More Mohair Adventures

I finally purchased some Mohair fabric and I am ready to make my first bear. I decided to use a pattern I love for making puffy cheeked bears. I know the pattern well and chose it so I would have one less guessing thing going on. I have never worked with mohair before and so far I am finding it to be a pleasure. I am using a Cream color ( I like cream and white bears) in a medium density with a curly S finish and about 1 1/2 inch pile. Medium density means that while there is a lot of fur the background fabric is still visible. I chose my background to be the same color as the fur. The finish of the fur is really curly in a "S" wave. Very pretty. This is going to be a girl bear...

The pile length is how long the fur is in length from top to bottom.

Mohair I chose to work with for my first bear in this fabric

 When I chose my pattern I remembered a tip from Nancy Tillberg of Kran-bearies. I made the extra pattern pieces for the head, legs, arms, ears ,body, etc. That way I lay out a pattern for everything I need to cut, so I can place them and rearrange them until I find the cutting layout that will minimize the amount of fabric I use. I ended up using about 17 x 24 inches for this bear who will be about 14" tall when done. I also marked an arrow to show the direction of the fur. Took me along time to figure that out : )

Pattern pieces laid out to minimize fabric lost during cutting

 Once the pattern is placed how I want, I trace around everything working slowly and carefully with permanent marker and a very thin line from it. I cut slowly ( I think I did not breathe the whole time I cut). Cutting the backing only and not the fur was easier than the polyester faux fur I normally use- that is really dense so you have to be super careful. Good Practice for here. I used a soft champagne color of ultra suede for the paw pads and ears.

Pattern pieces traced and ready to cut.

Once the parts are all cut, I match and sew them together. This time I used a sewing machine with a 1/4 in seam allowance and a 1.5mm stitch. I made sure all openings for turning were edged with a Fray Stop adhesive just in case. Mohair frays like Tissavel fur, so this for me is necessary. I still hand stitched the head- especially the nose area to make sure I got symmetry.

The parts are very easy to turn. Here is the bear all sewn and turned.

 

My next step is to stuff and joint the bear. I am not sure of my finishing steps I want to use yet, but I know scissor and needle sculpting will be used to some degree. I always use them.