Rupert Bear

Rupert is about 4.5 inches tall, firmly needle felted, with embroidered features, glass eyes, and button jointed arms and legs. Glass eyes are a bit hard to source so I ended up ordering from a company in Britain. I'm super happy with them, but probably should have ordered some larger sizes as well (I got 3-5 mm eyes but I think I could have gone up to as much as 10 mm for the size projects I tend to work on). This was my first attempt at button joints as well. Unfortunately I didn't have 4 of the same buttons so Rupert is a little mismatched in that respect. Otherwise I'm quite happy with the mixed elements of this project. I found a great tip on making button joints--sew the arms and legs to the body first and then sew the buttons on. If you attach the limbs through the buttons only it's hard to make the joints tight enough. I used upholstery thread for the joints, which is much stronger than regular embroidery thread and prettier than the fishing line I've used in the past. Rupert's arms and legs are posable and should stay that way even if the joints loosen up a bit over time. I'm still working on getting a really smooth finish to my needle felting projects. I'm in the process of experimenting with a number of types of wool and will report on how that goes. I recently finished my first sculptural wet felting project and will post pictures and frustrations about that soon!