A Sewing Finish

In spite of the directions, I managed to finish my teddy bear today.

Yesterday's post addressed the issues I had with the directions for the front of the bear (ears, hands, 2 front body pieces, and embroidering the face).

Last night I worked on the back—the two back pieces, and the leg paws. Then I redid the leg paws today. I'm still not happy, but am not enough of a sewer to know a better way to do this.

So, those legs. The directions simply state "Sew the feet paw accent pieces onto each leg following step 2c instructions." Step 2c refers to the ears, "Fold the bottom of the ear accent pieces under 1/4" and press. Position the ear accent pieces right-side-up over the ears on the right side of the bear front. Topstitch in place to close the fold."

This was how I did the ears. The bottom if topstitched down, the rounded top was topstitched, which was then sewn into the hem when the front and back were attached.

But this made no sense for the feet. Topstitch down when the leg seams are already sewn? How is that physically possible, unless sewing by hand? ON top of it, the foot paw accent pieces are huge.

First, I tried sewing them on, trimming the excess fabric that did not fit into the smallish foot opening. This resulted in two very different sized paw accents. Oops!

I ripped, and re-cut the foot accent. This time I basted around the paw accent, tightening up the piece. I then pinned it in, intentionally creating puckers. Which worked, but resulted in these puffy feet.

Interestingly, the photo in the book shows no topstitching on the ears or the foot accents. It must have been sewn an earlier version of the pattern. Apparently the text was not updated.

This was intended to be a Christmas present for my aunt. I am a little frustrated by the ugly puffy feet, but have a few months to sit on this idea.

Bear back

Linked to:
Sew Darn Crafty
Fabric Tuesday 100