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All of the blog posts about making teddy bears can be found here.

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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/

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Do You Need Help Sewing Foot Pads onto Teddy Bears?

 

I know that some people have trouble with sewing the footpads on teddy bears.  This mini class is inside of Teddy Bear Academy and will show you my easy way to insert teddy bear footpads.

For one low monthly fee, you will have access to this video course and all of the other video bear making workshops inside of Teddy Bear Academy.  It’s like Netflix for teddy bear making videos!  Get instant access HERE!

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Making Old, Primitive & Antique Style Bears

This is the latest new class that is in progress here at Teddy Bear Academy.  More videos will be added to the class weekly until it is complete.

You can take this class, and ALL of the other video classes by joining Teddy Bear Academy for one low monthly price.

No contract, cancel anytime!  Join Teddy Bear Academy HERE!

Video transcript below….

Have you ever wanted to make teddy bears that look old and well loved?  In this class I will show you how I do that.  With this video I go over fabric selection, which is the first step.

Here is a selection of some of the mohair fabrics I will be creating my antique looking bears from.  Most of these fabrics are sparse fabrics.  I want my bears to look a little well loved and worn so I often start with fabrics that are sparse, and so already look a little bit worn.

I have here a couple of 1″ long sparse fabrics.  I will use these long fabrics on bears about 12″-14″ high or larger.  I also have some shorter sparse fabrics that I will use on smaller bears.  I have some that are 5/8″ long and even 1/4″ long.  As I mentioned earlier, I can use these on my smaller bears, but I will also use them on my 12″ – 14″ bears.  I can use the shorter mohairs on the bigger bears, but with the antique style bears it just doesn’t look right to use longer mohairs on smaller bears.

These last two fabrics are NOT sparse, but they are shorter fabrics – about 1/4″ and 3/8″ long.  I will use these on my antique style bears as well for a different look.

I have one more source for teddy bear fur for antique looking bears, and that is thrift shops!  I found this antique coat at Goodwill.  I’m not exactly sure what type of material this is, but I looked at it and immediately “saw” that some wonderful old antique looking bears could be created from this coat.

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Tip When Tracing Teddy Bear Patterns

I don’t know about you, but I make a total mess of my hands when I trace out my teddy bear patterns.  I always get marker on my fingers and fingernails, and that stuff does not wash off easily!

So I finally realized the obvious – if I wear gloves while tracing the patterns, my hands will stay clean!  I use regular rubber gloves for cleaning.  They are thinner and easier to use than dishwashing gloves.  I found mine in the cleaning aisle of the grocery store.  I’ve also seen them in auto parts stores.