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Olga

A 36 cm Bear
Free Pattern by Megan Wallace

Simple to make!
Complete instructions and pattern sheet for basic teddy bear making. As a bonus, the pattern includes instructions for shading the eyes, sculpting feet and paws, and waxing the nose.

You will find Olga's instructions on this page.
For the sake of accuracy the pattern sheet is downloadable as a separate file.
Download the pattern sheet.

Reading all the instructions before you start is VERY IMPORTANT! If you don't read the instructions your bear might turn out to be someone different altogether. Olga is a traditional style bear, and easy to construct if you follow the work method described. For those bear makers who are ready to try some advanced techniques, I have added footpad and paw pad sculpting, shading with pencils, and waxing the nose. If you don't apply any of these techniques your bear will still be beautiful, but why not be a bit adventurous? If you feel that you would have done something differently, or did not understand some of the instructions, let us know. Your comments and input are welcome. We are striving to continuously improve the pattern instructions.

Getting Started
Get your tools and sewing supplies together. The following will be needed:

• Template plastic or thin card.
• Small sharp scissors for fabric cutting and paper scissors for templates.
• Lots of large head pins.
• Sewing needles and sewing thread to match the colour of your fabric.
• Very long needle for inserting eyes, sculpting and nose embroidery.
• Awl, needle nose pliers, screw driver and lock nut tool for jointing the bear.
• FrayStop. This is optional. I prefer not to use it if I don't have to, and never apply in the nose area. You will regret it when you can't get your embroidery needle through the fabric!
• Hemostat for turning and stuffing pieces. A stuffing stick also works well on large bears.
• Fibre fill stuffing, as well as steel or glass filling to add weight to the bear. Adding a bit of weight to the tummy is recommended for this bear.
• Gel pen for tracing out the bear.
• Colouring pens or pencils brown, black.
• Sewing wax and a small piece of fax paper
• Masking tape to keep fur out of the way when we do nose waxing.
• Strong (preferably waxed) thread for sculpting.

Making Pattern Templates, and Marking and Cutting out Fabric

It is best to work with a template made from rigid material. I prefer to use thin card or template plastic. Trace your pattern pieces on to the template material, remembering to transfer all markings such as openings and joint position. Cut out neatly using paper scissors.
Before marking out the pattern pieces on the wrong side of the fabric, determine the direction of the fur pile on your fabric. Put the piece of fabric down in front of you, with the fur side up. When you stroke over the fur it should feel smooth stroking towards your body. Lay the fabric face down with the fur 'growing' towards you. When you lay out your pattern on the fabric, make sure that all the arrows are pointing towards you as well.
The pattern pieces indicate on which colour fur they should be marked out on. Your kit contains ample fabric, I did not include a pattern layout. Mark the pattern pieces on the wrong side of the fabric using a gel pen. Beware of dark coloured pens on white mohair! We don't want our markings to show through.
If you are concerned that the fabric might fray, paint a thin line of fray stop around all the pattern pieces and let it dry before cutting out.
Cut out the teddy bear pieces using small sharp scissors. Take care not to cut the fur, only the fabric backing.
Seam allowance for this bear is 5mm.
Pieces are stitched together using backstitch or stab stitch. Use a double strand of good quality sewing thread. Try to keep your stitches small and tight. The bear is rather big. If you are in a hurry, you might want to use your sewing machine instead of hand sewing the long seams.
If you need help with hand sewing stitches, you can download a quick guide here here.

Ears:
Hand sewing is the preferred method for bear artists. We will use the ears to practice our stitching, tension and seam allowance. Cut one ear and cut one ear reversed from pale mohair, and the same again from dark mohair. Place one pale and one dark ear together and sew as indicated by the picture below. You will notice that the ears go together in definite pairs. This is because the ear is shaped to form an earlobe. Do not sew around the bottom corners of the ears. Turn the ears right side out using a hemostat and smooth the curve of the ear from the inside. Close the bottom of the ear with whipstitch. Pick out any fur trapped in the seams with a needle. If you are using a very dense fur, you might find that the corners of the ears become very bulky when you attach them to the bear's head. This can be fixed by snipping fur off the ear corners as shown in the diagram below. Repeat all steps for the other ear.

Sewing the Side Head and Gusset
Place the two side heads together and sew from A to B. DON'T CUT OFF YOUR THREAD. Continuing with the same thread sew the gusset to both sides of the head from D to E. Turn the head right side out. Use your hemostat to press out the seams. Use a needle to pick out any fur trapped in the seams. Stuff the head firmly but gently. Keep in mind that it's much easier to embroider the nose when you have a firm base to work on.
Stuffing and Jointing the Head
Fill the head with fibre fill stuffing. Use your hemostat to insert small pieces of stuffing at a time. Make sure that the muzzle area is especially firm, that the cheeks are nicely rounded and symmetrical to one another, and that the back of the head is stuffed round as well.
Use a long needle and strong thread to run a gathering thread all the way around the neck opening. Start at the centre back of the head and leave a long tail so that you can knot the thread ends together to close the opening.

