How Edward Bear became a New Bear - Part 2

Here is a close-up of Edward Bear as he now looks- and this is the tale of how he finally reached this conclusion.

This is Cy Bear taking over from Isobel to finish off the latest Patient's saga in our Stuffed Animal Restoration Clinic (Etsy Listing #79124185).   Part One of Edward Bear's renaissance story ended with his newly washed and rinsed pieces hanging out to dry on the clothes airer in our workroom.

Once the pieces were all dry, Isobel drew the shape of the original pieces of Edward's body, legs, arms and head and cut out two new ear patterns.  She then trimmed the edges of the original Edward, which had become badly frayed, and tacked each piece to its matching new version.  In the photograph above, you can see a leg, with the two pieces matched and already sewn together, with the two front body shapes ready to be sewn together.  The bits of wool indicate where the plastic safety discs are to be fitted when the limbs are added to the body - in this case, it's the arms.

Here you can see Edward's new head, sewn up and turned inside out.  His ears are already sewn, as are his two arms - with some smart new beige leather pads replacing the somewhat tatty originals.  The second leg is at the back on the right hand side, and the two pieces making up the Edward's back has been sewn together, ready for attaching to the front.  These seams become the side seams eventually, with the top coming to a narrow point - with just enough room for the head disc to be fitted on when the time comes.

Finally, with all the pieces sewn together, the time came for Edward to be turned inside out ready for the stuffing to be applied.   Isobel is finding it is easier to fit head to bodies first when making us Bears, so this is what happened next.  Edward was first given two brand new brown eyes and the stuffing was then put into the head cavity.  You can see the white plastic neck disc waiting to be fixed once the neck opening had been gathered together, and the head was then attached.

The nascent new Edward is a little taller than our Glove Hand Puppets, but for the purposes of this photograph, Isobel used one of the knitting yarn cones we use to make the Puppets stand up when we are exhibiting them at Craft Shows in the area.

 

Once the head was fixed firmly in place - quite a tricky operation as Isobel has to work in a fairly restricted area,  with one hand in his abdominal area and pushing the head disc though a small hole with the other hand. Then she has to ensure fixing the washer firmly on so that it never comes off.

( Isobel interrupting:  one of our neighbours here was a prolific Teddy Bear maker - she has over 100 samples she shares her flat with still - and when she had to give up sewing because her fingers simply would not work any longer, she gave me a lot of her bear sewing paraphenalia, plus offering a lot of great tips.  One of these helpful hints was to use an old-fashioned wooden cotton reel (the hole in the middle just fits over the disc posts) and leaning on the reel (with a hard surface beneath the seam and disc) and just wait for the satisfactory click that comes when the whole thing is firmly in place!  Works like a dream!!)

The picture above shows Edward almost complete - all the limbs and head are in place and he just needs to have the final seam between his legs sewn together. Isobel found it easier with Edward to fix his legs to the body without the stuffing in them.  She then stuffed each leg and sewed the beige leather paw pads in place.  At least he now has two legs that look the same size!

Then, Edward's ears were sewn in place and finally, Isobel got going with a needle and black double knitting yarn to sew on his nose and mouth.  Here's what the finished article looks like!

How Edward Bear became a New Bear - Part I

Cy Bear, in his post here last week (Newly Listed Bears looking for their Forever Homes -January 16, 2013) mentioned, Edward Bear.  He has been a Patient (in all senses of the word) in the Stuffed Animal Restoration Clinic (Etsy Listing #79124185) for some weeks now,  with his treatment beginning with the indignity of having to be taken to pieces and de-stuffed.

However, Edward had suffered some even greater  indignities before this all began.  We lost one of his original ears!  In order to obtain the nearest match to his existing mohair coat (in pretty good condition for a Bear nearing his century in years), we had to send an ear (the smallest piece) to the supplier.  Alas, the first one got lost in the early Christmas post mayhem  - and has not be heard of since.  (The Complaints Procedure insisted upon by UK Royal Mail yielded no answers) so the second ear had to be dispatched (this time by Registered Post) which left poor Edward looking like this.

(When informed of this mishap, RevJS enquired as to whether a ransom demand had yet been received). It will also explain the delay between Edward's arrival in the Clinic and his therapy being started!  The Wagstaff Bears' treatment, with their need for a Christmas deadline, plus Christmas itself were additional contributing factors.


