FO Friday: Care Bear

Two Sundays ago one of my friends asked me if I would be able to make a Care Bear that was purple and that had a purple ribbon on the tummy.  He told me that the husband of one of his friends recently lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and that he wanted to give her a bear like this, but couldn't find anything online.  I got really excited at this request for a few reasons.  For one, I felt like I would be making this bear for a really good cause.  Secondly, I had a pattern for a Care Bear already that I had really been wanting to make.  Finally, it would be purple...and you know how much I love purple.  AND I love to help out my friends.

I made very few modifications to the pattern that I had.  The only things I did differently were the eyes (I just used buttons rather than fiddling with the felt) and I did not add the head tuff because it looked odd on this bear.  I also used a different heart pattern for the nose and the heart on the bottom.  I got some ideas for the ribbon on the tummy from other online patterns and then sort of made my own up as I went along--basically you just chain a large amount, figure out where the middle of the chain is, work double crochets up until like 1 or 2 chains from the middle, then make 2 or 3 double crochets in the next chain, more in the middle chain, and then the same number on the other side of the middle...and double crochet your way to the end of the chain.  Really simple.  I whip-stitched all the appliques to the bear and that was it!  I'm really happy and proud of the way it came out.  I hope that it brings some comfort and love to the woman receiving it.