Cuddly Bear Cushion

Not quite a year later and I'm finally getting my machine out again! I have to give credit to a friend of mine because she needed some pants hemmed. We got to looking at my One Yard Wonders book which I left out after she left. In the morning Liam found the book and begged to "help" me with the Cuddly Bear Cushion. (AKA the bear/elephant/pig/anteater) So off we went to get the supplies. I let him pick out whatever fabric he wanted, so he chose a Batman print. (This is actually a good thing, as the finished project had some flaws that needed camouflaging and the busy pattern helped hide the "bear's" birth defects.)

First, I pinned the pattern pieces to the fabric. Looks like it's going to be an easy enough project at this point:


Here are all the pieces cut out and ready to go. Notice the planet nose. Liam's choice. Still looking fairly easy...


The first step was to sew the gussets together (back and belly portions that will connect the two sides of the body). In the middle is the cute little tail:


Then came the difficult part, sewing the straight gussets to a curved body. I got pretty caught up in the whole process, and by caught up I mean frustrated, so I didn't take any more pictures. I should have, because then the final product may make more sense to you.

Here he is, in all his glory. Please don't be drinking anything while you look at the following picture, for you may spit it out at your laughter at my absurdity to post such a thing:


At least Liam has no prejudices and loves him just as he is:


I asked him to hold it so you could see the nose, errrr, snout:


So yeah, not my most proud moment. But I'm learning! And my kid loves it, so I'm happy. Oh, Nora asked for one. I quickly found another project to do for her...

Things I Learned...
*What a gusset is.
*How to sew a straight piece of fabric to a curved piece of fabric. OK, I didn't really learn this yet. I have quite a bit of work to do on this point....
*Take more pictures throughout a project...it helps to understand where I went wrong.
*The final product doesn't always look like the picture in the book.
*My kids will love just about anything I make for them!! (Most important!!)