At the special request of a friend of mine across the Atlantic, I said I’d give a blow by blow account of making a bear, so here’s part 1, transferring the pattern to the fur (I’m afraid I did the drawing and transfer to template plastic before she asked!) Please excuse Mr Potatohead modelling, he’ll be my less than glamourous assistant this week!

Step 1, laying the template out in the optimum way on white. As this is going to be a panda, only part will be on the white, and the rest on black.

Step 2, tracing round the template with a vanishing marker, which on this fur goes in about an hour!

Step 3, laying the pattern out on the black and the paw pad material

Tomorrow, we will be tackling the pinning and machine stitching