Teddy Bear Trials

I have been working and reworking a "simple teddy bear" from Tilda's Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle book. It has the most beautiful projects in it, I have that book as well as her Sew Pretty Homestyle, and they've finally given me the motivation to learn how to use my machine. But I think it's going to be a long time before any of my completed projects are on par with hers, as to be expected. I mentioned in a previous post that I used an old sweater because I thought that'd make it more cuddly. I had a lot of trouble with the stretch of the fabric; the first time the body got all stretched out. I tried a second time so the stretch wouldn't go from top to bottom but from side to side of the bear's body. I also had a lot of trouble as a novice sewer, with the curves and staying on the lines of my traced pattern. Ultimately, I think the teddy bear came out pretty nicely, except for the one arm which is a lot higher and thinner than the other. Hopefully, the bow tied around the neck camouflages it a little, I decided it looks like he's waving. I had to search through my other books for some help finishing off the embroidered details, and Alicia Paulson's book Stitched in Time, helped me with instructions for a knotless start and burying tails. Her section at the end of the book that helps you learn techniques is well written for the beginner.But I did have one moment of personal triumph yesterday, I've learned a little bit more about my machine and successfully wound the bobbin and threaded the top needle by myself. My mom had set up the machine for me previously. I don't know why on earth I was so scared to do it, I guess the diagrams in my manual looked too complicated, with all the go around this, over this, through that...etc. I have to say, it was really easy and now I feel silly for letting my machine collect dust for the past few years. I even figured out how to use the automatic needle threader, for some reason that took me the longest! Now if only I could figure out how to keep the seam allowances the same and sew around curves! Now I've got two projects completed and my new year's resolution was to finish three!