Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Oh Paula - poor you!  What a horribly stressful day    I always get myself in a bit of a muddle and panic when I'm sending off my bears - it must have been horrendous having to show your house as well! 

I no longer use the postal service for my UK deliveries - I got a bit fed up turning up at the post office (usually in a panic) and being told that the overall dimensions of the box were 3mm too large for Special delivery   and to be honest I felt that it was getting rather expensive - especially for the big boys.  Also I would often have an overwhelming urge to rip open the box en route to the post office to check that (a) it was the right bear and (b) nothing had fallen off (some kind of obssessive disorder??)!  Anyway I've been using Express Worldwide for the last 9 months or so and the nice courier man comes to my house to collect the bears - very stress free  !!  I can carry on working while I'm waiting for him, have a cup of tea   and if necessary rip open the box again! 

Another benefit is that it is less than half the price of Special delivery and you can send up to 20kgs in weight in one box.

I hope the viewing went well - after all that you should force them to buy your house!!!

Awwww :redface: , thank you Aleta  :rose:!

I'll definitely let you know.  My friend has to have raised the funds by the middle of September, so I'll aim for mid August I think.  I've just got to decide how I'm going to go about it.

I'm getting there with the website bears - I have quite a few that are in bits at the moment (that's not much use is it??).  We've had the school break this last week   so I'm hoping to get on and do the fun finishing off part next week.  You never know I might even manage to work out how to post some of them here on TT  !!

Thanks again. :hug:

Hi Paula

Thanks for that - I was wondering if it would be OK to sell it direct - either in the form of a silent auction with bids by email or post or as a fixed price (I could have all the links to her webpage and the charity on the website).  If I get it ready early enough I could definitely send the details to the magazine editors ..... brilliant idea .  Cheque payments could then be made out to my friend or the charity, I need to check out how it works first.  If it's fixed at least my friend would know exactly how much she'll be getting towards her fundraising.   Hmmmmmm ............. I think I need to give it a bit more thought.  She's calling in this morning so we'll have a chat about it. 

Thanks again

Thanks Helena

I just looked at ebay - you're right - very complicated , I don't know how I could make the donation direct to my friend so she can reach her target.  It looks as if it would go straight to the charity, which I wouldn't mind but it wouldn't be of much help to her.  I'm not that impressed that Missionfish takes a fee either.   I'll go and check out Bid4Bears and then email Nancy.

Thank you!!!

Thanks Helena - no that really helps.

It's a tricky one - I'll see if I can find the ebay rules - it's just difficult not knowing which is going to be my best bet - I want to give my friend as much help as I can - £1500.00 is a lot to fundraise for one person!

Thanks again.

Morning

Last night I went to a dinner held by a friend as a fundraiser for a chaity walk she is doing later in the year.  In order to take part she has to raise £1500.00 and is working her socks off trying to get it.  It's an extremely worthy charity and I thought I might be able to help her out a little bit by auctioning a bear and then giving her all the proceeds from the sale.  The only thing is I'm not experienced with ebay but I think I remember reading somewhere that if you are running a charity auction you do need some sort of verification from the charity - I think she has a me page on the charities website - do you think a link to this would be enough?  I don't want to start the auction and then have it pulled   that would be a bit pants.  Or could I just have all the charity bit on a page on my website with a link to the ebay auction?  Perhaps Bid4Bears would be a better bet?

Also the other thing is, I don't ever sell on ebay, so I don't have a following there so to speak, so do you think I'd be better off just selling the bear at a fixed price from my website.

I won't be doing it for a few weeks yet, but thought it would be best to get prepared! :).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Oh Jane  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  I'm so very sorry    Thinking of you and your family .......

Oh Diane - she is lovely - you must be so pleased with her.

Oh Sue Ann

What a dear little soul, such a sad face.  It's beyond comprehension why anyone would find the excuse to be cruel to such a sweet little dog.  Good for you giving him a second chance - it always amazes me that such broken hearted little creatures are prepared to give us a second chance.

Oooooh Diane - she's lovely, I'm sure she'll make you very happy.  I don't collect either but I'm still waiting for that special old bear to put in an appearance.  I'm very jealous now you have yours - I came very close once on ebay but got sniped at the end - is your heart racing and your head thumping - that's how I felt and I only nearly bought one.  Well done you, she's fab!

Hi Kim

I do pretty much what Sarah does.  I measure the distance from the nose to the eye and then start the ears about the same distance up the head seam from the eye.  Then adjust.  I pin in three or four places, one at each end on the outside to get the corners to curve in and then one or two on inside of the ear.

On my big bears I use T headed pins, they're quite heavy duty and don't budge.  On  the smaller bears I use the little bobble headed pins, the really long ones.   With the smaller pins if you use an extra pin at the top and bottom that should stop them from shifting.

Then I start sewing with ladder stitch at the bottom corner, up the back, round the top corner, leaving the inside pins in.  When I get to the inside, I tend to make the stitiches on the ear piece slighter wider than those on the head to help maintain the curve.  When I get half way down, I poke the needle therough the back of the ear take a small stitch and come back on the inside, this seems to pull the two side together.  Then it's back off down the front to finish the bottom corner.  Then I go half way up the back, tie off and sink the knot.  Sometimes an extra round of stitches helps improve the curve as long as they are in the right place!

