WIP 2 FINISHED vintage-look rabbit and red/white twins

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Sunday, April 13th 2014.

Time for a new project! An other "in between" project because I'm still making my bears-house. Just need a little change every now and then!

Some time ago I bought a lovely mohair; it is from the nostalgy serie from Probaer in Gronau in Germany. It is really beautiful felted open sparse mohair. Most of the time I wash my fabric before I use it but this time I didn't....no smell and beautiful felted so better leave it this way.

I have been "playing" with thoughts about vintage-look or old-look creations and I must confess I'm not really good at it but as long as I don't try I will never succeed! So, I have put on my "naughty shoes" as we say here and started.

first thing I decided was I am going to add BLUE.....and the stripes have won.

trying out different sizes and positions for the eyes.....these are not the real eyes yet!

the eyes have been added and the blue stripes too. Still thinking about the position of the ears....will work it out...

After I took this picture I have shaded the snout with almond oil; it must dry. I know some people say you should never use oil on mohair because "in time" it could damage the fabric. Never happened here but ofcourse I don't know what it will be like after 50 years! Nevertheless I see it is used by many bear-artist all over the world and I really like it. I shall add a picture later.

I used the pattern from my shabby rabbit but had to make some changes because there was not enough fabric. I will add the pattern-changes after this project is ready. What I notice is that the snout has another shape than the other one. For that one I used faux-fur with a little stretch and this mohair doesn't stretch. It is amazing how many little changes you can add to a pattern by using different fabric!

More to come!

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Thursday.

Busy busy busy.......!  but finally the project is finished!

it is hard to photograph this rabbit...at least I think so. Nevertheless I wanted to show rabbit to you.
The ears: I shaded them but thought it was "over the top". That's hard. Maybe I must get used to "very" shaded creations....but maybe I shouldn't get used to it at all?!
What I did is wash the ears gently to get a lot of the added colour off. I really like it better this way.

What I also did was give a little stitch on the back of the ears to keep them together. Nothing else needed!

One little thing I found out:

if I use a safety-pin to keep the disc inside in place.....it works!  Already a few times it happened to me that while I was closing the opening a bit before stuffing I "lost" the disc! Not any more! Hurray!!!!

In general I want to say that I love the rabbit but that I will make a few changes to the pattern if I don't use a stretching fabric. Make the snout (chin) a bit rounder....and I already made the tummy a bit rounder (at the bottom in front).

It is always possible that one of these days I will decde to give rabbit a tail.....that's SO me!

I shall add the changes in the pattern one of these days (or you can make them yourself ofcourse).

Thank you for following my project!!!!   xxx Pink

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Friday March 14th 2014.

Yesterday I have started a new project. I want to make 2 little "Panda-bears". "Panda" because I use different colours on each bear. Nothing to do with a look-a-like for a real Panda bear!
I'll call them my Twins.

I had some left-over mohair in red and white and also some of the red-with-white-dots fabric. The pattern I use is the pattern for Bebe and it is already available on my page free patterns. Using other mohair will create completely different bears, I'm sure!

All parts have been cut out of the fabrics and next thing I did was...hesitate! Which combination do I like the most:

 

I slept the night over it and decided to make nr. 2.  Why? If I make nr. 1 it might get too fussy if I want to add accessories. I think.

At this moment the red parts have been pinned together and they are waiting to get sewed. Tomorrow I hope to find some time to make a start. I shall take pictures and show them here!

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Sunday.

A little progress to show:

I decided to sew all the red parts first; time for the gusset and the foot-paws!

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Wednesday.

Making progress here! Sewed the head and I always do this by hand to make the head neat.

I always start at this point and tack and go back stitching

here the other side has been done too

check!!!

making very small stitches

piece by piece

side after side

check! is it equal? OK!

done!

hello little bear!!!

Now it is time for my "favourite" parts again: footpaws!!!!

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Thursday.

A bit sleepy here! Sunshine, a hair-cut, biking but the wind was very strong......but I don't want to keep my guests waiting too long so before I go to sleep I add some pic's!

adding the footpaw.....one side done

the outside

done! seams must be cut, hairs must be pulled to the right side....added fray-check already against raffling

lovely legs!

funny! they can stand alone! the fabric is soft tho!

bear in progress....

Tomorrow I shall start with all the white parts! For now: have a lovely evening or day! I'm going to sleep!

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Friday.

Almost all the white parts have been sewed. As I always hand-stitch the gusset and the footpaws these are the things left to do. Yes.......my "favourites"......!

Maybe tomorrow....

maybe you have noticed the ears.....I always leave a lot of fabric around the pattern, especially when I make a small bear....it is so much easier to hold and to stitch and I will cut the seams afterwards anyway...

Later again!  

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Sunday.

All sewing done! The gusset and footpaws were very cooperative!  Nice.

it was time to find the right disc's. 15 mm for the arms and 20 mm for the head and the legs...time to add the joints, close the opening of all part a little more and start stuffing. Stuffing...it always takes a lot of time....piece by piece.....closing the openings neat.....but I think these bears will be very cheerful! I'll be back!!!

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Wednesday.

They said there would be a lot of rain today but here were just a few drops....so we went outside again and saw: Kingfishers!!!!  Wow!!!!   

the bears: it felt like taking ages before I had stuffed everything! Done! The white fabric gave me some problems while closing the openings; it is very hard to sew without showing the thread....the fabric is kind of weak in my opinion; open sparse too. You see some stitches here and there....but on the other hand: it is handmade and I always do the best I can.  Things are the way they are!

this is what it looks like now:

I prefer the second picture and that's the way I'm going to assemble them. More "panda-look" than the first one in my opinion.

I'll do my upper-best to finish this project tomorrow!  Thanks for your visit!

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Thursday.

It was a very busy day so only tonight I found some time to go on with my bears. The heads and the limbs have been stuffed and I just stuffed one bear (no pic yet).

Here is a picture from the 2 bears without a stuffed body! They can stand alone! 

friends.....or twins.....or.......

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Friday.

Oh....oh....!!!!   I didn't like the ears! ....not equal...the shape was not nice...so I'm making new ones! a little delay here in Holland! I'll be back soon!  Have a lovely weekend!   Pink

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Sunday.

Finished!!!!  I had to do the ears 3 times.....just didn't like them but finally I'm happy with the result! They are appr. 17 cm / 6,5 inches, total length.

Btw: when I visited my supplier the kind man showed me a lovely bear and I noticed it had an understuffed body which made it possible to pose the bear and also it did feel so soft! I HAD to try this myself so the bodies are understuffed indeed and they feel really nice! I'll do it more!

I haven't thought yet of names for these girls. They can stand alone, are stuffed with polyester and glass-beads (tummy and feet); they have brown eyes with a black pupil, a little decoration on their head and a few wooden buttons. Enough! 

It took me a long time to make the girls! 

The free pattern is already on my page free patterns; look for Bebe...it is the same pattern. Here are the pic's!

Maybe, just maybe, I will shade the snouts a little......not sure so no shading now. 

Tomorrow I will go on with my other project, the bearshouse.

Thanks you for following this project and if you are going to use my pattern: enjoy!

Pink

PS: after a couple of hours I DID shade a little! Just around the eyes and the snout....

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