Tramp Heart Bear Completed!

The Tramp Heart Bear is complete! If you want to see previous posts on the progress of my little project check my Getting My Craft On and Adventures in Sewing posts.

I'm proud of myself for a few reasons:
1. I re-learned how to use a sewing machine.
2. I've sewn something that actually looks like its supposed to.
3. I've actually completed a project... I have a bad track record of starting projects and not finishing them.

After I had sewn the arms and legs, I knew I had the hardest part ahead of me. I had to stuff the arms and legs and then pin them onto the body and sew the body together. I was a little worried about sewing stuffed limbs on with a sewing machine... but it actually wasn't so bad.

Once the ears were sewn onto the head and the limbs were sewn onto the body, all I had to do was stuff the head and body and then attach the two. The book says to attach the head and body with a straight stitch using floss... however, I'm already starting to doubt whether this was a good way to do it. Edison has already started picking at the floss and I'm a little worried that if the floss breaks at any point, his whole head will fall off. I might remove his head and find a firmer way of attaching the two pieces so I don't have to worry about decapitation.

Ears, arms, and legs 

A glimpse of the finished product once sewed and stuffed 

I had to use safety pins as I still don't have any regular pins. Note to self... it's much harder to use safety pins with a sewing machine as they are much bulkier.  

All pinned together and ready to go 

Poly-Fil... I hardly made a dent on this bag... I'm going to have to find something else to stuff... 

Fluff for brains 

Sewing the arms and legs on 

Attaching the head to body with floss 

Ta Da! Done like dinner

Edison really took a liking to the little bear right away. As soon as I gave it to him he hugged him and gave him a kiss... it was really cute! I wish I had the video camera out. Edison played with him for quite a while and took him everywhere he went.

At bedtime last night, Edison wanted to cuddle with his new friend and actually fell asleep holding onto him. That was when I really started to worry about his head falling off... because when Edison wakes up in the morning he usually doesn't cry... he sits up and plays in his crib. I was a little worried that he'd pick at the floss and off would go the head.... and then he'd probably pull all the stuffing out while he was at it. But I called home today and Jonathan assured me that the bear was still in one piece. Whew!

Well, my first little sewing project is complete and I'd say it was a success. Onto the next project... I just have to figure out what it is first...