A Bear for a Good Cause

In December, I did a repost of this original post over on Stacey Trock's Fresh Stitching blog. The idea was simple: The Casey Cares Foundation was (and still is) collecting amigurumi dolls to give to children who are going to be in hospice care. This is near and dear to my heart as a cause. I've always loved stuffed toys, and as a little girl, my mom (or, less often, my dad or brother) would often buy me a new dolly for me to cuddle while I was sick, and so I know first hand how much better one feels when there's a friend there to keep you company! And these children are much, much more sick than I ever was.

So! I've designed and made my contribution to these brave kids! I'll probably make some more in the future, but this is a start.



This is my charity Bear. I haven't given him a name and personality yet, though he'll end up with one (I am planning to ultimately sell the pattern, though I'd like to refund the cost to people who demonstrate that they have donated the doll to charity).



He's a BIG bear. He's, like, 2 feet from top of the ears to bottom of the feet. It's bigger than they needed to be, but, well, I tried to think about what I would want out of a doll if I was in these childrens position - I would one that would be my friend and could stand up to being dragged around, dressed up for tea parties, used as home base in a baseball game...I would want one that was big and cuddle and squishy...so I just tried to put it together like that!



There were some trials and tribulations while making him. I had originally planned to do him all out of the homespun that I made the head out of, but, well, I misjudged my sizing a bit, and the result was that I used all of the homespun, plus an entire thing of Vanna's Choice that I had around, and then a fragment of another Vanna's choice. I feel a little bad that it's in three different yarns (all of which were just what I had around) but they all match, and I think I managed to make it look intentional - once I realized I was going to have to use multiples I tried to do so in a way that made some amount of sense. So shhh, don't tell. :)



So now I just need to get my hands on a marker, write a cute note from the bear to his new mommy or daddy, toss in an actual note to the Foundation about the doll and a warning about children with allergies (cause it's impossible for me not to get dog hair all over things that I make), box it all up and ship it!

I hope to have the pattern ready to go sometime next month. If you'd like to make the doll for the charity before the 2/1 deadline, get in touch - I can send it as is, though it's definitely not a final draft and may have a mistake or two in it.

:)