DIY build a bear?

[3bunnies]

Planning a party for dd1 who will be 8. She is wanting a bear party, have persuaded her that a pyjama party might be more appropriate. Was thinking of decorating cups and baking them for hot chocolate, food, dvd etc. I know she would love a build a bear type thing, but it is expensive even for the home packs, and dd2 will then want to do the same a fortnight later.

Was wondering whether anyone has made their own build a bear type skins and any experience of doing it at a party, will probably be about max 10 including my 3. I already have some velour black material, some silky white material, stuffing, no eyes though. Wondered if I would manage to make some panda bears. Does anyone have a pattern? I have sewing machine, and some basic sewing skills. Obviously I would make them up first, but thinking about the sealing it up once they have stuffed it etc. Not sure I could handle a zip, though how hard can it be!

[MrsCantSayAnything]

I wouldn't try unless you're an experienced toy maker tbh. I make soft toys and velour and silky stuff will be very hard for you to work with.

You could seal with velcro but instead of attempting soft toys, why don't you make something simpler such as little bags which they can pesonalise with sequins, fabric pens etc?

[3bunnies]

We've made bags, and dinosaur tails for other parties, and dd1 really wants a bear party, trouble is by the time I have brought other material, plus the time to make it becomes more expensive. I guess I could see about making small bears, I have some furry material to try it out. or sell out to the corporates!

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

There's a company called Be My Bear that do kits for home bear building - we used them for DDs party. They're not cheap but they're cheaper than Build a Bear and I think kits are the only way you could make bears in an hour or so. You get the 'skin' of the toy and the stuffing and when you're done you zip them up (the zip is concealed and the zipper tab then gets removed). We also bought plain white t shirts for the bears and got the girls to decorate them with fabric pens so they could get creative and so we could tell them apart at the end. Both our girls love the bears so much they live on their beds with the other top-ranking toys.

[5madthings]

Www.bearfactoryparties.co.uk

They are fab!!! Great pruce you get stuffed bear or animal of your choice. Plus stuffing and a box like the build a bear ones. Plus birth certificate etc. Tbey sell clothes and accesories etc.

I recomended rhem on another thread the other day and other mnetters had used them and were happy with them, plus lots of my friends have used them and been really impressed.

[5madthings]

I did the plain t-shirt thing and fabric pens to decorate them. It worked really well, kids loved it.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

OP wants to make the skins herself....that's the point of DIY in this case.

[rockinhippy]

I think its doable, as you don't sound like a complete novice, but I would recommend getting a book -

If you've time - I have THIS BOOK It contains lots of toy pattern templates for varying degrees of easy soft toy making - including bears - many I was making as a kid myself & my DD uses it now -

& the black velvet for bears, maybe with a white satin chest plate (if its thick enough, if not, fuse it) & maybe a white nose, or eye spot, paw pads or whatever you fancy

Offer the girls various ribbons cloth scraps for the neck tie & offer buttons they can sew on as eyes - or you can buy the proper ones, though cheaper online

& you can make your stuffing go a lot further by padding it out with chopped up old carrier bags - recycling too

[rockinhippy]

That should have read & the black velvet for bears Sounds lovely to me

[3bunnies]

That's a good idea rockinhippy to make them mainly in the velvet, and then get them to accessorise, I could maybe experiment with a little white felt fused on top. Dd2 wants me to make a penguin, so might find out then how the fabrics work together. The other idea I had, which would definitely be cheating is to get some cheap bears, cut a hole in the bottom, take the stuffing out, add some velcro and then restuff them.

My friend had the be my bear ones, and they were cute, not sure I could talk dh round to it he already thinks they have too many soft toys, and we spend too much for birthday parties, and if dd2 gets a sniff of it she will definately want the same for her birthday, which means six just for my dc, then again not sure I will find the time for making ones for her friends too. Got a few months to decide. Thanks, will look into that book too.

[SoupDragon]

If you don't want to make them, I spotted this company locally. The link appears to be to two Build A Bear sized bears for £4.99 each. They also seem to sell party kits and clothes.