TEDDY BEAR JOKES

Some teddy bears are sedate. You can tell they exist to brighten the corners in which they sit. They wear hats and enjoy minding their manners while they sip tea.

Then there’s the “Build-a-Bear” family to which Annabell and Rosabell belong. They are play pals and enjoy good jokes.

The bear in the bunny suit is one of the best jokes of the spring season, and when I adopted this notion for Rosabell, I couldn’t shake it. I had the fabric -- a soft fuzzy knit remnant taking up space in my stash, just waiting for the right project. However, finding the pattern was not so easy. I spent hours searching the internet for a bunny suit pattern.

Now, I don’t like to improvise and alter. My creativity is in my head and I have trouble putting it on paper. If I could do that, I’d be someone else. But there aren’t patterns specifically for the “Build-a-Bears,” so I clumsily step up to the challenge of redrafting patterns for other dolls and bears. Developing my ideas is a matter of experimentation and not an exact science.

First, I purchased a bunny costume pattern for American Girl dolls from Pixie Faire, but my alterations were less than satisfactory – no reflection on the pattern, of course. With time drawing short, I cut the jumpsuit using a Cabbage Patch clown pattern that Chris gave me. That worked fairly well, but (wouldn’t you just know it?) I was well into the project when I found a bunny suit pattern for a “Bitty Baby” on an Etsy Shop (Gennie Wren) that might have been better. As it was, I used it to make the hood, which in my case is separate from the jumpsuit.

Well – there it is. I finished it, and I can tell you everything that’s wrong with it. But – the overall effect is not awful, and I’m pretty sure it won’t fall apart. I hope Emmy and Rosabell have some fun with it. Rosabell can pretend to be a bunny and see if she fools anyone. KW