I had originally (before I restricted my Custom Work to teddies only) promised a companion puppy with Custom Teddy #15...
They did not have a contrasting colored mink stole to send me for the puppy so I will be using one of my light colored mink stoles.
"Companion Puppy"
As you can see in the photo above,
I designed my puppy to be smaller than my teddy bear.
Due to the small size I need to find a mink with short dense hairs
and a full pelt (and not the typical mink with pelts that are
sewn together in tiny strips)
This is the mink that I found in my supplies ... it is beautiful!
it is a very pale beige ... or possibly an ivory color.
it has beautifully dense hairs.
and best of all, it is a full pelt.
 |
| I have to mark the direction of the growth of the mink hairs on the back of the pelt ... then I have to lay out the pattern accordingly. |
I have no doubt that I purchased this mink stole with the intention of it becoming a series of pandas ... or polar bears ... and with the remainder of this stole, after this puppy, I will be looking forward to finding some time to making more pandas or polar bears or mice or bunnies with this beautiful mink stole.
*** Update ***
30 little pattern pieces, cut out and trimmed
... ready for hand sewing ...
Teddy is patiently waiting for it's puppy to be finished. It is getting closer: it is in 3 pieces now (rather than 30). The head, the body with legs, and the neck. The adorable white dog watching me work is my daughter's sweet dog, Tenley ... actually she wants me to STOP working and play ball with her instead.
I forgot how much work my little dogs and teddies were to create because I can only sew them by hand (the seam allowance is about 1/8 of an inch). Every seam has to be precise or the puppy or teddy will not look symmetrical. It a challenge! I'm pretty sure that is why my teddies started getting larger as I got older. Not that an 11 inch teddy is large but it is large for me because in the 1990s the typical sizes of my mink teddies was between 3 to 8 inches!!!
