Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Graduation Teddy

Happy graduation to all ye fresh grads! It's graduation season now back in Singapore, and so I'm blogging about this now even though I made this graduation teddy a couple months back in May, before I left for Africa. 


So I adapted the pattern of the Valentine Teddy by All About Ami and made it into a graduation teddy for J. Stephanie (of All About Ami) has another pattern that she created specifically as a Graduation Teddy, but I decided I preferred the look of the Valentine Teddy and so adapted it. Such an adorable teddy! All credits to her for creating such a cute bear.


I had a hard time deciding between a black bowtie or a red one, but ended up going with the black because it seemed more formal (black tie geddit haha). I think a red one would have looked cute too.

As for the mortarboard, instead of crocheting it, I made it with felt and cardboard.

How to make the mortarboard:
2 square pieces of black felt (about 5.5cm x 5.5 cm)
1 square piece of cardboard (about 5cm x 5cm)
1 rectangular strip of black felt (about 8-9cm)
1 rectangular strip of cardboard (slightly smaller than the felt piece)
1 round piece of black felt (about 1cm in diameter)
1 round piece of cardboard (slightly smaller than the felt piece)

Basically I stuck the two square pieces of black felt and the square piece of cardboard together using glue, with the cardboard piece in the middle and sewed the sides together using the blanket stitch. The circular headpiece is made by glueing the rectangular strip of black felt and its corresponding cardboard piece then sewing the ends together to make it circular. Then I glued it to the square board piece. The tassel was made from embroidery thread, with help from All About Ami's tutorial here. Finally at the top I attached the round piece of black felt (with its corresponding smaller cardboard piece) to the square board, with the ends of the tassel in between. Then I glued completed mortarboard piece to the teddy's head.


Had such a fun time making this teddy, I hope J liked it. Didn't think he would appreciate a bouquet of flowers...

Also made a simple card using card stock and black paper. Got inspiration from Googling mortarboard vector images and this was what I came up with.