To assemble the neck joint, first open the split pin and hang a metal washer into the eye of the split pin. Next slip a metal washer over both legs of the split pin, followed by a wooden disc. (if your joint set had two larger discs, use one of these). Insert the completed joint into the neck opening so that the shaft of the split pin is protruding from the neck.
Pull the gathering stitches closed over the joint, knot securely and sew away the ends of the threads. I always use my thread ends to whipstitch over the neck disc, making very sure that the disc can't slip out and my bear be decapitated!

The face is an area of the bear where you have the most opportunity for creativity. Refer to the picture on the cover as a guide, but feel free to give your bear a different expression.
I like to pin the whole thing up, meaning that I attach the ears, eyes and nose with pins to the face. This gives me a feeling for where I am going, and then I find it easy to get to work finishing the face.
In order to ensure that I get the facial features symmetrical I like to work from the back of the head forward, which means that I always do things in the same order- first the ears, then eyes, and last of all the nose and mouth.

Attaching the Ears
Pin the ears to the head so that the top corners of the ear just touch the gusset seam. When viewed from the side, the bear should have an equal amount of forehead and side head showing on either side of the ear.
Attach the ears to the head using ladder stitch.

Attaching the Eyes
Use black headed pins to mark the eye position. If you are not sure where to place the eyes, measure the distance from the ear to the nose along the gusset seam. The eyes are placed more or less halfway between the nose and the ear, on the gusset seam. This is my general rule for eyes, and it works for most bears. Once you get confident, you can play around by placing the eyes closer together, or further apart.
If you would like to do a bit of shading around your bear's eyes, now is a good time. I like to use watercolour pencils. They are (relatively) inexpensive, easy and clean to use, and if you buy artist's water colours, they will be colour fast.
Here's how to do it:
Get a small mug of water and a large paintbrush. ( I don't use a brush, I just dip my fingers in the water and stroke over the bear, but if you are fussy, by all means get out your brush). The idea is to dampen the entire area around the eye socket with water. Now you take the pencil, brown or black or whatever you are using, and draw a tight spiral in the eye socket, starting where your pin is. Use your fingers or the brush to blend the colour into the fur, so that you get a nice blurry shadow. Keep the size of the eye in mind, beginners usually make their shading spots too small, and end up covering it when they insert the eye.
When you are satisfied with the eye colour, set the bear's head aside to dry for a little while.
Once the eye shading has dried completely, loop each glass eye on to strong thread and thread into a long sculpting needle. With an awl make a small hole where each eye will be positioned. Take the eye threads through the head and come out at the centre back of the head as close to the base of the neck as possible. The wire loop at the back of the eye should sink into the head. Repeat for other eye. Knot the two eye threads together and lose the thread ends through the head before snipping off.

Embroidering the Nose
The nose is triangle and the mouth a smiley V. Use pins to determine the nose shape and embroider an outline with long stitches. Snip off all the fur inside the nose embroidery area to prevent fur sticking through between embroidery stitches. Fill in the nose outline with even satin stitches. The mouth is embroidered using three long stitches.
If you need help embroidering the nose, you can find some helpful tutorials on the Tin Soldiers Website.
Have a look at Noses Tutorial 1 and Noses Tutorial 2.
If you want to wax your bear's nose, now's the time! Before you start, check that the nose is neatly embroidered, waxing won't hide your blunders, only make them worse. Wax also works best on a nose that is well covered with several layers of stitches.
Here's how to do it:
Find some masking tape, sewing wax (usually a round yellow disc in a clear plastic container) or beeswax, a piece of old fashioned fax paper (thermal paper of the kind that ATM's spit out also works well), and a heap of patience.
Start by taping the fur around the nose out of the way using masking tape. Then rub over the bear's nose with the wax, working up and down, in the same direction as your embroidery stitches. The wax will appear white when it rubs onto the embroidery thread. Take the piece of fax paper, and vigorously rub the nose, also in the same direction as your embroidery stitches to prevent them from separating. Shortly the friction from the paper should melt the wax into the nose, and it will get a very slight shine. This is where you need to get out the heap of patience-the process must be repeated until the nose takes on the appearance of polished leather. I usually do at least seven layers of wax. If you think this takes too long, and is too much work, believe me, it's worth the effort. No other waxing method works as well.
Remember to take the masking tape off the bear's face straight away when you are finished with the nose. If it gets a chance to settle you will pull out the fur when you take it off.

Sewing the Body
Place two body halves together, furry side on the inside, and sew all the way around, leaving an opening where indicated. Turn the body right side out, smooth the seams with your hemostat, and pick out any trapped fur with a needle.

Sewing the Legs
Fold a leg in half, furry side on the inside, and sew from A to B, then from C to D. Stitch the footpad into the bottom of the foot. The footpad will be easier to sew into position if you stay-stitch it at the toe and heel before sewing all the way around. Tip: I always sew around the footpad twice. This helps the line where the suede joins the mohair to be smooth when you stuff the bear.
Turn the leg right side out, smooth the seams with your hemostat, and pick out any trapped fur with a needle.

