Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Thank you everyone for your awesome responses. i have ordered the eyes from cr crafts and im still looking for the fabric. and yes minky was exactly what i was thinking  of. specifically, i think it was called eyelash minky faux fur.

Hello everyone or should I say teddy masters . Before I start, let me introduce myself.  My name is Jonathan and I live in Los Angeles. I am new to teddy bears but not new to sewing, patterns, and things related to clothing. My parents have worked in the clothing industry for almost 2 decades. Due to this, I've come to learn some very specific skills that just seem very odd on a 6 feet male. Anyways, my sister just had a baby and she is turning 1 year old next month. After thinking for months on what to buy her for her first birthday, I decided to make a 7 feet teddy bear out of scratch. Yes, I said 7 feet. I gifted her a small 19 inch bear during my sisters baby shower. So I decided to step it up a notch in the COOL uncle list.

I spent the first three weeks of this project taking a teddy bear apart and turning the patterns into digital copies. I really liked the bearemy design at my nearest build a bear workshop, so I turned that into a digital pattern copy. After I enlarged the small patterns into a 600% zoomed version. The patterns were printed and sized to make sure they fit. Manila paper was pasted to make a sturdier pattern. The patterns are all ready to go. My 10 boxes of poly fill have arrived yesterday and I am ready to go without any fabric or eyes.

This is where I was left with a problem. I spent 2 weeks looking for a fabric type that I really like but can't happen to find what I like. Since I live in Los Angeles, I believed that I can find some nice synthetic fabric in downtown Los Angeles, little did I know, that fabric there is really seasonal and synthetic long pile plush is virtually non existent. Even if I found something close to it, the fabric would be really rough and not soft enough for a child to hug for extended periods of time. I tried looking online but i found it really hard to grasp the concept of how soft or super soft the fabrics are and most vendors seems to sell by the square. Not by the yard. I am estimating i need around 7-8 yards of fabric. Due to the amount i need, i decided to go towards synthetic instead of mohair or alcapa. I cant imagine the cost of 8 yards of mohair. that seems to be WAY out of my league. Also I realized that I can't find a craft store that makes eyes around an inch big.

After looking online, I leaned that it's is impossible to find fabric. That is why I come to you all teddy bear masters. I would like it and appreciate it alot if you can recommend a fabric and a website where I can buy the fabric and eyes. To get a feel of what kind of fabric I want, I am looking for something like the bearemy. Super soft to the touch and really easy for long hugs. The length is somewhere around 1/2 to 1 inch in length. Color is something similar to a caramel to light brown. And I am looking for eyes in size. Worst comes to worst, I can just make size large sized buttons as eyes. I would really appreciate it if the fabric is SUPER SOFT and synthetic. Soft enough for a baby to hug.

I thank you all for looking and I really really thank you in advance for the great tips to come. I am sure I will never forget this help and my niece also.

PS: I am looking to spend around 15-20 dollars per yard.