Making new clothes for Paddington

[Iwanttohavealiedown]

I was given my bear around 1980, his felt hat and coat have been ravaged by moths so I thought I'd try to make new ones for him. I am not a sewer but keen to give it a go! I guess looking for tips - can I use his old hat and coat as a template? Do I need a sewing machine or can I do this by hand? How do I know how much fabric to buy? I am clueless!

You can definitely make a pattern from the existing clothes - snip them apart as carefully as possible to keep the seam allowances intact and take lots of photos as you go, so that you know how it all fits back together. Give the pieces a gentle press and lay them out to see how much fabric you'd need.

If you google (for example) 'wool felt' you will find many places selling both 100% wool and wool mix felt.

Yes, you can use his old clothes as a pattern as Blue described. There are patterns on the net, e.g. this one. It's not right, but might help work out how much fabric you need; add some for pockets and the toggle pieces. You can sew it by hand; a decent wool felt will be easy to sew because it won't fray.

Really helpful thanks both - I'll have a look for some wool felt now.

Good to know I can hand sew. I bought a basic sewing kit before lockdown but have been looking for a little project to get me started so looks like this is it.