On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

... this blogger gave to thee...

... three tubby little cubbies...

... two fancy pens...

... and a lego man made of a tree.

This year I've been experimenting with hand making soft toys. It was partly out of curiosity to see if I was capable of making a teddy by hand, and partly because of Pinterest and all the beautiful creations it kept showing me. So for day three, here are three of my favourites I've found over the past few months.

This sad little tweedy chap is by Michigan based, self-taught fibre artist. Regina Groleau of Oh, Albatross and is part of The Dear Ones Collection, which includes bears, bunnies, elephants and foxes. This is such a simple design for a little bear, other than the choice of using a large patterned tweed fabric, he could be considered quite plain, but it's his sad, down-turned expression that I particularly love. You want to give him a cuddle, which is an important factor for a teddy.

Teddy two, is a Mini bear named Femi by Manomine, aka London based designer Mia Schmidt, and again, a relatively simple bear, made entirely by hand using felt and mohair, but two things make these bears truly special. One, their expertly crafted clothing, dresses and duffle coats, knitted winter wear and lovingly tailored tweed trousers, each individual to each different bear and kindly offered as customisable in colour and style by Schmidt to her customers.

However, the second lovely addition on some of the Manomine bears, is that they come in presentation boxes, including bedding, alternative outfits, little hangers which then hang within the box when stood on its end, and items such as toys, cakes, books, trees, pets, party hats and masks which again change depending on the bear. Which, though costly, is a lovely way to see such a sweet little toy.

They also in terms of their outfits, bear a fond likeness to the handmade toys of Sue Quinn, whose mice and hedgehogs - though I don't remember it - were a part of the Boyd family toy collection. 

 Just An Oldinary Wolf by Belgian designer Maria Chou ("Mary Poppet" in English) is another toy with beautifully tailored clothing, which is again why it appeals to me. He is quite the dapper dresser in his waistcoat, cravat and tweed coat. With these attentions to details it wouldn't be a surprised that Chou was originally trained as a fashion designer before following her love of toys to create wolves, foxes, cats and deer, all equally well dressed.

I can only hope that making close for bears is easier than making shirts and dresses for my Wizard of Oz sheep, because I would like to dress them if I do continue to make my contribution to the soft toy world.

The question is, if I do end up making and selling soft toys, would I have to inflict a family tradition on them all? Ever since I was a kid, if a soft toy came into our house, my dad had to drop kick them across the room before they were considered part of the family. Which sounds insane, but it even happened this Christmas, to the little sheep toy my gran gave me and the teddy she gave my sister... I have mentioned before we're a weird family. But, at least I could legitimately say all my toys were drop kick safe.

There's an odd little snap shot into my childhood for you.

Merry Christmas! Part four tomorrow...

Link || The Dear Ones Collection by Oh, Albatross (Image via Pinterest)
Link || Oh, Albatross on Etsy
Link || Manomine (Image via Pinterest)
Link || Manomine Blog
Link || MariaChou on Etsy
Link || Just An Oldinary Wolf by MariaChou on Etsy

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Listening: Snowfall - Ingrid Michaelson