When he arrived, Ted looked like this. Because of his light colouring, he looked dustier than Bum Bear whose treatment was described in our last post, so we decided that once he had been de-stuffed, he would have an overnight soaking in cold water, and then have a luke-warm soapy bath and continue drying on the clothes airer in the work room. He seemed to be made from similar fabric as that used for Bum Bear, and in the end, he had not re-acted badly to being washed. So Isobel was more confident about applying this treatment to Ted.
When he was inspected, we found he did not need to be taken apart at the head - he had this gaping wound in his side:
He also needed completely new facial features, although both his eyes were intact. One of his ears needed to be rescued, as it had been badly treated - probably used as the means by which to carry him during his playtime days. So, Isobel got to work by removing all his foam stuffing and putting him to soak overnight in the bath.
The water was not that colour when he came out of the bath, I can tell you. He had a hand wash, and then several rinses in cool water to remove the soap suds, and then, once dried, he was turned inside out and Isobel began to inspect his seams. He was a very different colour on the inside -
However, his seams were showing signs of fraying, or were very thick - because his fur had not disappeared as much as Bum Bear's had. So, the seams were thinned out and over-sewn, and those on his upper torso are what all the seams eventually looked like.
This picture shows one of the legs, before Isobel got round to over-sewing the seams. In the end, to preserve Ted's seams entirely, Isobel did all the seams with button-hole stitching, and he should now be a good long term prospect for his new surroundings.
(As we understand it, all three bears have, for decades, been in an attic belonging to NickiW's mother, who has recently down-sized and moved into a smaller home. The daughters were helping their mother to move and discovered the three bears. Isobel had treated AdamW's Teddy Bear, who needed more stuffing, earlier this year, so she brought the three Bears round to be assessed.)
Once all the seams were done, Isobel discovered a bad slit in his back which actually made it much easier for Ted to be re-stuffed. As many Bears have a seam up their back, Ted's slit did not look out of place. Accordingly, the slit was treated as a big buttonhole and once Ted had been turned inside out, Isobel used the resulting opening to re-stuff Ted completely. He then had a new nose and mouth created, (using Brown Double Knitting yarn, rather than the usual Black yarn we used for facial features) and his old ear sewn back into place. Then he, too, was returned to the banana box in which all three Bears had arrived - but not before we had this picture taken of the two of us together.
Now, I'll close this post, so that we can prepare the final post of this series on the Waggstaff Bears - describing how Mohair Bear was transformed. I think that Isobel will be taking over from here on in.
So, I'll end, by wishing everyone - again - a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year! (Not that I really understand what that all means - but then I'm just a Bear made from Beaver Lamb Fur! - but that's what I keep hearing Isobel being wished at the moment).
