Something a little different
 

Made these out of my mom's (35 plus year) old black mink coat, one for each of her great grandkids. They're called Teddy Bears with a past, or memory bears. The pic doesn't seem to do their 'cuteness' much justice, but they are really cute and snuggly in person.

Turned out terrific, great job and thank you for sharing. What a treasure for the G grans
Have a Blessed day
Ellen

Beautiful and so soft and cuddly! What a wonderful treasure you created for the great grandkids!

Awesome! That's on my "to do" list.

What a treasure you've made. Very cute!

Those are adorable, and what a nice thing to do for your family!

Was it difficult to sew with the fur/pelts? I have an old mink stole I was thinking of using for this, but I don't want to fail!

What a great idea, fantastic job on the bears!

Honestly, yes, and no, to the level of difficulty... but 'failure' diffcult, not at all. I think the hardest part is making that first step to dissasemble the coat. Just a mental hurdle to overcome.

I used muslim to back all the pieces, kind of reinforcing the old 'fragile' pelts, which helped, but most of the sewing was done on my regular domestic machine. Just take your time with the cutting to avoid cutting the fur. The part I didn't like was sewing the ears on, but I'm not a big fan of hand sewing. I purchased a book on ebay, I think the name was Teddy Bears with a Past that helped out w/a lot of the 'insider' tips and beginner help. Also I picked up the child safe eyes, noses and joints from Hobby Lobby. Ultimately I'm glad I did it, but am glad I don't have another mink sitting around to make more! haha

Fabulous bears and such a great heirloom gift!