Free Hand Embroidery Tutorial: Mr Bear

Welcome to the second design in the Beginner Free Hand embroidery Tutorials.

Mr Bear is incredibly cute and very easy to stitch.

He would look great in a childs bedroom as a piece of hoop art or you could make a few felt bears and display them as a banner instead. Any child would love having these cuddly bears to keep them company in their room.

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Materials required…

Wool Felt, choose from an array of gorgeous colours.
Embroidery Floss, I love DMC stranded for the quality and colours available.
Sticky Fabri Solvy Stabiliser,a nice easy way to transfer a design to felt.
Needle – I use a size 5 or 7 when stitching with felt.
Scissors – nice sharp pair of embroidery scissors.
For the Hanging Decoration… Extra Wool Felt for the back, Polyfill Stuffing and Ribbon
For the Hoop Art…
5 inch hoop (Flexi hoops are great for framing),
Fabric
Bondaweb

Note on the Sticky Fabri Solvy (SFS) – This makes transferring your design on to the felt so easy and all you need to do is wash it away after.

If you don’t want to use SFS there are other ways to make templates which you can find in my Resource Library with the printable: 5 Easy Peasy Ways to create templates for felt patterns.

I stitched one bear with brown Appletons Crewel Wool and another bear with 2 strands of white DMC thread. Both looked great so use what you have to hand.

Let’s get making…

Trace the bear template (available from the link below) on to your Sticky Fabri Solvy, peel off the backing and then stick it to your felt.

Start by stitching the outer most lines in straight stitch and then back stitch around the ears…

Once you have the basic outline, add more stitches around the edge to fill in the gaps. Stitch a few extra stitches on his forehead as well just like the photo…

Next, seed stitch the lower half of his body under the muzzle…

In the same thread, back stitch the circle of the muzzle as well as the inner ears.

In white, back stitch the circles for the eyes.

In Black, satin stitch the nose and back stitch the mouth.

Now trim the excess SFS off from around your design just like the photo above.

All you need to do then is soak off the SFS – you can see the process in the Heart tutorial.

Once dry, insert a brad for each eye and flatten at the back to secure.

Now you can decide if you wish to display him in a hoop or make a hanging decoration.

How to display your bear in an embroidery hoop..

Iron a piece of Bondaweb to the Back of your bear (before you cut the felt shape out).

Using sharp scissors, carefully cut around the outer edge of the bear approx. 1/8th inch from your stitches – if you are not confident then a bigger space of 1/4 inch will still look fine.

Remove the paper backing of the bondaweb and then iron the bear centrally to your chosen piece of fabric.

Hoop up your design and display!

How to make a Felt Hanging Decoration…

Using sharp scissors, carefully cut around the outer edge of your stitched bear approx. 1/8th inch from your stitches – if you are not confident then a bigger space of 1/4 inch will still look fine.

Take your extra piece of wool felt and place on the back of the bear. Using a sewing thread to match the colour of the felt, sew a nice tiny neat running stitch around the edge sewing the 2 pieces together.

Start at one of the lower sides and sew up to the centre top – just before the centre top – take your ribbon – fold it in half and insert the 2 ends in between the pieces of felt at the top just enough so they will be sewn in securely and give you a nice hanging loop.

Continue with the running stitch and then before you reach where you started – leave a big enough gap to insert your stuffing – pop sufficiant in to plump it up so it is soft and squidgy and then close the gap and secure in the ends to the back.

Finally you need to cut the excess backing felt off (being very careful). Use the front bear piece as your guide cut around the remaining felt edges to create your bear and he will be all ready to hang and display like the one above.

If you make Mr Bear, snap a photo as I’d love to see your creations! You can send me photos at nicola@stitchdoodles.com and I will include them here with your permission. Happy Stitching!