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If you watch the news in the United States at all, you’re probably aware that the Hawaiian island of Maui suffered terrible damages last summer. I don’t like to jump on the hype bandwagon, so I waited for Hawaii to start its healing process before I decided to post today’s tutorial.

This tutorial shows you how to make a Hawaiian shirt for — of all things — my plush “firefighter bear” project (which I first posted a few years ago).

I made my firefighter bear out of brown flannel, tan and black felt, and embroidery floss. Here’s an image of my original firefighter bear, but you might want to look back at yesterday’s blog post as well, to see the many ways this versatile pattern can be used:

Hawaii is beginning to rebuild after their horrendous fires last summer, and we all wish them well as they try to recover from their terrible losses. God bless!

I have cousins in Hawaii, and my prayers went out to them during that trying time.

This Hawaiian shirt project was actually part of a gift I gave my best friend’s daughter, when she found out she would be having a baby boy. They loved their little plush bear with his handmade clothing ensemble, and I hope you can think of someone to give a plush bear to this year for the holidays, as well!

You’ll notice that my Hawaiian shirt pattern has been marked with five flowers (the PDF is below but the JPG image is above). I could have gone for four flowers on my difficulty scale, but honestly, Hawaiian shirt fabric is very slippery. So because of the trickiness of collars combined with the slippery fabric, I opted for five flowers, the most difficult ranking I give my patterns.

Therefore, you’ve been warned! If you’re a beginner, don’t start with a Hawaiian shirt project, no matter how cute this shirt looks!

Now don’t give up reading after I give you the patterns for this Hawaiian shirt. If you scroll down to the second set of bullets, I’ll also give you the free patterns and tutorial videos for making the plush bear toy as well.

There’s also an image of the shirt from the back, just below these bullets, which is where you’ll find your shirt pattern:

• Free printable PDF sewing pattern for making a Hawaiian shirt for a plush bear or 8 inch baby doll
• Tutorial video showing how to make the Hawaiian shirt (shown at the top of the page)

My pattern for the little Hawaiian shirt will fit my own “firefighter bear” plush toy (the pattern for the bear is offered below), but it will also fit the JC Toys Li’l Cutesies baby dolls, which are an 8 inch doll.

• Free printable PDF sewing patterns for making a firefighter bear
• Tutorial video for making the firefighter bear
• Guidelines for making the plush bear without the sew-on pants/jeans

You may need a refresher on how to do certain embroidery stitches to make this firefighter bear, so here are some links you may find helpful:

• Here’s my “How to Thread an Embroidery Needle” video.
• My “How to Hem a Garment by Hand Using the Whipstitch” tutorial shows you the basic stitch we’ll be using to attach all of the felt pieces to the bear.
• The “Basic Sewing Stitch Tutorial” video will show you how to do the straight stitch, which I will mention in my DIY video for the bear project.
• I also mention the backstitch in my bear project video, and here’s my “Backstitch Tutorial.”
• Here’s a link to my satin stitch tutorial, which is used to make the bear’s mouth.

Remember that my patterns and tutorial videos are free to the public, using the Creative Commons Attribution mark. So to do your part, here are some helpful ways to tell the world about my patterns:

• You can pin them on Pinterest.
• You can share them on Facebook.
• You can tweet about them.
• Use any other form of social media that appeals to you!

Learn more about how to design your own doll pants patterns and how to make pattern alterations by taking one of my online courses on the Creative Spark website. To learn more, please click here.

And if you appreciate all my free patterns and tutorials, please think about giving a small donation, using my donation button.

Credit and Disclaimer:

Smokey Bear is a trademarked name, owned by the US Forest Service. ChellyWood.com and ChellyWood LLC are not affiliated with Smokey Bear or the US Forest Service. Learn about the original Smokey Bear on the SmokeyBear.com website. Please support our US Forest Service and the firefighters who keep our forests and public lands safe by visiting their website, https://smokeybear.com/ and consider purchasing a product from their official stores.

Paddington Bear and its products are owned by Paddington and Company Limited (UK), and they own the registered trademark for these products. To learn more about the Paddington Bear Company, please click here. Links in this blog post may be affiliate links, however the link in this disclaimer is not an affiliate link, and Chelly Wood as well as ChellyWood.com is in no way associated with the Paddington Bear Company Limited. I’m simply posting this to honor the trademark and give credit to the trademark owner.