Making Cupcakes

My first bear kit, "Cup Cake" by Lanie Edwards Murphy, arrive on Feb. 14th, 2013. My mother-in-law chose the pattern as the bear most likely to please my five year old niece for whom the finished project, barring catastrophe or explosion, was intended.

The instructions were clear but as a true beginner, I spent a lot of time googling mysterious terms like "ladder" and "backstitch." In very little time, though, I found myself humming along. After I got the hang of the stitching it was far more meditative than I expected- a little like knitting!

Before long I had the flat sewing done, the first cotter pin inserted and a blank teddy head staring at me. With a shaking hand I raised my needle felting needles and...

Gasp! Holy Moly! It's a BEAR! I made a BEAR. With SEWING.

Eagerly, I finished the felting and put her together. I didn't know what I was doing with the cotter pin joints so while they are secure, one leg is looser than the other.

But she STILL looked like a bear. This was amazing! Heady stuff! Naturally, I couldn't leave well enough alone and soon she acquired paws.

 

Around this same time, I discovered that you could shade bears with art markers... just like the enormous set of Prismas I dragged over from America and had barely uncapped since the baby was born. It was TEDDY BEAR MAKEUP. 

By the time it was all over I knew I was hooked. I made mistakes along the way (for example, felting the paw pads AFTER she was jointed wasn't a good idea. The limbs loosened up even more.)  But the fact that I made something that I liked on my first try was encouraging enough that I dumped the rest of my meager resources (aka, I asked for it for my birthday) into mohair. I decided she needed a cupcake of her own... and one it came out of the metaphorical oven she was finished. 

The last "trick" I learned during her construction is that photos are a good way to catch issues I didn't notice before. After taking these pics Cupcake got a few more touch ups. I would have had to do the whole session over again if I had planned on selling her, but as she's staying in the family I gave her a pass on a second sitting. In the future, I will take a few snapshots right when I finish my bear so I can catch these little issues before trying to set up something for "professional" shots.

Cupcake is destined to be an Easter gift for my niece. Can't wait for April!