Brown Gauze top

I realized when I was posting about the bear I made for my mom, I had not posted about the gift I made for her last year. Last year for my mom’s Birthday I made her a top out of a fabric that was a brown Gauze with dark brown embroidered flowers. I used McCall’s pattern # 6487 from 1993. This pattern is from their easy stitch and save series. This pattern was one of my mom’s favorite patterns and she has made it a few times herself over the years. I actually used her pattern since she had it and I knew it was a style she liked. Plus being that the top is not fitted I could guess at what size to make without having to take her measurements. this way she had no idea I was making her something and keeping it more of a surprise. I made sure to wash and dry the fabric before sewing it as I have heard, Gauze has a tendency to shrink a lot after the first wash especially when it is put in the dyer. This gauze didn’t seem to shrink much which was a nice surprise. The fabric sewed together nicely, and the pattern was easy. The best part, my mom really liked it and wears it all the time. When she opened the gift, she was like “did you use my pattern?” I told her yes and she said, “that’s my favorite pattern. I love it.”

Gray velvet bear

As I posted a while back,I was going to make my mom a teddy bear for her birthday. This bear is made using the same pattern I used to make the other bears I have made, it’s a pattern I found in a magazine several years back and has been my go-to ever since. This makes bear number seven. The bear is made from gray velvet that was a dream to sew on. It had a nice stable backing to it, which is always nice because it doesn’t stretch out of the shape the way some other fuzzy fabrics do, so there was no fiddling and fussing to get it right, it just went together. It was also nice that the nap of the fabric was so short, and I didn’t have fur flying about everywhere as I did with the other bears, I only had to pay attention to the direction of the fabric. I also figured out a slightly easier way to attach the arms and legs. When I made the other bears I tried to line up the buttons on the inside of the leg with the button on the inside of the body all at the same time. While making this bear I thought “why don’t I just stich the button to the inside of the leg with two stiches first to hold it in place; that way I only have to line up and hold one side rather than both at the same time.” that was kind of a duh moment, and made it so much more easy to sew the connecting buttons on. In the future, if I make more I will try to remember that tiny time saving trick. I thought it turned out cute and my mom loved it, so that makes me happy. Maybe this year the bears can get together on teddy bear picnic day and we can all finally see each other and be together again.