Friday, 13 December 2024

New Classic Bear Available

Patrick is a classic, centre seam head pattern, 5 joint teddy bear

Patrick is now SOLD ... more bears to come in the New Year

Ref 011//24 - The 11th and last bear for the year.

18 inches 45 cms  standing

13 inches 34 cms seated

Another bear from my 2024 classic bear pattern, this is the last bear for the year and the last of the bears from this pattern for the time being, so I decided to finish with an unusual colour.



More photos of Patrick further down after the description

Patrick is  made from a slightly wavy and distressed mohair in a soft but intense dusty vintage pink colour.

He has deep set vintage boot button eyes and wool felt paw pads which are cotton lined.  With the pink fur I decided to use a soft brown/beige colour for the nose and claw embroidery in place of the usual black.

Patrick is filled with excelsior wood wool, in places it is blended with soft natural wool fibre to give a finish which is softer and looser in some places, and slightly "crunchy" to give weight and feel reminiscent of a vintage bear.

Patrick has a traditional tilt growl mechanism.

Recent bears have all had a waistcoat and tie of some kind,  Patrick's tailored waistcoat has a shawl style half collar, metal enameled buttons and is made from English herringbone tweed.  The cravat is a plain loose knotted ascot made from cotton.

If you would to purchase Patrick please email me at:-

gregory@hugoshouse.com

Price is £545.00 plus shipping.  SOLD

Shipping will be added as follows:-

UK      -     £ 18.00 Insured Special Delivery

USA    -    £ 70.00 Insured based on recent shipping of similar

Europe-    £ 50.00




























Sunday, 17 November 2024

Website Problems

 I am trying to migrate my website and use a new method of building and updating it.   When trying to make updates recently I realised that I was using archaic software and not only could I not get a new version of it, I couldn't even find a way to read the files I had made before.

So far it has not been going well; you will find a frozen website and a strange holding page on Wordpress !

Don't hold your breath but rest assured I'm trying to fix it and if any new bears are ready I will make them known via my mailing list, Facebook and Instagram.  Please email me if you would like to be added to the mailing list.

My webmail address is:-

gregory@hugoshouse.com

My website, and it is very much still changing as I build it, has a temporary address is here:-

HUGOSHOUSE

Thank you as always for your very kind interest in my work.


Sunday, 7 August 2022

Roger - Bear in a shirt

Roger is a six-joint character bear

Roger is  made from two shades of soft windswept finish mohair; contrasts on his ears, snout, chest, paws and the tip of his tail.  I like the contrasts and the fur blended very well but i wanted to avoid straight lines so all the joins between the colours are curves to soften the effect.

He has vintage boot buttons eyes. His filling is a mixture of soft man made fibre, excelsior wood-wool and plastic pellets.  Roger's feet are wool felt which is shaped and pull sculpted.

He is designed to stand firmly and his legs are weighted with steel pellets.

Roger has my "signature" embroidered nose which is set, colour shaded and wax finished to a smooth satin.

His shirt is made from a vintage cotton print and has imitation pearl buttons.  The convertible style casual collar can button to the neck or left with the top button open to make a lapel style.

For more pictures of Roger with, and without his shirt please keep scrolling after the description and details.


16 inches ( 40 cms ) Standing
12 inches ( 31 cms ) Seated
40 ounces ( 1158 gm ) weight



Ref 010/22

Price £475.00 SOLD

Roger is now sold, to make enquiries or to be added to the mailing list please contact me using the following:-





Thank you for looking, please scroll down for more photos of Roger, with and without his shirt so you can see the two shades of mohair used.



























For more information or to purchase Roger please e.mail me using:-



Saturday, 17 April 2021

A new Venture

Watching videos on YouTube of people sewing clothing inspired me to give it a try.  I have made items like waistcoats for bears but never "human" clothing.   The transformation of flat cloth into 3 dimensional shapes for bears has occupied me for many years and I realised that in some ways the same principles apply to assembling clothing.



Foreman Jacket






I rather proud to say that my first effort, a shirt, was wearable, and the second much improved was a birthday gift.  After another shirt I decided that I needed a new casual jacket for summer.   The work coat, or chore coat, seems quite current so I scoured the internet for patterns.   A company called Merchant & Mills publish a very clear pattern and also sell lovely cloth.

My first attempt ended up in miniature for a bear, pattern made from scratch for him but using the collar stand and shapes as per the pattern.

Sid
Sid - Bear 002/21 wearing his Chore Coat



I had already purchased rather exciting railway denim which was one of the recommended fabrics and embarked on a full sized version to wear myself.

Matching the stripes was tricky, on the raised edges of the patch pockets they line up when observed from the front but move of line as you observe from other angles,  had two goes at the first then learn the knack of poking each stripe into position with an awl as I machined around the edge.   This little tricvk learned from observing the very neat and skilled artisan on Atelier Saison from Japan.  I can watch her immaculate workmanship taking place for hours !




Easing in the sleeves takes time and care but after fitting small foot pads in Teddy bears for 30 years it makes sense when you understand the shape you are creating.

The foreman is quite a simple jacket, there are no cuffs or plackets on the sleeves and the centre line is far enough away from the edge to avoid any horrors attempting to sew the buttonholes.   Ive developed quite a "thing" about buttonholes, I was tempted to hand sew them but as my, recently purchased, new machine does keyhole buttonholes I used that, they are pretty good too as long as you can track down a small enough punch to open the round part.  The buttons are lovely natural shell in a mid-grey; I'm getting more consistent at sewing them on now, with a nice "stalk" so they slip into the eye of the buttonhole and don't leave it gaping.

I had decided that these garments would need a label, so I christened them Hugoshouse in keeping with my bear making over the years.


Getting the sizing correct is tricky;  you have to be aware of the intended fit of the final garment, this jacket is a simple boxy shape, and although it seemed a little small made up in the muslin, when I made it in the actual fabric it is easily big enough to wear over a couple of layers and a lose comfy fit over a thin summer shirt.

I am enjoying this venture very much, I like the idea of making clothes a little different, and chosing lovely fabrics ( can be costly - cloth alone for this cost about £40 ) .  It's quite time consuming but the process pleases me and I can work to achieve the best possible results, assisted, it has to be said, by the many wonderful people who share their skills on YouTube.