My sewing skills don't stretch to much more than sewing back the odd detached button, so I have been presented with a big challenge this week. Our bear, who will be 18 years old this Christmas, developed a failure in his chest fabric. Basically it has just given up the ghost, too many years and too much sun (although I am a lot more careful where he sits these days since his hat started to disintegrate. So off we went to Spotlight yesterday, I couldn't really think off anything except getting some sort of fabric and sticking a square patch across his chest. The lady was very helpful, and we came home with some nice Christmas fabric and very good advice. I got some paper and cut out an approximation of the whole fabric part, with a border spare for a turn-under. It took me 3 pieces of paper before I was happy I'd got it right (it helped when I used baking paper instead of computer paper, much more maneuverable), then I pinned the resulting 'pattern' to my fabric, took a few deep breaths and cut it out. Pinned the piece to the bear then carefully sewed it all the way around, tucking in the overlap as I went. It was quite tricky to sew, with his arms, legs and big boofy head sticking up in the way, but eventually I was done and, if I say so myself, he looks at least as good as new, if not better! He has a little bow tie which I cut off the old fabric and have sewed back on again. There's quite a bit of fabric left over, so maybe I'll get even bolder and try to repair his poor old hat, but that will have to wait for another day. I've attached before-and-after photos so you can admire my handiwork.

 (updated to correct font size)