Renaissance Bear

The task put before me was to take a teddy bear purchased at St. Cross in Winchester and turn it into a suitable prize to win for the Bear Pit Rapier Tournament at Raglan Fair. The teddy bear, when given to me, resembled the following:

From Renaissance Bear

If the folk at St. Cross can get a little sweater and bandanna for him then certainly I can manage a doublet, right? Now I must keep in mind that there were two of these bears purchased, one for the rapier prize and one for the Heavy fighters prize. The other bear is being armored by one of the other folk in our shire. I can't wait to see how that one turns out and I'll be sure to post pictures of it as well.

So first things first, take scrap fabric that I can then use as a lining (yes the little doublet is fully lined) and create a pattern that would fit said bear. Having done that and having selected some of my scrap renasissance fabric for the outer piece I set to work. I ran into a little bit of difficulty since his little cuffs and arms-eyes were smaller than the sewing machine foot and so a lot of the doublet ended up being hand stitched. The finished result:

From Renaissance Bear

I used beads for his little buttons since I couldn't find anything small enough. And I'll admit I cheated and sewed them through both layers of the doublet because I wasn't about to make small button holes with the limited time I had. Luckily I found a small enough lace to use as his collar and cuffs. Although he was adorable in his little doublet he needed something more so it was decided that a flat cap would be needed.

From Renaissance Bear

And voila, my first experience sewing from scratch for a teddy bear. Not too bad I think.

UPDATE: I've acquired the armored bear from Ed and photographed him as well. Now Ed started with the same thing I did, which was that St. Cross bear pictured above. For the teddy he made metal elbows, a chest and back plate. I must say that he looks dashing in all that steel.

From Renaissance Bear

Check out his little elbows . . they even have detailed flare.

From Renaissance Bear

And so of course we had to get pictures of the two of them together!!!

From Renaissance Bear

For all the pictures I took of the bears (from all angles - not that I'm proud of the work or anything), take a look at the following slideshow:



Stay tuned for more news and pictures from Raglan Fair which is this weekend!!!!