Teddy Bear Tutorial

Thank you for visiting my website and for purchasing one of my quilt panels from "Teddy Bear's Picnic".
I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the quilt and the adorable matching teddy bear, which you can complete using this tutorial.
Please feel free to browse this website for other great tutorials and to see more of my other fun designs.
xx Melly

Before you begin - please make sure that you only use polyester thread for the construction of your bear and please adjust the stitch length on your sewing machine to a small stitch length (approx 1.5 - 2) to ensure strong seams that will not split.
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• Take the "bear" section of your quilt panel and carefully cut out all of the bear shapes along the outside edges.

• Take one of your ear front pieces (with inner ear) and one of your ear back pieces and pin these on top of each other, right sides together.  Repeat with you other ear front and back pieces.

• Take two of your arm pieces and pin these on top of each other, right sides together.  Repeat with you other two arm pieces.

• Take your pinned ears and arms to your sewing machine and sew these together using a 1/4" seam allowance.   For the arms leave the top straight edges open for turning and stuffing.   For the ears leave the bottom ear edges open for turning.

• Trim the seam allowances to approximately 1/8" (with pinking shears if you have them) and turn the arms and ears all right side out.  Press the ears.

• Stuff the arms with polyester toy fill.  Stuff to the ends firmly and then leave the top 1" unstuffed.  Please note: you can find a great tutorial here with stuffing tips.

• Take your head front and one of your ears.  Place the ear on top of the head, right sides together as per the following photo.  It should be approximately 1/4" outside of the printed stitching line.  Pin and then machine tack in place approximately 1/8" from the raw edges.  Repeat with the other ear on the other side of the head.

• Take your body front and your arms.  Place the arms onto the body front as per the following photo.  The tops of the arms should be approximately 3/8" in from the raw side edges .  Pin and then machine tack in place approximately 1/8" from the top raw edges.

• Take your head front and your body front and place these on top of each other, right sides together.  Meet up the neckline edges neatly and pin together in place.

• Sew together with your sewing machine using a 1/4" seam allowance to attach the body to the head.

• Take your body back and your head back and pin these together along the neckline by placing a pin 3/4" in from both sides.  Sew the two pieces together only from the side edges in to the pins, leaving the middle section unstitched as your turning gap.

• Iron the seam open at the neck back to neaten your turning gap.  This makes sewing it together later a little easier and neater.

• Place your body front and body back on top of each other, right sides together, and pin neatly together.  Match up the neck seams first for a neat end result.

• Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew the body together all the way around the bear.  Please make sure you maneuver the arms out of the way when sewing the neck seam and body sides to ensure that you do not accidentally capture them in your seam.

• Snip into curved edges as per the following photo, or if you have pinking shears you can trim the seam allowance with these instead to give more movement.  Please be very careful to not get too close to your stitching line as this may weaken your seams.

• Turn your bear right side out through the gap in the back of the neck.  Turn the arms through first before continuing with the rest of the body.

• Stuff your body firmly with your toy fill through the turning gap. 

• Continue until you are pleased with the look of the toy from the front and back.

• Ladder stitch the turning gap closed.  Please note there is a tutorial here to show you how to ladder stitch a turning gap closed.

• Enjoy your completed teddy bear!  I hope he will be dearly loved. x