Teddy!

In the beginning of my project I came up with the narrative based around a key I saw at the Imperial War museum. Where a soldier brings home a 'souvenir'  of his time in the trenches for his young son at home. in this case the key from a railway station in Ypres. However on reflection I don't think that a key as a prop will look effective in the final photo shoot we do at the end on the project. So I wanted to represent the child through another prop, and came up with the idea of making a teddy bear from scratch, as that would be how they used to be able to entertain their children, using whatever they could find.


I couldn't find a teddy pattern with the design I was imagining, so I had to create my own pattern. I drew the shape to size with paper, cut out the individual shapes, traced round them onto cardboard, so I had sturdier versions to work with on the fabric.

I noted down what each shape represented and how may pieces I would need to cut out for each. Then I layed the pattern pieces onto the fabric, and drew a seam allowance, before cutting them out. 

I started by sewing the ears together, then sewing the mouth piece onto the face, I did this separately so that when it is stuffed later, it stands out. Once the ears were stuffed, I could sew the onto the top of the head, then I could stuff the head once the back piece was sewn on. 

I then marked onto the front body piece the positions for the arms and legs. These needed to be sewn together and stuffed before being sewn onto the front body piece.

  I found it quite tricky to attach the back body piece once the arms and legs were on, so I ended up having to cut it down the middle, sew on each side one at a time, and hand sewn the pieces together up the middle of the back piece. Although I didn't anticipate doing this I did think that it worked well with the design, and the story behind who's it is, and that they would have to keep repairing possessions, as civilians during the war wouldnt have been able to buy new things all the time. I added the traditional buttons for eyes, again to show repair after wear and tear I chose to use different mis-matched buttons. 

As the fabric I used was new, it needed to be aged. I tried bleach, which didn't work because the fabric was naturally coloured. Instead I experimented with real food, brown emulsion and acrylic, and I personally preferred the dark brown emulsion as it gave a more authentic grubby look. 

And here's the finished article. (apologies for rubbish quality photos, my camera is broken!!)