I made my first bear

Today I prepped, traced, cut and made my first Melody Memory Bear. It's my very first sewing project since moving to this house. My poor sewing machine has been sitting in the garage for 3 years. Thankfully it is in fantastic working order.

I spent most of the morning prepping the fabric. By prepping I mean ironing the wrinkles out of the fabric. The fabric has been sitting in my stash for over ten years. After ironing all the wrinkles out, I traced the pattern onto the fabric and cut everything out.

I pulled out the sewing machine. Adjusted the settings, hoping not to get a rats nest on my first backstitch. Everything went smoothly, so I began my sewing journey to making Melody.

I'm very proud of myself for trying and finishing. The instructions intimidated me. Fitting some of the pieces together gave me pause and made me question my choice in pattern. In the end I kept going and put it all together. I'm very proud of the finished bear. There are some things I really need to work on and seams I need to work on matching up but overall for my first bear, I'm very pleased.

I will definitely be making more bears for practice. With each bear I hope to improve my skill of putting it together. I'd love to start making bears out of preloved clothes to sell as keepsakes. One step at a time. My next bear will be out of a box of baby clothes I purchased on Ebay to practice with. I will definitely be using interfacing to add a bit of structure to the ears and the pads of the feet.

I can't stop looking at it. Eeek! I'm so excited and proud!