Little Bears and Dogs from scraps

The last couple of weeks I decided I needed to use up most of my mohair stash before I ordered more. These 3 bears are from small pieces that were left over. Andy Panda is already on his way to a new home. The other two, Summer and Lola, will be available on Bear Pile . I also made a tiny string jointed dog. The plan is to make several of them before the Greater Orlando Doll Show on May 5th. The little dogs are the perfect pet for Barbie. As for the plan to use up my mohair stash before ordering more.....fail. Put in an order yesterday.

Monkey Business

He is finally done, my first mohair monkey. I have been working on him on and off for at least 3 months. His face was the problem. It just wouldn't take the direction it was supposed to. He even got a second head. Don't know why this mohair(which I love). For some reason it said monkey. 
Presenting Kazoo! He is 7 1/2 inches tall sitting. His arms, legs, and tail are wired. The leather collar has copper colored star shaped brads. Not sure if he will be my last monkey or not.

WIP

I spent the holiday goofing off. Well, not really, I tried to make some little dresses for Pippa but wasn't happy with any of them.
This afternoon was spent needle felting a nose for this dog. It will be a tricolor Beagle for a custom order. 

A couple of packages arrived on Saturday. Some eyes and other supplies AND some mohair. I keep saying I'm going to use up the all the mohair in my stash before buying more BUT....that never seems to happen. Now, to get busy and turn that mohair into little critters.

Lil Ellies

Although our business had us on the road several times this week I did manage to get some sewing done. The house still needs vacuuming very badly. Bill works in his garden everyday so between him and the dogs I have almost as much sand as the beach.
These little elephants didn't all get done this week but after dying some fur the last one was completed and little flowers sewn by their ears. The "herd" is made from 4 different lengths of mohair. Two of fur that has been hand dyed. They all have glass google eyes but 2 have 11mm eyes and 2 have 10mm. Each measures 5 1/2 inches tall except the dusty pink one in the front. She only measure 5 inches and I'm not sure why. I was thinking of saving them for the Tampa show in February but I might list a couple on etsy and see what happens. I'll have time to make more before February...right?

Halloween....already

I think it was the week before last when someone mentioned Halloween and I got the bug. Meet Mischief and Mayhem and their bag of tricks. For some reason Halloween always brings black cats to mind before pumpkins, ghosts and ghouls. This pair took shape in my brain and the pattern was made up as I went along. I have to admit a certain car insurance companies ads about mayhem contributed to their names.
Don't they look like they are ready to start trouble? They would just love to go to a new home where they could use some of their tricks.
Created with sparse black mohair they are 5 inches and 4 inches tall. Non jointed, they have glass google eyes, horse hair whiskers and wool felt ears. I hoped to list them on etsy today, but I had to help a friend take his dog to the vet. It will be $80 for the set and of course their bag of tricks is included.

Where does the time go....??

I try to post at least once a week but it has been more than 10 days since my last post. I have been reading and playing I finished the book I mentioned, took it back to the library, checked out another and finished it. I have everything together to start crocheting but haven't begun. I did reroot a Strawberry Shortcake doll with bright red mohair. That was a learning experience and I just purchased some longer mohair to do another.
I have worked on some bears and dogs. I have a custom order Pekingese three quarters finished. Just waiting on some eyes I ordered(after waiting a week I found out my original order was lost) to finish her. I dyed some cream mohair with lemonade kool aid and it came out a nice muted yellow. The mohair has been cut and pinned waiting to be sewn. I also cut out 2 black and white Puppy Grrls....breed to be revealed later.
Today we are headed to a birthday get together for Bill's aunt. A beautiful, warm day in Florida!

Helpful Husband

I finished this little bear a couple of nights ago. While sitting on the sofa with Bill, I was holding this bear and trying to decide what kind of dress to make for it. Normally the most I get out of Bill is "That's cute." I must have said something out loud about deciding on a dress. Bill took the little bear and said "Dress?" "This is a boy bear."


I looked at the little bear again and said "Your right!". Bill was amazed as he rarely hears that phrase from me. Now I had to figure out what to put on Toby(the name came to me immediately). He needed something more than a ribbon around his neck. So I went digging in the fabric boxes and Toby is now properly dressed.

Playing with Kool Aid

I spent part of 2 days this week dying fur with Kool aid. I had a lot of fun and the kitchen smelled like all kinds of sweet flavors.


I'm working on two different projects. I used orange Kool Aid for the first.




This is going to be one of my Kitty Kibbles.




Then I used lemon-lime, cherry, blueberry, and some more orange. The purple is Rit dye because grape Kool Aid comes out more mauve than purple.




Can you guess what this is going to be? Well, now that I have posted the photo I sure hope it turns out like I have imagined!

100th Post Giveaway!!!