After all that, it doesn't always work and one has to come off again!  Oh I forgot to mention, I always sew the ears on last, after the bear is fully assembled, for some reason I find it easier if he can sit on my lap for the job.  Hope this helps.

Oh Aleta, I'm so sorry to hear of your sad news .................................

Shelli

Kevin Spacey definitely plays the psychopath extremely well - very, very creepy.  Every time I watch it I hope there will be something else in the box at the end!! 

Yes Morgan Freeman is fabulous, everything he does is superb - Kiss the Girls is a great film. 

That reminds me, one more for my list.  Man on Fire, Dakota Fanning is outstanding, incredible for such a little one and Denzel Washington well ......... he's just fab.

Ooh so many to choose from ....... on my list is:

Mystic River
Scent of a Woman
Green Mile
Chocolat
Jack and Sarah
Finding Neverland    (a good one for all the Johnny Depp Fans)
English Patient    

and anything very scarey. 

Shelli, I'm with you on "Seven" (and as a bonus you get Brad thrown into the mix!)

Then there are those that I've only seen once but have a lasting effect:

Gorillas in the Mist
Schindlers List
Passion of the Christ

Hi Danni

I posted this question on another board a while back - I lurked there too :redface: !  Thanks to the girls there I now use a combination of weighting the feet with shot in little sealed bags, joint position and the angle of the body dart. 

First of all you'll need to make the dart at the bottom of the body pattern quite wide at 90 degrees and start the angle at the top of where your joint will be, so it will be a deeper dart than normal.  On a two piece pattern it's quite straight forward, just measure 90 degrees.  On a four piece, sketch in a continuation of your side seam and then just measure round 45 degrees.  (For the feet to turn out when the bear is sitting down the joints need to be angled not straight on the side of the body).  The deeper dart might eat into the length of the body from armpit to  hip so you'll need to adjust that accordingly.

The joint mark will now be on the angled seam that goes down to his bottom instead of on the side of his body.  Hopefully when you attach the legs they will hang straight when standing (especially with a little weight), but as you sit him down the angle of the joint will twist the leg outwards and the tops of his legs will tuck under the body.

Hope this makes sense  - I've probably typed this half a dozen times and this is the best I could come up with!! :redface:

Hi Helena

Poor you .  Like Tammy my husband suffers horribly with allergies - from early spring to autumn.  Itchy throat, runny eyes and nose, feeling sick - he even says his teeth itch.  He also gets very moody.  Now is probably the worst time, when that horrible yellow rape seed is out in all of the fields.  He finds that Clarityn helps to keep it all under control -  I noticed that Aleta takes Loratadine, I think that's pretty much the same as Clarityn just a different name.  My father in law keeps telling him to go to the doctors as apparently Loratadine is sometimes available on prescription here and it works out much cheaper.

Hope you're feeling a bit better by the time you get this.

Connie, he's fabulous.  His nose is absolutely perfect!   :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

Hi Clare

I think I've posted this one before, but I love www.calicocrafts.co.uk, they have some fab rusty bits, a small amount of homespun fabrics and numerous other "folkarty" bits and bobs.  They're based here in the UK so delivery would be quick.

I'm afraid I can't be much help with sculpted mouths, but I have just found a fantastic cream to help deal with those grooves, split fingers and callouses.  I think my mum got fed up with my hands looking like a plasterers and she turned up last week with a tube of Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream.  I put it on over night and miraculously by morning all those painful little splits had closed and the dry skin around them looked much better.  I don't know what's in it, and you couldn't wear it while you're working (very oily), but it's definitely magic!   I know Superdrug have it on special at the moment.

Any Chocolate .................... the darker the better.   My absolute favourite comes from France (I've only ever found it there) and I can't remember the brand.  It's dark chocolate and contains cherry pieces, almond bits and little lumps of nougat.  Heavenly.

Oh Kim

Even in a "students"photo you look absolutely beautiful - no wonder you were dancing professionally so young.

Thanks for sharing.

:clap:  :clap:  :clap: CONGRATULATIONS SAM  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

Hi Sam

Nearly ready then?  I think the best thing you can do is make up maybe 3 or 4 different size ear patterns - just semi circles (or slightly under) with a straight bottom edge. I think ears are down to personal taste, you'll need to see which look you like best.  If you don't have enough mohair to make them all up, try them in calico or cotton or whatever you have to hand and then try pinning them on the bear head - just remember to allow for the length of your pile.  You'll soon see which look you prefer and then you can make them up in the mohair and finish your bear.

Hope this helps.

Congratulations Kirsten!    What an absolutely beautiful baby girl.  You look so well too - I didn't know it was humanly possible to look that great after giving birth!  Well done you!

Your welcome Sam.  My avatar bear is made from a swirly distressed mohair - that helps too - right choice of mohair!  I wouldn't go for anything too long - I only say that because I personally haven't had too much success with the longer pile fabrics - I generally work on a mm length of pile to bear height ratio - ie he's a 20 inch bear so he gets 20mm mohair - or there abouts.  I'm not sure why I do this, it's one of those strange habits you get into!

Anyway, I hope you'll be pleased with your new bear.