches the logo. But that's on my agenda for today. I'll post pictures of the bear when I get it all finished in a couple of days...I hope!

A Mirror On Your Christmas Tree

I came up with a fun thing to do with my pocket mirrors this Christmas...hang them on your Christmas tree! Here's the front and back of one that's my original design:





I've saved a few special, one of a kind, images I'm recycling from vintage magazines published around Christmas and they'll be perfect for these. Here' my first two:





I have more vintage Christmas ones still to come, as well as something special for collectors of vintage cameras or guitars, or for you favorite computer geek (because I like those things, too). Here's one I made with a picture I took of the Miranda G 35mm slr I got years ago from my dad (I blogged about this camera rehere):



I'll be happy to make you some custom pocket mirror ornaments to hang on your tree. I can make you one that says Merry Christmas to someone special or use your photo to make one. Just leave me a comment here or a convo on Etsy and I'll fix you right up!

Merry Christmas, Darling!

With Thanksgiving becoming a memory we can now officially turn our eyes toward Christmas. I've been wallowing in Christmas for weeks now, working on a large order for my Mini-Puzzle Ball Christmas Ornaments.

Here's another series of projects I've been working on. These are just right for using as tags on your presents, adding to your package's ribbons as decorations, include them with your Christmas cards, or pin one to your lapel to make someone smile. These are a few I've come up with so far, but if you have other ideas, feel free to leave a comment or send me a convo on Etsy if you'd like to order Custom Christmas Buttons this year.

From Pink to Black

Pink & Pinker is gone! The bear I mentioned in my previous post didn't languish for too long in my Etsy shop before finding a new home.

The next bear I finished was a custom order that came to me when someone spotted my Blue Jean Bear on my Flickr and asked if I could make a black denim bear with scraps they had on hand. I'm always interested in doing custom orders like that, so they sent me one leg's worth of an old pair of jeans and here's the result (I added a red ribbon around the bears neck after taking these pictures):





This customer happens to be an amazing photographer. She sent me a couple of her pictures so I could turn them into pocket mirrors to include in her package with the bear. Here they are:





You should check out her blog here and see her work on her on her Flickr, too.