Jersey for Calder Bear

If you have been with us for a while, you probably know that Bossy has had trouble carrying a child and our sweet Skittles has truly been a miracle. But right before she became pregnant with him, Bossy lost another tiny boy to stillbirth. She was supposed to be 26 weeks although she knew he was gone a couple of weeks before that.

Somewhere amidst the chaos of the burial and the grieving, an amazing agency sent her Calder Bear. He is weighted like a real baby and has become the substitute for Calder at our family activities. Bossy has enjoyed dressing him like the other boys, particularly for holidays and special occasions. Every once in a while, I accept the challenge of sizing something down for him.

I took a picture of Curly holding him this time to hopefully give a little perspective. Curly wears an Adult Medium, and the baseball jersey I had to work with here was an Adult Small. In the spirit of fun and challenge, I make myself arbitrary rules for sizing things down, especially when they have a pattern that can't be moved. For instance, I only make a cut if it is for the bottom length. As you can see, this jersey was about 8 inches below the feet of the bear, so it had to go. If I had been remaking one that was more formal, I might have tried to tuck it to the inside.

This one was a little tricky and I actually unpicked some seams before I realized that the number on the back of the jersey was not supposed to be in the middle, but slightly off to the side. Except for the hem, I did this one entirely by hand. Maybe it is time to make one for Skittles.