She plans each teddy bear as she would one of the many Nahoon River mansions she has helped design – with pinpoint precision and meticulous attention to aesthetic detail.
Architectural designer Jenny Althorpe, who created Tony Cotterell’s Torquay Road home and more than 600 other plush houses in the city, moonlights as a teddy bear maker and aims to knit 100 of them for charity. She has made 76 since October.
“An ex-East London friend who is a nurse in Cape Town was looking for people to make teddies for children in hospital, so I got a pattern and started knitting and sent four to Cape Town,” said Althorpe at her self-designed riverside home.
By then the teddy-making bug had bitten, and when another friend suggested she make them for Frere Hospital’s cancer ward for children, Althorpe’s knitting needles went into overdrive.
“I knit over weekends and while I’m watching TV and I hardly paint anymore,” said Althorpe, a creative soul whose home is adorned with art she has painted and who has dressed a collection of Barbie dolls in elaborate ball-gowns she has sewed.
Each one is planned in advance in a neat file containing blueprints of the finished product that include wool swatches for each design.
The result is a couch-full of vibrant, quirky teddies, each one unique, each one thoughtfully accessorised.
“I sew buttons on with dental floss and use eyes that clip around the back and cannot be pulled off.”
There are male and female teddies, some clad in rugby kit, others in tiny ballet tutus. There are teddies wearing shoes, bow ties, flowers, hats, brooches, hula skirts and rosettes.
She has even dipped into her Barbie fashion supplies for bits of lace.
Some are named Sunshine, Sunflower or Treehouse, but she eventually ran out of names, which doesn’t make each one less special to her. “I do get attached and every now and then I tell them they are gorgeous,” laughed Althorpe, who said she would “rest” once she has made 100 soft toys. “But I’ll probably keep making them as long as children’s charities need them.”
She will be delivering 14 to Frere this week and will also drop some off at a home for abandoned children.
“It is always comforting for a child to hug something soft in bed.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Each teddy bear a work of love
Architectural designer Jenny Althorpe, who created Tony Cotterell’s Torquay Road home and more than 600 other plush houses in the city, moonlights as a teddy bear maker and aims to knit 100 of them for charity. She has made 76 since October.
“An ex-East London friend who is a nurse in Cape Town was looking for people to make teddies for children in hospital, so I got a pattern and started knitting and sent four to Cape Town,” said Althorpe at her self-designed riverside home.
By then the teddy-making bug had bitten, and when another friend suggested she make them for Frere Hospital’s cancer ward for children, Althorpe’s knitting needles went into overdrive.
“I knit over weekends and while I’m watching TV and I hardly paint anymore,” said Althorpe, a creative soul whose home is adorned with art she has painted and who has dressed a collection of Barbie dolls in elaborate ball-gowns she has sewed.
Each one is planned in advance in a neat file containing blueprints of the finished product that include wool swatches for each design.
The result is a couch-full of vibrant, quirky teddies, each one unique, each one thoughtfully accessorised.
“I sew buttons on with dental floss and use eyes that clip around the back and cannot be pulled off.”
There are male and female teddies, some clad in rugby kit, others in tiny ballet tutus. There are teddies wearing shoes, bow ties, flowers, hats, brooches, hula skirts and rosettes.
She has even dipped into her Barbie fashion supplies for bits of lace.
Some are named Sunshine, Sunflower or Treehouse, but she eventually ran out of names, which doesn’t make each one less special to her. “I do get attached and every now and then I tell them they are gorgeous,” laughed Althorpe, who said she would “rest” once she has made 100 soft toys. “But I’ll probably keep making them as long as children’s charities need them.”
She will be delivering 14 to Frere this week and will also drop some off at a home for abandoned children.
“It is always comforting for a child to hug something soft in bed.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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