Old shirt teddy bear

After reading an article on this guy who started making teddy bears to pay for the renovations he was doing on his house, I started thinking about the art of making something like that. I wondered how hard it could be, and if it was possible to make one without a pattern. Then I started thinking about material, and what traditional teddy bears were made of. It seemed simple enough, but I figured it was going to be deceptively so. But, since Chris was away this Sunday, I decided to give it a shot. Using some white thread and an old shirt I pulled out of the back of my closet, here's what I came up with. I haven't stitched up the middle yet because I'm still deciding how much cotton to put in the little guy.

The eyes are from an old bracelet I took apart a while ago to use some of it's other pieces.

So it's not the greatest teddy bear of all time, but I think he's pretty cute. And certainly not bad for a first try. At very least, I think he's going to make a nice welcome home present for Chris. :-)