Well, it has taken quite a while for me to reach my 100th post as I am not a daily blogger. To mark this occasion I am going to giveaway "Tou Tou" the little pink poodle. She is only 4 1/2" tall and made of pale pink mohair. According to my pet name book Tou Tou is French slang for "doggie". She has amethyst colored glass eyes, a needle felted nose, and some "bling" for a collar.
I consider myself a Teddy Bear Artist but a lot of my focus is on dogs. So I decided it was fitting that a little dog go to a new home in celebration of my 100th post.
Just leave a comment and in a few days I will put the names in a bowl and have my DH pull one out. I would have Lexi or Lucy do it but it might interfere with snack or nap time.

Schnapps the Schnauzer

Remember my dye day last week, well this little Schnauzer is one of the critters to come from the dyed pieces. Someone emailed me before I did a Teddy bear show in Tampa last month and asked if I had ever made a Schnauzer. She attended the show and asked again. I told her I was thinking about it. I finally figured out how to get the look-with the beard and longer fur on his legs one night just before falling to sleep. He is made with 2 lengths of mohair-the shorter mohair dyed a shade darker than the longer. I added some eyebrows by dying some wool to match and needle felting them. Schnapps is only 5 1/2" tall and I am pleased with the way he turned out. The person that requested a Schnauzer answered right away so he will be going to his new home soon. But I have already had a request for another!

Dye Day

After I finished working(listing books on Amazon) I decided to dye some mohair fur. Several weeks ago someone asked me about making a Schnauzer. I finally figured out how to do it. After making my pattern, I cut out, from 2 differant kinds of white mohair, the pieces. The legs and muzzle are longer fur. The body, ears, tail, and the rest of the head are shorter fur. They needed to be 2 differant shades of gray too. I mixed up the dye bath over the stove and immersed the longer fur pieces first..they need to be lighter gray. I then added more dye and put in the shorter fur pieces and timed it. The first batch(in the picture on the left) came out too dark. I'll guess I'll use those pieces on a different dog..maybe a Boston(?). I measured out half of the dye bath and then put that much plain water back in, heated it up again. I tried again with the new pieces I had cut out from the white fur. The short white fur I used is one of my favorites and I usually have a good size piece of it on hand(luckily). I'm happy with the shade they came out the second time. While I had the grey dye bath I decided to dye another piece of the longer fur so I can make a cat. Since I had my dye stuff out I did another siamese cat dye job. A busy Dye Day!

More Mohair

I had meant to post yesterday but a line of thunderstorms came through. We are 30 degrees cooler today than yesterday.

The Tampa bear show went well. I didn't sell any Teddy Bears but did sell several of my puppies and kittens. There were many great artists there and a fairly large crowd of collectors for most of the day. I did manage to get around to see some of the wonderful bears and other creations. I know of at least 2 artists that almost sold out.

Of course there were a couple of tables of mohair for sale from two suppliers. It is wonderful to be able to sort through and just feel the different types of mohair. I wanted it all! I took a list of the type of mohair I wanted. Because I had sold some critters, I managed to come home with the mohair I wanted plus a couple of other neat pieces. I can't wait to get to work on them. The ideas are already rolling around in my head.

Free Bear Dress Pattern

This is Skylar and her dog, Dodger-the lastest in the Me N My Best Friend series. I dyed the mohair, wool felt, and the wool for her needle felted nose. I purchased the fabric I used for her dress a long time ago-just because I liked it. Actually, I had another fabric in mind when I dyed the mohair but the blue wasn't quite right. This cute fabric turned out to be perfect and the tan background goes with Dodger's coloring. I got the basic idea from an old doll book for her little dress or jumper. It turned out so cute and was so easy to make I decided to make the pattern available to anyone that wants to use it. You can find it here . I will add a link along the side for the pattern.

I'm having fun!

Boy, I'm getting a lot of bears finished for the Tampa show. This sweet little bear is Lysbet and her dog is Bitsy. I love the retro look of the dots on her dress and ribbon. Bitsy needs a collar but I can't decide what kind. I might glue some small rhinestones on ribbon.

It's also a lot of fun thinking up names. Now, after going through my baby name and pet name books I have a list of names that I think go together.

The curly matted mohair is just right for this series and a box of mohair arrived yesterday. More bears to come.

Little Mohair Dog

I got something finished this weekend. Although it didn't seem like I would ever get to sit down and sew I managed to finish "Buster". I know it's not a very imaginative name but he looks like a Buster to me. At just 4" tall standing, he is the smallest mohair dog I have ever made. Made of curly matted sparse mohair, he is five way jointed with cotter pins & fiberboard discs. Cotter pin jointing takes a bit of getting used to. Because of his small size I did all of the sewing by hand. I am happy with the overall design but will probably still tweak it a bit. I have some small leftover pieces of mohair that I think will make nice "little dogs".