Some fabrics almost jump off the screen at you, yelling "make something from me" ... or is that just me? This fabric was particularly 'vocal' when I was browsing down the fleece fabrics, looking for a suitable base for a couple of bears and other toys, as well as a bear-sized item of clothing. I love the blue hues, with the white night sky design adding just enough interest without the pattern being really bold and in your face.

Once it arrived, I was struck by just how soft it is – this is definitely a 'hands on' kind of fleece. The reverse of the fabric is plain white, making for easy identification of the right and wrong sides which is always a bonus!

I break the rules of fabric when it comes to making bears, and never prewash my fabric. The finished bears can be spot-cleaned if needed, but I'd never expect them to be put in the washing machine, so for me there's no need to prewash the fabric to get any kind of shrinkage out of the way first. Yes I am making a bear-sized hoodie as well, but I don't expect any potential shrinkage to be a problem in the future for that.

Unlike a regular fleece, plush fleece does have a slight nap, although it's not as obvious as you would get with a long faux fur. This means you've got to be careful with the direction you lay out each of the pattern pieces, to make sure the finished bear has all its 'fur' flowing in the same direction.

My previous plushie project used the same pattern at 150%, but this time I've printed the pattern off at 100%. My aim is for these two bears to be a "hug in the post" for a couple of friends who would benefit from a virtual hug. As I can't hug those friends personally, these bears will hopefully be just the right size for an adult to tuck under their arm, while still not taking up too much space on a shelf.

Once you've cut out the pattern pieces, you really want to shake the fabric over a cloth to allow the fluff to disperse. The fleece shed quite a bit initially on the cut edge, but once I'd shaken off the fluff, it didn't shed further.

The fleece is easy to sew, although it does have a tendency to slip and slide a little. I found the best way around that was to use plenty of clips to hold it in place; they're strong enough to hold the fleece, while being highly visible (no risk of sewing over a pin that was partially hidden in the fleece's pile) and also there's no risk of cutting your skin accidentally on the sharp pin while sewing!

I used a triple straight stretch stitch for the seams, as even though I'm not sending these bears to children, I want to ensure they are strong enough to withstand plenty of hugs without splitting their seams!

To make the hole for the safety eyes, I used my Prym pliers to cut a neat circle. I've tried using scissors or my seam ripper to form the hole when making other bears, but that just don't seem to be as easy to get the eye hole sizing right.

The amber eyes I used have a plastic backing which I found a lot easier to attach than the metal backing the brown eyes came with. The metal backing needed a lot more strength to attach securely, but it does make me feel confident that neither should come off!

I stuffed one bear with regular toy stuffing, but I wanted to experiment a little with the other bear. There are always offcuts of fabric that are too small to use for anything, so I thought I'd try using some of them as heavier stuffing in the bear's paws & bottom. I cut the pieces as small as possible, then pushed them into the paws, stopping every so often to check the paw wasn't being pushed out of shape. Because the offcuts are a little heavier than the stuffing, I thought it'd also work to weigh down the bear's bottom so it would sit up better. I put some stuffing in the very bottom first, so it would mould to the shape better, then filled the gap with a couple of handfuls of offcuts.

Overall, I think it worked well! That bear is marginally heavier than the other one, and shouldn't topple over when seated on a shelf. I will mention though that if I was sewing this for a child, I would just stick to regular toy stuffing – I'm only experimenting with using the offcuts because this bear is heading to an adult. If you wanted to contain the offcuts a little better, you could use a small scrap of fabric to make a pouch, so you get more of the weighted feel, without the offcuts being squished out of the bear's limbs over time.

I'm really pleased with how these two bears turned out. Despite being made from the same pattern, they don't look identical which is exactly what I was aiming for. And they certainly should give great hugs!

Thank you Minerva for giving me the opportunity to experiment and make something with this really strokeable fleece, and keep your eyes peeled for my other five makes from the same metre of fabric!



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Polar Bear pattern - Simply Sewing magazine, issue 24. I printed the pattern off at 100% to make a bear that's approximately 22cm tall (seated).
(templates can be downloaded from https://www.gathered.how/sewing-and-quilting/sewing/simply-sewing-patterns-templates/ but the instructions are only in the magazine)
The amount of stuffing linked at the bottom, gives enough for all five of my plushies.