Work In Progress

Floral Tribute

When I was last in Birmingham I went to my favourite Brummy fabric emporium the Fancy Silk Store and bought this cheerful needlecord, the sales assistant tried to convince me that it was 'Jamaican Style' (nice try!), but I think it is from the 1960's as it was way down under the biggest stack of corduroy you've ever seen!

Hood - y - you do!

I'm quite happy with this all in one 'bearinahoodie' pattern now, I'll put the old knitting machine back in its box for a while, making bear wear is less problematic worked in fabric!

How Many More Days?

Hello Hoodsie

Here's one of my hooded bears, looking a tiny bit shy though!

Hoodwinked

As promised, here are the hoodie-bear samples that I have been working on......

Fitting in Florals

After my 'knitting Disaster Week', this week is turning out much better. Instead of knitting bear outfits I am making them out of fabric - needlecord in the above instance. They are not removable but are part of the bear design and are so much quicker to make than knitting! I'll show you the hoodie design that I have been working on when I get the chance.

The Long Goodbye!

What a handsome couple!

Finished Foxes

I've finally managed to make a few sleeping foxes and one of them has already made a friend!

I've put a couple on etsy and will add others later.

Follow that Fox!

I have been working on another fox design. This time I wanted to make a sleepy fox that could tuck his tired head under its tail when necessary. It has taken a few attempts as usual ( check out the comical duck blob on the left!). I'm nearly there, the top photo is getting near to how I'd like it to look. Big thanks to Sarah for finding and washing the lovely jumbo corduroy that I'm using to create sleeping fox.

Sleep Walking

I dressed a few bears using my denim scraps, that's the long and short of it!

Don't Eat Us!

I started making these gingerbread men, then thought "what am I doing? I should be making ginger bread bears!" Here they are then, made from old corduroy and decorated with rick-rack and buttons & beads from our daughter's old broken bracelets and necklaces.

Nosing Around Hounds

More daschunds from barbarabearo central.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

This is my first daschund puppy, I hope you like it.

What a Treasure!

Hi, I got a lovely surprise today, little Desmond above was featured in an Etsy treasury of 'Doxies' - (American for sausage dog). On Etsy treasuries are member curated shopping galleries of hand picked items. check out http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=57909 the treasury is only up until Friday 15th May 2009, so quick if you want to catch some hand crafted daschund delectables!

Dash Hounds Abound!

I've been busy making corduroy daschunds or dash-hounds as I call them, for sale on Etsy and at

Bev's shop, 158A Columbia Road, London, E2 7PJ.

Bean Thinking

I had fun making these bean bags yesterday. Somehow I managed to fill them with black beans and pearl barley, managing to get half of the stuff on the studio floor! Did you use bean bags during P.E at infant school? I did, and I remember that they came in a red, blue, green or yellow cotton drill type covering. As a nursery teacher part of my job description included ordering supplies and as hard as I tried I could never find cotton covered bean bags for my pupils, nowadays they only seem to be made with practical nylon covers - shame!

Dog Days

My children were up in arms when I told them I'd like to have a miniature daschund as a pet. But Hey! That hasn't stopped me from making this little fellow, he'll be my four legged friend for now!

Toys For Girls and Boys!

I took part in a fete on Saturday in Dalston

http://myspace.com/fete_dalston_oldboysclub , it was an interesting mix of crafts, jumble, poetry, cakes, bubbles, rum punch, and music! I took along some of my bears and these rag dolls that I made a while back. A lovely lady showed interest in them and told me about a great organisation called People in Harmony, check out http://www.pih.org.uk/ it's a 'positive, interracial anti-racist' voluntary, charitable organisation - Thanks Molly!

Heart to Heart

Here are my latest creations made from my favourite fab fabrics - corduroy and denim.