Life’s Little Treasures

Life’s Little Treasures is Australia’s foremost charity who provide support, friendship and information to families of premature or sick babies. Their care is available at hospitals in neonatal and special care units and close by in the community when families come home.

Sewalongs are a great way to get inspired by what everyone creates, while giving to a worthy cause. If you’re new to sewing or embroidering this is a great chance to get involved and have fun no matter what the outcome. Any excuse to put your sewing and embroidery machines to good use is a great one.

SEWALONG BRIEF

Life’s Little Treasures strives to give families the support and assistance they need during a very traumatic time with their sick or premature baby. This month, to bring comfort and support to these babies in need, we’ll be creating small, soft teddy bears. These teddy bears are the perfect gift for a baby and will represent love and support from our community.

Please note: The charity has requested that these teddy bears are created with gender neutral colours to simplify distribution to families and babies.
(Examples: Greens, soft yellows, mint blues, light greys)

Download Teddy Bear pattern →
(The pattern includes the outline of the bear’s face for those who may prefer to hand embroider)

WHAT YOU NEED

• Frixion Pen
• 1 x Neutral coloured fat quarter
• Pieces of Scrap Fabric 4 ½ x 4 ½” (Applique Heart and Paws)
• Hot Melt Web (Applique)
• Card stock
• Sewing Machine
• Thread to match bear body
• Thread to match applique pieces
• Embroidery thread
• Universal needles
• Embroidery needles
• Face Embroidery file
• Softaway
• Teddy Bear pattern →

TIP:
Cut an extra piece of stabilizer and float underneath. This supports the stitches when stitching a filled design with an outline. It gives it that extra layer of stability. 

OUR STEPS

1. Cut out the bear shape on some cardboard by hand or using the ScanNCut. You will then have a negative and positive piece of the bear (shown below). Set aside both parts.

   

2. Iron Hot Melt Web onto the back of the 4 ½ x 4 ½ “ scrap fabric. Trace the heart and paws (circles) onto the reverse side of the fabric. Cut them out and set aside.

Embroidering the bear face

1. Hoop up a piece of softaway into a 100 x 100 hoop. Cut an extra piece of stabilizer and float underneath. This supports the stitches when stitching a filled design with an outline.
2. Float the fabric on top of the softaway, using double sided tape to secure in place. Position the fabric to stitch out at least 3 inches from the top and 5 inches in from the side of the fat quarter to enable enough space to fold in half and trace the bear template around the embroidered face.

   

After the embroidery

1. With right sides together, fold your embroidered fabric in half
2. Place “negative” bear cutout on the wrongside of the fabric, centering the embroidery in the middle of the bear face
3. Trace around the bear shape with a Frixion pen. This is your stitching line.

   

4. Unfold the fabric and place the applique shapes onto the bear, iron and stitch in place. If the Frixion pen dissappears with the ironing, simply retrace again!

   

5. Fold fabric in half again.  Using matching thread to the bears body, and a stitch length of 1.2mm, stitch on the pen line.  Don’t forget to leave a 1” gap for turning. Test the stitch length on scrap fabric prior to stitching the bear.  Use a new needle when stitching such a short stitch length, this assists with pushing through the fabric.  If your machine has pivot function, switch this on!  It makes driving around the curves a breeze.

   

6. Once the bear has been stitched, trim the seam to 1/8” from the edge of the stitching line.
7. Snip the curves and turn out the bear.
8. Fill the bear with toy stuffing and hand stitch closed.

   

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HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO CREATE THIS PROJECT?

This sewalong will run from 1st – 30th September 2019. However, you can continue to donate to Life’s Little Treasures all year round.

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SENDING IN YOUR DONATIONS

The teddy bears can be dropped in or posted to any of the Echidna stores or you can send them directly to the charity:

Life’s Little Treasures Foundation
1/21 Eugene Terrace 
Ringwood, VIC 3134

Be sure to include your name, postal address and contact details with your donation.