Turn Your Pet Into a Real Life Teddy Bear

I turned my buddy Emma into a real life teddy bear. Luckily she loves clothes and posing for pictures so it wasn't that hard to convince her. I live with cats who don't like dressing up at all.

A few years ago I kept seeing videos of animals in Ewok costumes. Most of the ones I would see for sale were cheaply made and looked like felt. Yet the ones in the videos on the various Shih Tzu and other fluffy dogs looked like plushy teddy bear bodies.

For an example of Shih Tzu Ewoks you should check out Munchkin the Teddy Bear's ewok audition for Rogue One.

I wanted to know how it was done and make Emma an Ewok costume. She ended up looking so cute as a plain teddy bear that I didn't bother adding Ewok accessories.

I know there are different ways of making these but I ended up using an actual teddy bear. The legs of the bear will be the models front legs, while the 'arms' stay stuffed. The end appearance is an upright standing model.

Model aka your pet

Materials

• Stuffed bear to size for model (see step 1 for measuring details)
• Plastic bag or other container to hold the stuffing
• pencil or marking instrument

Tools

• measuring tape
• stitch ripper
• scissors
• awl or small sharp blade

First things first you need to figure out your who your model is to make this style of teddy bear costume. It is tailored to your pet and others of relative size and shape. It'll look best on your pet though of course.

As you can see from the pics Emma is happy to model but Bela would rather lay on the couch supurrvising.

Measuring

Using a measuring tape find the following measurements on your model;

• model height (floor to top of head)
• length of leg (from floor to just under arm)
• width & height of face (the area of your models face you want visible)

Bear Selection

For selecting a bear there are a few things to consider. One being size. You want the bear to be close to the same height as the model, with the same leg length or a bit longer, and a big enough head to fit the models face.

The other main consideration is how the legs are made. Some bears have legs that are made separate and sewn to the body. You don't want one of those. The kind of bear to look for is one that the legs are already attached to the body and then a seam is sewn across the top of the leg to make it separate looking. You can usually tell which is which kind is which just by looking at them. Legs attached after usually dangle more.

Now it's time to gather everything else and place it out on your work area. My area ended up being the floor so the Inspectors (Emma & Bela) had easy access.

As you know your Quality Control Experts, aka your pets, must thoroughly inspect your supplies. Pictured above is Bela taking her job very seriously.

Locate the seam that runs up the bears back where it was sewn together. Push the fuzzy fur aside as you look to make it easier to find.

Using either a sharp knife or stitch ripper, cut one of the stitches in the back seam. Continue until you reach the end of the seam in both directions. You can pull out the thread or snip, snip, snip. Your choice. Using scissors extend the seam length on both ends by cutting into the head and behind. Make the opening big enough for your pet to get in and fit.

Time to rip the stuffing out of the bear!

Literally. Remove all stuffing except the stuffing in the 'arms' of the bear.

Once all the stuffing is removed from the main body you can easily find where the stitches are that form the leg seams. As above, remove stitches to open leg holes.

Rip more stuffing! Empty the legs and then turn the bear inside out. This will make it easier to remove the feet pads due to be able to see the seams easy.

Like before, remove the stitches from the seams holding the 'foot pads' to the legs. Remove the foot pads.

Time to remove the eyes and snout. Using a marking instrument draw out a shape the size of your models face around the snout and eyes.

Using an awl or sharp knife make a hole where you want to start cutting. Use the hole to fit your scissors in for easier cutting around the face shape.

Now that you have the main part made it's time to do some checking.

If the legs of the suit are longer than needed trim them to size.

Is the back hole big enough to get the costume onto your model easy peasy?

Does the models face fit in the face hole?

Can the model move around?

Fix any of the problems above if needed.

Strut around and look cute.