All About Ami

I used to have a teddy bear collection when I was younger, and my sister Ashley and I would dream up elaborate storylines with these bears as our cast.  And so, I was excited to work on my very first hand-made teddy bear, one of many to come.

I scoured the internet for pictures of amigurumi teddy bears, and I saw many cute images of fuzzy ones!  I researched into how they got their teddy bears so fuzzy, and I found this great tutorial by Roxycraft in which she explains how to make brushed amigurumi with a dog slicker brush.

I picked up some white yarn from Walmart that I knew would be easy to fuzz up, and I started crocheting my bear, surprisingly using this pattern on Ana Paula Rimoli’s blog even though the finished products look nothing alike!  You can see what a difference the yarn, the placement of the limbs and the nose can make even when you use the same pattern.  I made the feet a bit bigger so that he could sit, and we also decided to make our bear sad by omitting the smile.

I started off by crocheting a round ball for the head.  Ryan then helped me fuzz up the yarn by brushing it vigorously with a dog slicker brush that we picked up from Walmart. 

We fuzzed up the body and the ears and then got ready for assembly!  His limbs look so little, hey?

I attached the ears, the body, the arms, and then the legs.

And here he is all complete!

So cute and fuzzy in the palm of my hand!

Can you spot him?  He’s pretty tiny sitting in this massive chair.  Hope no one sits on him!

And one last pic looking sad atop the sugar jar.

I love using this new technique of brushing up the amigurumi to give them fur.  It gives such a nice effect!  I’m currently working on a Valentine Teddy that also has brushed fur, and he’s turning out pretty cute!  I’ll be posting about him shortly since Valentine’s Day is coming up!  Stay tuned :)