Florence the knitted bear gets into nursing outfit

I  knitted this little bear for a family new born named Florence and just had to dress her as a nurse; after her famous namesake.

 Designing the little blue dress for this tiny bear, just 6” high, was quite tricky. It has separate bodice pieces, puffed sleeves and flared skirt. The intricate shaping for the sleeves was achieved by making stitches along several part rows and then decreasing rapidly. Using several sets of increasingly larger pins created the flared skirt without too much bulk. A little bit of crochet for the collar.

The bear, knitted in DK on size 11(old UK) was easy to work yet really firm so that no stuffing would ever escape.