Bears! Bears! Bears!  They’re everywhere!

And, now, they’re looking at me!

Look at them with their little noses, and their little beady eyes.  Watching.

Although, I suppose I’m really the only one to blame.  I did add the faces after all.

Want to see how these little faces came to be?  I thought you’d never ask.

I’m usually a big fan of safety eyes, which, ironically are not safe for kids under 3 years old.  Since I don’t know who the dolls are going to (and the instructions specifically asked for no safety eyes, and I follow rules), I made these faces with embroidery floss and little bits of felt.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

I started by gathering my materials:  1 un-stuffed bear,  2 eyes (cut out of felt), 1 triangular nose (also felt), a big rectangle of felt, about the size of the bear’s face (something happened with the photos, but the green felt and the green yarn are much closer in color than these pictures would have you believe), a needle and coordinating embroidery floss.

I used the same technique from when I made those teeny-tiny bears from Little Cotton Rabbits.  I slipped the face backing into the bear’s head, and arranged the eyes and nose on the front.  Then, I carefully sewed through the backing and the knitted face to attach the features.  I used a back stitch to sew down the eyes and nose  quite firmly.  I want to be sure that the faces don’t fall off while the bear is being played with!

Then, I made two long stitches slanting away from the bottom of the nose to create the mouth.  I like to give my dolls/stuffed animals as neutral expressions as possible, that way the kid playing with them will be able use their imaginations more freely.

Unfortunately, this bear ended up looking a little judgy.

Oh well.  He’s still cute.

Then, to give the bear a little life, I added a couple tiny stitches in white to add a ‘shine’ to the eyes.Weird how something so little can make such a big change!

How are your bears  coming along?  Do yours have faces yet?

Wait- what’s that?  You haven’t knit any yet!  Get the pattern here!