Plaid Shirts, Wool Jackets and More!

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Wearing a Shirt

One of our clients wanted her bear to look like he was actually wearing the whole shirt.  We worked our magic and, voila!, here he is.  Much, much cuter in person (the pictures don’t do him justice!).

Race Fan

Lace Skirt

Turban Bears

These bears were made from a woman’s bathrobe and incorporated the turbans she wore as accents for the bears.

Gang of Eight

These bears were made as gifts for an entire family.  We used shirts and jeans from a beloved father, uncle, etc.  We love working with denim, as it doesn’t need to be backed and it hold it’s form very well.

Argyle Sweater Bears

Sometimes, making bears from a man’s clothes can be difficult, especially if the clothing has little detail.  Luckily, the family who ordered these bears found some interesting argyle-patterned sweaters to send us.

Denim Bears

We love to work with denim, since it doesn’t stretch and our industrial machines can handle the fabric weight.

We especially like using details from blue jeans to make it evident that our bears are made directly from treasured clothing. 

Flannel Bear in Blue

Another single-shirt bear, with features like the button placard and collar used for detailing.

Elegant Pink Bear

A Christmas gift last year, this bear was created to commemorate a mother and grandmother.  The woman’s son-in-law contacted us to make this bear out of his wife’s mother’s clothing.

The bear was a wonderful surprise gift and have his wife a tangible item to cherish during that first Christmas without her mother.

Lotsa Shirts? Make a Quilt!

One of our clients had a LOT of shirts that her husband wore to golf tournaments and on the course.  She wanted a bear made, which we completed:

But she also wanted to do something with the other shirts.  So we agreed on a price and made this for her:

The quilt is roughly 60″x60″ and features golf shirts, logos from hats and tshirt designs from their years of traveling.

It was a great way to keep all those items she just couldn’t bear to part with!

Plaid Bear in Green

Sometimes our clients only have one piece of clothing to work with.  In these cases, we can either focus on structural details (pockets, collars, buttons, etc.) to make the bear interesting or use the pattern of the fabric to add interest.

In this case, we cut VERY carefully and used the pattern to make the bear interesting:

Of course, for the person who received this bear (the deceased’s daughter) the bear was precious and instantly recognizable.

Suit and Tie Bear

When this family sent us a suit coat and a tie, the decision was easy:

I was also excited to find, in our collection, some cartoon eyes that matched the tie’s colors.  I think the eyes (black eyes would have disappeared on the dark cloth) and the ears bring the whole thing together.

Antique Bears

These clothes were sent to us to commemorate a young lady who died young.  While she passed away in her teen years, these clothes were from her younger childhood, when she was seven or eight and living in the 1910’s.

Holding garments that were made even before the Great War (WWI), I was struck by the history and the need to preserve the items as well as possible for the young woman and her daughter (both namesakes of the deceased) so they would keep the memories of the little girl who preceded them by so many years.

The dress picture above was made from a patterned feed sack and cut from a simple pattern.  The sleeves are not seamed on to the rest of the dress, but are part of the wholecloth of the garment.

We marvelled at the handstitched details on this small dress (from her toddler years):

Here are the bears we made, with ribbon added by request of the client:

Odd Combinations are Common

Sometimes, people send us some odd clothes to put together, most often because they’re commemorating two different people.  That was the case with these pieces of clothing:

But then we work our magic and turn them into:

To many, these bears look a bit strange.  I mean, who would knowingly put these colors together?

But to the family of the man and woman commemorated here, these peices of clothing are immediately recognizable and the memories that flood back are real and beautiful.

Besides, everyone has different tastes and these bears, like all the ones we make, are unique.

Smaller Bears

In the past, we’ve hesistated to make smaller bears, because it’s so hard to capture the intricacies of expression in smaller sizes.

However, we had a very insistent client and we decided to try it, and here are the results, posed with a regular-size bear:

I think they turned out beautifully. 

If you’d like to order smaller bears (these are each about 10″ tall from butt to head), please contact us prior to sending your items.

Also, we recommend that you just use one piece of clothing, since the small size means that details like pockets and collars aren’t going to translate well to the size.

Bears this size are a $25 discount off our regular prices, for all quantities.  So one bear this size will cost $110 while multiples will receive the regular discount and this additional $25 per bear.

“Scotty” Bear with Crocheted Ears

This sweet bear is made from a couple of novelty shirts.  The first had “scotty” dogs printed all over it and the second was a pinkish-purple with crocheted accents.

Our artist utilized the crocheting and buttons from the blouse to create the ears and neck-tie you see above.

Overall, she did an awesome job and the client was VERY pleased with the result.

Embroidered Shirt Bears

A grandma and a mom bear, made with some beautifully-embroidered shirts.

When we saw the quotes on the clothing, we just knew we had to include them.  Here’s the result:

Made from an almost see-through blue dress, these bears were backed with a white fabric before being lovingly stitched together.

The dress had precious few details, so we removed the lace from the neckline and added it to each bear, each of which our client wanted to be identical.

West Point Bear

“Chicago Bears” Bears

A client asked us to make three identical bears.  But presented with some difficult clothing (picked out by the client’s young children) that all had to be included in the bears, we did the best thing we could figure out – we made funky bears!

The loud shirt has been turned inside out and is now the top half of the bears.  The multicolor blanket became the legs and the “Bears” shirt was turned into appliqued decoration.

To top it all off, we split the American Flag tie into three pieces and made it all work.

