About Us

The Best Dressed Bears story began in 2014 when my young daughter was gifted a sewing machine. She took to sewing quickly and before long we started designing outfits for her Build a Bear® and Bear Factory® teddies using her old, outgrown clothes for fabric. Her bears’ wardrobe grew rapidly and so did her passion for sewing and soon our house was covered with scraps of fabric, bits of thread, recycled ribbon and buttons cut off her school uniform!

At the same time as my daughter’s Build a Bear’s® wardrobe was expanding, we were becoming increasingly aware of the huge impact that the production of new textiles and the disposal of old fabric has on our environment. And so we had an idea – wouldn’t it be wonderful if, instead of throwing away clothes that are unsuitable for gifting on, we could help people to upcycle them into fabulous new outfits for their teddy bears and reduce our environmental ‘pawprint’ in the process? And so Best Dressed Bears Sewing Patterns for Teddy Bear Clothes was born.

We hope that you, your children, your teddy bears and our planet will love our designs as much as we have enjoyed creating them and we ‘beary’ much look forward to seeing your ‘Best Dressed Bears!’

Did you know that it takes approximately 900 litres of water to make a teddy bear T-shirt, the same amount as we normally drink in a year, that 15% of all newly manufactured fabric ends up on the cutting room floor and that in the UK alone, three hundred thousand tonnes of clothing ends up in household bins every year.

Meet The Team

Jackie Bear

Founder and chief designer at Best Dressed Bears, Jackie Bear’s happy place is at her sewing machine in the bear cave. She spends many happy evenings here listening to the bears chatter as she works on our new designs.

Lauren Bear

Our chief pattern tester and mess maker! Since her early forages into sewing teddy bear clothes for her Build a Bear® and Bear Factory® teddies, Lauren’s sewing and design skills have expanded into designing cosplay outfits of epic proportions!

Lauren Bear

Our chief pattern tester and mess maker! Since her early forages into sewing teddy bear clothes for her Build a Bear® and Bear Factory® teddies, Lauren’s sewing and design skills have expanded into designing cosplay outfits of epic proportions!

Chester Bear

Our chief male model, Chester enjoys the thrill of the photography studio. He will happily model all day and night providing we make him an endless supply of honey sandwiches!

Clara Bear

Our chief female model, Clara loves trying on our new designs. Clara’s ambition is to model our teddy bear clothes on the bear walk at London Fashion Week!

Clara Bear

Our chief female model, Clara loves trying on our new designs. Clara’s ambition is to model our teddy bear clothes on the bear walk at London Fashion Week!

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