Crochet teddy bears have a lovely old school charm to them. There are loads of patterns available, but I was surprised at how difficult it was to find a decent crochet teddy bear pattern that turned out well.
The best pattern I found was in one of my favourite crochet books Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench. The last pattern in the book is for Monty & Priscilla, 2 adorable teddy bears in baby pink and blue made with double knitting weight yarn.
I found this pattern easy to follow and made the 2 smaller bears in the photo above. For the dark wine bear, I followed the pattern exactly. For the beige bear, I made a couple of modifications. Instead of making the arms and legs identical, I made a foot end for each leg. I have written up the leg pattern changes I made here. I also omitted the slip stitch at the end of each round when making the body, because this had resulted in a diagonal line up the back of the body which I wasn’t keen on – that could be just down to my lack of crochet know how though ! 🙂
The large bear in the photo above was made using Michele Wilcox’s old fashioned teddy bear pattern, no longer available online alas. It’s also in an out of print book 150 Weekend Crochet Projects (published in 2000, ISBN 1882138538) which you can still buy on Amazon.
I used 2 100g balls of Wendy Traditional Aran wool which I found a bit firm and scratchy, but that worked well for the large bear because it made him sturdy rather than floppy. The pattern is designed so that the bear’s arms and legs move, but I found that the limbs did not really look part of the bear that way. He’s quite a large bear and the large limbs just hung off him, so I decided to stitch them on properly to the body instead. So Mr Bear won’t be going anywhere, but he looks happy sitting where he is. 🙂
Rico also have a lovely Bruno Bear pattern for a multi coloured teddy bear which is available as a complete kit – read my review here.
There are *lots* of other crochet teddy bear patterns in all shapes and sizes at Crochet Pattern Central but the 2 above were the best traditional/old fashioned bear patterns I could find.
I finished off all my crochet teddy bears with a scarf to keep them warm. I just did 4 treble crochet UK (double crochet US) stitches until it was about the length of 2 hands.
Teddy bears are a great way to use up your stash. Any yarn will do really. It doesn’t even have to match the weight in the pattern – it’s just that your bear will be a bit bigger or smaller. I made my first prototype wine bear in an old ball of acrylic from my stash, whereas the other small beige bear was made with luxury yarn from darkest Peru (just like Paddington bear!) but they both turned out just as well and are the best of friends. 🙂
I made a teddy bear similar to your 2 smaller bears but i lost the instructions, i clicked your link but it says that it no longer exists 🙁
Hi Sunny,
The smaller bears were actually made using the pattern from the book Cute and Easy Crochet.
Crochet World have removed the larger bear pattern unfortunately, but I managed to find it still available at http://www.crochetmagazine.com/printer.php?mode=article&article_id=2012 and have updated the link in my post. Not sure how long it will be there so get it while you can!
Im looking for a crochet bear pattern, that looks like Mr beans Bear…have you something like that?
Hi Joy,
I wasn’t able to find any crochet patterns but there is a free knitting pattern for a Mr Bean style bear at http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/toys/beanbear.htm
I’ve never watched Mr Bean but going by a few of the pics, I’d say that a lot of basic crochet teddy bear patterns could end up quite a good match for it though. For example, the smaller bear pattern I used from Cute and Easy Crochet looks similar for the head and body, just with a different finish for the eyes etc. And then you could search google images or pinterest for a good match for the ears and then just add the ears from that pattern. Best of luck!
oh, thankyou, so much!…yes, am not a knitter, but the knitted teddy is perfect…just trying to download the crochet you sent…very knind of yu, thanks!
Hi Joy, Actually I’ve now found a free crochet pattern on Ravelry which looks like a good match: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lonely-bear
Hope this helps
Thankyou! He looks perfect, the pattern is in German, tho, any-one translate German to English?…
Hi Joy, once logged in to Ravelry if you click the download link there should be 2 files. The 2nd one (Mr Bean Bear E.pdf) is the English version.
I purchased the Cute and Easy Crochet book, but I really like the way you crocheted the feet and legs on your version. Would you be willing to share your how- to on the way you modified the legs? I’ll purchase instructions from you, if need be! Thank you.
Thanks for the compliment 🙂 It’s a long while since I made these bears but I’ll try my best to figure out the modifications I made and report back!
Thank you so much!
I managed to find my notes on this and have written up the leg pattern modifications here: http://www.craftfix.com/adding-foot-shaping-monty-priscilla-bear-crochet-pattern/ Hope this helps 🙂
I appreciate this so much!
Can the larger bear pattern be found anywhere?? I’ve fallen in love with him and I’d love to make him, even if I’m reading off a screenshot of a pdf or something. If anyone could help me out I’d really appreciate it.
Hi Ava,
I’m sorry that this pattern is no longer online. If you really want that exact ‘old fashioned teddy bear’ crochet pattern, Ravelry says it’s from an out of print book from 2000 called 150 weekend crochet projects which you can buy on Amazon, used or even new I think. The designer Michele Wilcox has lots of other teddy bear patterns you might like instead, or there’s lots more crochet teddy bear patterns for worsted/aran yarn on Ravelry too. Hope this helps, Janine.