Just a little history about Amanda. She started out with the name Ashley. And there is probably a bear out in the world today named Ashley who looks just like Amanda. But once Amanda, Klaus' granddaughter, was born we renamed the bear Amanda because hubs wanted a namesake bear for her. My granddaughter still has her bear and hat. The kits are now ready for purchase, so you can make your own Amanda bear and the hat is included in the kit.
Upon opening the very first trunk we found eight of the hats for Amanda the bear. These lovely well made hats are created by Sharon Panozo of Peotone, Illinois. Hats by Sharon was her business name.
Once we opened our trunks I found so much more than I remembered. I had no idea I had so much mohair fur. And the bear patterns I designed were meticulously organized in the trunks according to size. I even kept all of my mohair receipts. They were still in chronological order according the the year I purchased the supplies from Edinburgh Imports.
I quickly started a shop on Etsy. Since I already have one and know how the platform works it didn't take long to set things up. You can find the new shop here if you want to follow along with my progress.
I've been listing my German, Schulte, Mohair and the corresponding bear pattern that I made from the fur. The hardest part was searching my memory to write directions for making a bear the way I used to do it. So far I have created a PDF pattern for Thaddeus and Amanda along with instructions for making a bear in Adobe Illustrator. I recommend they be opened in Acrobat Reader.
And now I have Thaddeus and Amanda for sale as sewing kits. I have been able to include the discs for their 5 joints, the embroidery floss I used for their noses, the precut and soon pre-sewn mohair pieces for their bodies, and I am including the original hat for Amanda. Thaddeus, a whopping 23 inch bear, comes with a bag of poly fill for stuffing with his precut fur.