Bailey Bear – a teddy to hug

It is a plain fact – I make things that I love. With toys, I’m often inspired by the children I know – I look at their soft toys and observe how they carry them – how big they are. Are they held by the paw, the ear?…frequently by the foot.

You might have thought that I have made enough bears and bunnies. But there is always a new yarn, a new size, a new child that inspires me and so I have to make a new design.

Bailey Bear is a good ‘best friend’ size. Not a baby bear – but a traditional ‘this is my very special soft toy’ size. I have made the feet in a way that I really like. I have thought about the length and width of his arms. This bear also has a tail. Being specific the bear is approx 35cm tall (excluding the ears) and 20cm at the widest part.

You know that the face matters a lot to me. A kind smiley face is very important. In the majority of my designs I like to work from the nose out, as this enables me to place the ears exactly where I want them. I have gone for a larger eye, because this adds to the friendly appearance.

If we want to go all technical I have used a nice tweed DK yarn. I’m loving tweed yarns at the moment. The little flecks in the fibre gives a little life to the finished crochet fabric.

Because winter is around the corner, I occurred to me, wouldn’t it be fun to add in a little cardigan, perhaps even a bobble hat and a key hole scarf. Let’s be honest I have been making key hole scarves for me – why not Bailey?

The bobble had is striped – but you could very easily make it plain. The cardigan is a new pattern. I made the sleeves first and then worked on whole strip for the body of the cardigan and added in the sleeves as I got towards the yoke. All you need to do when you finish is to sew up the sleeves under the arm and sew on a little button.

I have made the first clothes in my festive favourite of Duck Egg Blue with Red and Cream. But you choose what you have in the stash.

In my imagination, this is the sort of bear that would look just gorgeous peeking out of a stocking on Christmas morning. All smiles and cheers of joy. Immediately the ted would be tucked under the arm and new adventures would be planned.

I think I could add to the wardrobe – what do you think? But for winter I think Bailey will be just warm enough. I have placed a PDF pattern in my blog shop for just Bailey and if you want to make the clothes there is an additional pattern. Just to be safe you will need 100g of DK yarn for Bailey.

Well I hope you like my new bear. I really rather fond. Do tell me about new clothes ideas and I will add them to a list. Have a happy hooky week.