I have kind of a different Whatcha Working on Wednesday this time. After the play I posted about on my main blog, we brought our niece home to work on a project. Actually she asked after the rehearsal on Friday if I could help her with a project. After putting our heads together and asking her mother, we decided to do it Sunday.
She had gotten this Build-A-Bear kit for Christmas and was a little confused about how to put it together. I guess it was decided in her family that Aunt Nea was the person to ask about this.
This pictures shows the Birth Certificate and the clothing items. That reminds me of the Cabbage Patch dolls and how the came with birth certificates. Anyone remember those?
The bear comes partially put together. The head is already finished, but the body is not. After showing my niece who is 12 years old how to start she works on it on her own.
Another picture of her working on it. The kit came with a safe sewing needle that was plastic and also came with some floss to use to sew it closed. The holes to sew the body together were prepunched.
When she finished her stitching, I looked it over and tightened up some of her stitching so the stuffing would not come oozing out. Then I let her do her own stuffing. Then she holds the bear while I stitch it firmly closed to keep the stuffing inside where it belongs.
The birth certificate has a place for height and weight. So we stretch the bear out from head to toe to get the height measurement, about 11 inches. Then we use our postage scale to weigh her. We discover she is 3 pounds 6 ounces. So niece writes that all down on the certificate, including the date we made her, it is a girl bear, eye color, fur color, owner's name and of course the bears name too. Niece decided to name her bear Rose.
The clothing came without the embellishments attached but came with the embellishments to embellish the outfit. Does that make sense? I hope so because I am not going to rewrite that part. Anyway, Niece shows me where she what she wants where and I do the ironing on part. The ribbon and the butterflies were iron on things. The butterfly on the right on the shirt was being stubborn and would not stay on very well. So after searching around in my stuff, Niece helped, I finally found some stitch witchery, I think it is called, and used that to help iron down the stubborn butterfly. The kit came with fabric paint, so Niece did that part.
Here is Rose all finished. The outfit is not on her yet because the fabric paint was still wet and we did not want to get that glittery stuff all over everywhere. We very carefully took the outfit back to Niece's house when we took her back home.
She had gotten this Build-A-Bear kit for Christmas and was a little confused about how to put it together. I guess it was decided in her family that Aunt Nea was the person to ask about this.
This pictures shows the Birth Certificate and the clothing items. That reminds me of the Cabbage Patch dolls and how the came with birth certificates. Anyone remember those?
The bear comes partially put together. The head is already finished, but the body is not. After showing my niece who is 12 years old how to start she works on it on her own.
Another picture of her working on it. The kit came with a safe sewing needle that was plastic and also came with some floss to use to sew it closed. The holes to sew the body together were prepunched.
When she finished her stitching, I looked it over and tightened up some of her stitching so the stuffing would not come oozing out. Then I let her do her own stuffing. Then she holds the bear while I stitch it firmly closed to keep the stuffing inside where it belongs.
The birth certificate has a place for height and weight. So we stretch the bear out from head to toe to get the height measurement, about 11 inches. Then we use our postage scale to weigh her. We discover she is 3 pounds 6 ounces. So niece writes that all down on the certificate, including the date we made her, it is a girl bear, eye color, fur color, owner's name and of course the bears name too. Niece decided to name her bear Rose.
The clothing came without the embellishments attached but came with the embellishments to embellish the outfit. Does that make sense? I hope so because I am not going to rewrite that part. Anyway, Niece shows me where she what she wants where and I do the ironing on part. The ribbon and the butterflies were iron on things. The butterfly on the right on the shirt was being stubborn and would not stay on very well. So after searching around in my stuff, Niece helped, I finally found some stitch witchery, I think it is called, and used that to help iron down the stubborn butterfly. The kit came with fabric paint, so Niece did that part.
Here is Rose all finished. The outfit is not on her yet because the fabric paint was still wet and we did not want to get that glittery stuff all over everywhere. We very carefully took the outfit back to Niece's house when we took her back home. I found out later from my mother that Niece really enjoyed hanging out with me and working on the project with my help. I enjoyed that time with Niece too. Now I need to come up with things to do with her brother and sister and spend one-on-one time with them too.
Makes me wish my granddaughter lived close enough so I can do some crafting time with her too, especially after she gets a little older. She is only 2 and 1/2 right now. And incidently, we gave her a Build-a-Bear gift card when we found out she loves that place. Here is a picture of granddaughter Shaylee with her now Ballerina Bunny which is what she picked out to do on her trip to Build-a-Bear.
Click here to see more of her trip to Build-a-Bear using the gift card we gave her. Wish we could have been there.
Click here to see more of her trip to Build-a-Bear using the gift card we gave her. Wish we could have been there. 
8 comments:
I didn't know they sold kits to actually BUILD your own bear at home. That's neat! It's a great memory for you and your niece, too :)
I bought Af a few crafty things for Christmas. She wants to do whatever I'm doing and it's hard to explain to her that some things are too far advanced for her! LOL I bought her a simple sewing kit that is just a bear and a heart made of felt with holes and you put it together using yarn. I also got her plastic canvas, thinking she would get the idea of the up and down with the needle. I started doing those things when I was her age and LOVED them, however, she's impatient! She wants everything done NOW and gets upset when she makes a tiny mistake. Maybe I was the same way? I don't remember.
Have a great day :)
Leslie
What a fun project - sounds like you did a great piece of bonding there! Not only on the bear, ha ha.
My daughter loves Build A Bear so the at home kit would be fun.
Of course you can do tiers on your windows! I figured out how much fabric I needed using an on-line calculator for curtains. It told me how many panels but I knew already that two would suffice. What you need to do is take your 91" and multiply by 2.5. This gives you how much yardage you actually need so that your curtains bunch and don't lie flat. Now you would divide that into two for two panels but that gives you still a BIG panel. Four would probably work best for you! I guess the only issue would be the curtain rod, huh? Think outside the box with that one. Maybe PVC or pipe? Something thin of course. I have used dowel rods but I don't think you can get them that long...can you?
I have learned that SOMEHOW it can be done...you just have to figure that out :)
Leslie
My girls would love that project. Where did you find the kit?
LIsa
www.primroseparlor.blogspot.com
www.houseofmanyblessings.blogspot.com
How adorable! Aunties are a good influence for our next generation of crafters.
I didn't even know that they sold kits to make them at home! About eight years ago Kellianne got hooked on Build-a-Bear. I still display them on holidays in all their finery! I'm planning on taking Savannah down to make one when she's three years old. I figured she'd be old enough to really get into it then! We'll see what life brings. This was a fun post!
Hi there. Thanks for your comment on my blog and thanks for following my blog. I love the teddy kit that you neice has. It is just adorable and it looks like heaps of fun to make.
Linnea, I'll bet your niece will never forget that day. You made a wonderful memory for her. We went to the Build A Bear shop at downtown Disney when my son was little and he made a monkey. He is 16 now but he still has that monkey and a fun memory of putting it together.
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