Author: Laura Lynn

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Rice as a Tool for Teddy Bear Making

In this week’s free video I will show you how rice can help you with your bear making.  And NO, I do NOT mean that you should put rice in your bears!

Quite often when you are doing handwork, your hands, they get sore.  One way to help alleviate the soreness and stiffness of your hands is to take a bowl of rice.  Put it in the microwave.  I usually put that much rice in my microwave for about a minute.

Now the rice is nice and warm.  Just stick your hand right down in the rice.  It will feel really good.

You don’t want to make the rice too hot because you don’t want to burn your hand.  For me I found this much rice in my microwave gets to the right temperature in about a minute.  Give your hands this treatment and you’ll be ready to sew again!

When you are done with the rice, save it to use it again.  What I do is I pour it into a gallon size plastic bag and I do mark it “For Hands”, so I don’t use it to make dinner.

Get your free eBook:  How to Make Teddy Bears with 7 free patterns at:

www.TeddyBearAcademy.net/free-yt/

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Finding Time to Make Teddy Bears

find time for bear making

I don’t know about you, but I used to have a hard time finding time to make teddy bears.  Back in 2000 I was find time for bear makingworking a full time job,  taking care of a home and my family including 2 dogs!  I loved making teddy bears, but just couldn’t find the time to do it.

Then I started trying to figure out how to work bear making into my busy life.

my bear making trayI had a craft tray from somewhere that worked very well as a place to hold my bear making things on my lap. (There are some craft trays on Amazon here.) Sometimes I needed extra light, and found these book lights by UltraBright worked very well!  They are LED and very bright.  I needed the freedom of no cords and these work on 3 AA batteries.

I started working on bears while relaxing with my family in the evenings.  I put my supplies, tools and tray in a tote bag and would bring it to work so I could work on bears at lunch.  If I had a doctor’s appointment, or if I had to take my daughter somewhere for extracurricular activities, I’d work on bears while I waiting.  Soon, I was finishing bears!

I hope this helps you with finding time to work on your bear making.  Stay tuned for more helpful hints!

 

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Where Can I Buy Bear Making Supplies?

Mohair for bear making

Teddy bear making can be such a fun hobby, but finding bear making supplies in your local sewing or craft shop can be hard.  Fortunately it is very easy to order bear making fabrics, teddy bear eyes and joints for your bears online!

I live in the USA, so I usually order my supplies from companies that are located here in the States.  The companies I often order from are:  Edinburgh Imports, Intercal, CR’s Crafts and for my miniature bear making I often order from Sassy Bears.

I usually use mohair for my bear making.  It’s expensive, but easy to work with.  It is made from the wool shorn from angora goats, then woven onto a cotton backing and then dyed and treated in different ways to get an assortment of finishes.

Sometimes I will use a nice synthetic faux fur too.  They are a little more difficult to work with (in my opinion) but I do like the finished product!  Edinburgh and Intercal carry some beautiful faux furs that almost look and feel like real furs.  The price of those fabrics are as high or higher than the mohair.

I have found some lovely synthetic faux furs at CR’s Crafts at a much lower price.  The look of these furs is a different look than the higher priced faux furs, but is also very attractive.

Do you live outside of the US?  No problem!  There are quite a number of teddy bear making suppliers located all over the world.  I have a list of them located right here:  https://teddybearacademy.net/teddy-bear-making-suppliers-worldwide/