The materials you need for this cloth bear puppet are long and thick socks (obviously new ones!), fiber stuffing, yarn, thread, embroidery and sewing needles, and scissors.
Brown is obviously the best color for a bear, but no one ever said you couldn't make a blue, pink, or purple bear. The important thing is to wash the socks well in order to soften it before you start sewing.
First off, make the mouth and nose of the cloth bear puppet. Thread your yarn through the embroidery needle's eye and embroider a line about an inch and a half or so long in the exact center of the bottom of the heel of your sock, near where it connects to the leg area. Use the line to guide you where to embroider a small triangle for the nose, which should be about an inch or so above the two curved lines below for the mouth.
Then embroider two small circles about two inches or so above the nose with white yarn. After the circles are completely filled, use black yarn to embroider a smaller-sized circle within the white to make a pupil.
To create the ears, fill the corners of the toes with more fiber stuffing than you think you'll need. Twist them into two tight little balls and sew them closed. You should have two floppy, knobby ears at the top of the cloth bear puppet's head.
Next, make the arms for your cloth bear puppet. Using your hands to measure, make two holes at the sides of the leg area where your fingers can pass through. This should be just a few inches below where you've embroidered the mouth. Using the other sock, cut off the leg area and cut it into quarters lengthwise. Take two of the pieces and sew them closed into little sausage shapes, leaving one end open for your finger to pass through.
Take the little sausages and fit the open end into the holes, joining them from the inside part of the cloth bear puppet. You are done!
As a variation, this little bear can be completely stuffed with fiber filling and made into a cloth bear doll. Use the other two quarters left from the pieces that were used for the arms to make the legs. The only difference here is that you should completely stuff the body area first, make the sausages for the legs and stuff them too, and join them to the body while you are sewing up the top of the sock cuff.
Since this cloth bear is made for children to play with later on,
it's important that the features are all embroidered on so that
no little pieces can come off and be swallowed. If the doll is only
for display, the features can be varied by using googly eyes, or
even just plain buttons to create the eyes and the nose. You could
even add whiskers if you like by simply threading a long piece of
yarn through the fabric and knotting it so it won't move.