The UPS Bear

This one’s kinda self-expanatory.

Multiple Bear Orders

We love making large numbers of bears for big families.

Here’s a picture of our own family, which lost three of our elders in one year.

 

Of course, large orders of bears cost a lot of money, even though we give quantity discounts.

Here’s our quantity discounting (shipping is included in our prices):

1 Treasured Memory Bear:  $135
2 Treasured Memory Bears:  $245 (a savings of $25)
3 Treasured Memory Bears:  $345 (a savings of $60)
4 Treasured Memory Bears:  $440 (a savings of $100)
5 or More Treasured Memory Bears:  Please Call (321-287-0628)

And remember, our pricing includes return shipping and insurance, which typically costs us between $20 and $25 a bear.  We’ve included that cost in our prices, so you don’t have to pay extra for packaging, shipping or insurance.

Mom & Dad Bears

These bears were made from a man’s shirt (the plaid) and a woman’s house dresses.

How Much to Send?

Generally, we can get one bear out of the fabric in a long-sleeve shirt.  Conversely, a pair of long pants also provides enough for a full bear.

However, most people send two or more pieces of clothing to make a bear with some personality.

Hannelore Bears

Karen ordered two bears to commemorate her mother, Hannelore.

One bear is monochromatic, made from black and white clothing.

The other bear features fabric from a flower print denim skirt and a flower print shirt.

Each bear has a heart on the chest with special message printed and a label on the leg that features a picture of Hannelore and a lovely sentiment which reads:
You taught us to…. Love
You taught us to…. Cherish
You taught us to…. Celebrate 

Pittsburgh Steelers Fan

These bears were made for a dyed-in-the-wool Steelers fan. 

Treasured Memory Quilt

We also make beautiful T-Shirt quilts to commemorate important events or a person’s life.

The quilt above shows our standard size:  twelve 14″ squares set against a black background.  We charge $250 for this quilt.  Price includes Priority Mail and Insurance to ship it back to you.

We can also handle quote requests.  Let us know if you would like a larger or smaller quilt and we’ll quote a price.

Commemorating a Beloved Pet

This was the second dog we made out of our Treasured Memory Bear pattern.

A good friend and his wife had to put their dog to sleep just before Christmas.  And while he knew he couldn’t get her another dog as a gift (they’d discussed it and decided to wait a while) he wanted to do something that acknowledged their loss.

So we made this dog out of several important fabrics:
   The green and blue plaid is fabric from the dog’s bed.
   The fabric for the paws is from the dog’s blanket.
   The tapestry fabric with the writing is from a pillow that the dog carried around.

Then we attached his leash and he gave the dog to his wife for Christmas.

Bear for a Young Man

 A family sent us these cherished shirts that had been favorites of a young man who died suddenly.

The family wanted something to commemorate his life and comfort his mother and grandmother who were, understandably, quite distraught.

We used two of his shirts to create the beautiful bear shown here.  We preserved the printing on the shirt by making only one arm and leg out of the blue fabric.

Military Dog

We adjusted our pattern to make this dog.

A young Marine asked us to make a bear out of one of his duty jackets, so his girlfriend would have something to cuddle while he was in a warzone.

She loved it so much that she doused it in his cologne and slept with it every night until he returned from his tour in Iraq.

Bathrobe and Tourist Shirt Bears

These bears were made for a client out-of-state.

The multicolor bear was made from a cherished bathrobe.

The blue bar was made from a tourist shirt.  The printed part of the shirt (which features a row of adirondack chairs over a town name) was removed, placed on an angle and appliqued onto the bear’s torso.

Suit and Tie Bears

These bears were made from a wool jacket and a tie.

Notice how the placement of the eyes and nose change the look of the bear completely?

Each also features pockets from the original garment.

These were also the first bears we made that didn’t get mouths.  While our early bears got mouths, we decided to leave them off of future bears.

Elegant Nightgown Bear (With Lace!)

 

This is one of the earliest bears we made.  A gentleman from California ordered it as a gift to his wife.

Created from a very elegant nightgown that belonged to his mother-in-law, this bear has pretty, laced ears and two incorporated pockets.

This is one of the few bears we’ve made that has a mouth.  We often leave the mouth off to signify that the person commemorated is deceased.

AdSizzle Bear

This bear was made to commemorate a company!

AdSizzle Marketing is a multimedia ad company based in Florida.

They wanted a bear made from one of their company polo shirts.  Notice that we gave this bear cartoony eyes, attached a metal “AdSizzle” pin to his ear and repurposed the collar as a sort of cheststrap.

This bear is a good example of what we can do with even just one piece of solid-color clothing.

Nightgown Bears

A woman called me because she wanted to commemorate her mother, who had recently passed away.

Since there were six children, she wanted to give a bear to each.

The only problem was that her mother had only worn nightgowns during the last few years of her life.  Could we use them to make bears?

Of course!  We even made her a special (free) pillow out of the leftover scraps.

Her family loved them!

Bonnie’s Bears

Bonnie’s husband, John, died a few years ago.  For Christmas 2006, she decided to have bears made for each of her four step-daughters.

Here’s Bonnie with two of the four bears we made.

Later, we added a fifth bear (for her) and a quilt made from John’s golf shirts.

Brown Bear

This bear was made from the clothes of a man who passed away in his early 40’s.

The bear was a gift to his 12-year old daughter, as a keepsake and a way to hold onto some cherished clothing her father wore.