Sewing the Arms
First sew a paw pad to each inner arm. Place one inner and one outer arm together, furry side on the inside, and sew all the way around, leaving an opening where indicated. Turn the arm right side out, smooth the seams with your hemostat, and pick out any trapped fur with a needle.

Jointing the Head
On the body, use an awl to make a hole on the joint marking for the head.
Insert the shaft of the split pin protruding from the bear's neck through the hole, slip a disc over the pin on the inside of the body, followed by a metal washer. Use needle nose pliers to turn the ends of the split pin.

Joint and Stuff the Arms and Legs
Use an awl to make holes for the joints in the arms, legs and body. There are dots on each body part which indicate where the joint screw must go through the fabric.
Slip a metal washer over a screw, followed by a wooden disc. Push through the fabric of the arm or leg from the inside of the limb. Now push the screw end through the body fabric from the outside on the marking for the limb. Inside the body, slip a wooden disc over the screw, followed by a metal washer and the locknut. Use a locknut tool to tighten the limb. Repeat for all the arms and legs.

Once the joints are in position, stuff the arms, legs and body with fiberfill. You may add plastic pellets and steel shot to the body and feet to give the bear weight if you prefer. Close the openings with ladder stitch.

Sculpting the Feet and Hands
For sculpting you will need strong thread. For uniformity I like to use the same thread that I used to embroider the nose. You will also need quite a lot of pins, and a long sculpting needle. I find it easiest to demonstrate sculpting, but the next best thing is a photo. Here we go!

	Place a row of pins on each hand and foot. You can use thee or four pins per pad, the choice is yours. (There's an interesting little story about Tree-Pins and Four-Pins. No time to tell it now, but I will place it on the Tin Soldiers website some time). I usually place the pins about one third down the foot. If you go to close to the top, your toes will pucker when you pull the sculpting threads tight. It is a good idea to pin all the pads before you start sewing. That way you know that they will be even.
	Start with a knot in your thread. I always leave the leg open after stuffing so that I can lose my threads through the opening, but giving the knot a firm yank will usually pull it under the skin, and is also good enough. Bring the needle out at the first pin, and re-insert about 2mm further, with the needle going straight through the foot, and coming out at the top. This is where the claw will start at the top of the foot. You should now have a small visible stitch on the footpad. (Also see picture 4). Place your thumb on the small stitch and pull up the thread tightly, until there's a dent in the footpad. Sculpting, voila!
	You will notice that the small sculpting stitch disappears into the fur when you pull it tight. Push the needle into the dent that you created with your first sculpting stitch, and bring it out at the next pin. When you pull the needle through you should have your first visible claw.
	First claw is stitched, second claw's sculpting stitch is visible before pulling tight. Now you continue by repeating the previous steps until all the claws are stitched.
	All the claws are done! Notice the little furrow where the claw stitches enter the footpad? That's my sculpting stitches working, helping to curl the toes. You might also notice a little dent halfway into the remaining part of the footpad. I made a single small sculpting stitch here, just to give some definition to the heel. You need to end off your sculpting thread very securely, or the sculpting stitches will relax. I usually sew through the leg several times, or sew some stitches in the stuffing if the leg is still open.
	As a nice finishing touch, and to help accentuate the recessed areas made by sculpting, I used brown watercolour pencils to shade the footpad once it is completely finished. If you haven't worked with watercolour pencils before, check the notes on making Olga's face. The paws are made in the same way as the footpads.

Finishing Touches
Check carefully for fur trapped in seams and give the bear a good brush. Smooth the fur over the face. Using small very sharp scissors cut away any fur that obscures the eyes.
I tied a wide ribbon around Olga's head. She will also look good wearing accessories of your choice.

Olga is a FREE pattern, designed for you to make and enjoy.You may use the Olga pattern to make Bears for yourself, and to give away. I would like it very much if you tell your friends where you got the pattern, so that they can visit my website too. If you are going to use my patterns to make items to sell, you need permission. If you intend to teach workshops using my patterns, you will also need permission. If you intend to place projects from these pages onto another webpage, or publish it in any other form, you will need permission. Email Megan. Please do not make me grumpy by taking my stuff and using it for your own profit without asking. Others will suffer - I will stop being generous by placing free stuff on the website.

You can download patterns at
www.loubear.com and www.tinsoldiers.co.za

You can also order patterns from
Tin Soldiers Studio
Cell: 083 305 5954
E-mail: soldier@lantic.net
Address: PO Box 61095 Pierre van Reyneveld 0045 REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Visit our website: www.tinsoldiers.co.za

Did you know that Olga has brothers??? Oliver and Oscar are included in the full version of the pattern, which includes variations for three heads, three bodies, and three types of paw and footpads. Instructions for polymer clay details and open mouth also included. The Olga/Oliver/Oscar pattern will be available for sale in April 2008.

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