Losing his ears was actually not too much of a problem, as I don't use them when restoring a bear like Edward.  But, it was definitely inconvenient! The second one did not leave us, though, until I had created a template for use in his future renovation.   However, the really good thing you can see from this photograph is that Edward's fur has not been badly lost to the constant cuddles of past generations, so the pieces were definitely worth preserving when the restoration process was begun.

 Alas the same could not be said for his facial features - there was even a patch on the left side of his muzzle.  They had got badly rubbed and he had no eyes. What you see in the picture are actually two very large hat pins (the property of the Grandmother of Edward's Forever Friend).  These had been pushed in, and had somehow remained static through the years.  They came out very readily when the stuffing was removed and I shudder to think what could have happened had he been played with by any Little People.  However, as it happened, Edward had been residing in the Grandmother's home for many decades until his Forever Friend, Rev.JaneS returned home after retiring as a missionary in Pakistan  two years' ago, and the two were reunited once more.  RevJS, as I shall refer to her henceforth, and I met at the first MacMillan Cancer Coffee Morning the Cuddlies appeared at in 2011, but it was not until October last year that Edward and I were introduced and the decision taken to restore and renovate him.

The picture also show that somehow his feet got a lot of undue unwanted attention.  One leg as a result was shorter than the other and I suspected - from the feel of his body - that he was stuffed with wood-chippings (which are a particular bug-bear of mine - forgive the partial pun!)  They do not provide a cuddly toy, and are thoroughly inflammable into the bargain.    I also suspected that there could be the left-overs of a broken growler lodged within his body, not to mention some good old-fashioned cotter-pins holding the limbs in place.  The suspicions proved to be accurate -

The hat pins are in the fore-ground!

The wood chipping stuffing came from his head and one arm, and the broken growler is at the back of the picture on the left.  All these have been disposed of - with the exception of the hat-pins.  They will be offered back to RevJS - in case there may be a future requirement for such equipment on her part.

All the pieces of  Edward Bear were collected together and one can now see the signs of his age.  The seams are definitely fraying, there are holes were the cotter pins were located and I've labelled the front body "A" and the back "B", so that when it comes to sewing him back together again, there is no confusion.  His legs are in the left foreground, the head pieces are in the middle at the back and his arms lie behind his legs.

They were all then taken to the bath and left for about a couple of hours, so that the dust of decades could be removed.  He was soaked in  luke-warm, soapy water (not detergent).

These three photos show how the dust began to come away, with the last one showing the mixture of dye and dust that was left behind when I had gently rubbed each piece, before it was immersed in two lots of  clear water to remove any remaining detritus.

Once rinsed, each piece was stretched back into shape and then pinned onto a clothes airer and left overnight to dry.  They were then pressed flat with an iron, prior to my drawing around each piece on the new mohair which would result in the modern, renovated Edward Bear.

That process will form the next post, so I will bid you all a very good night.  Isobel

Newly Listed Bears looking for Forever Homes!

Greetings one and All - Cy Bear addressing all our lovely Followers and potential new readers.  I've got some new Teddy Bear Friends to introduce and here they all are!

Light Brown Plush Teddy Bear - Etsy Listing #69778158

Silvery Brown Bear - Etsy Listing #95205668

Dark Brown and Cream Plush Hairy Bear - Etsy Listing #120701950

Golden Plush Teddy Bears - Etsy Listing #120705327

 

 

The first two are actually renewals - because they had been waiting to be replaced in our shop at www.Etsy.com/shop/coldhamcuddlies.  The other two are new listings - even though Hairy Bear in his various guises has been a long-term friend of mine.  However, as Isobel explains in his new listing today, after Hairy 6 had gone to Australia in 2012, and the Hedgehog Family had appeared on the scene, Isobel decided to suspend production of Hairy Bear since she would not have been able to produce both lots of animals with the fabric we had in stock at the time.

 In December, though, when we renewed our Polyester Fibre stocks to cope with the Wagstaff Bears, she was thrilled to find that Hairy Bear's fabric was now a feature in our offcut supplier's upholstery factory, so it looks as though we'll be able to have lots of Hairys and Hedgehogs for some time yet.

It's great to be surrounded by Teddy Bears again - it's been a bit lonely since the Wagstaff Bears left the Stuffed Animal Restoration Clinic (Etsy Listing #79124185) just before Christmas.  I don't count the two bears that have been waiting for their treatments because until they become blog posting subjects, they don't really feature on my horizon.

Edward Bear, however, has started his treatment, and photgraphs have been taken.  He's been taken to pieces, had his innards removed and had an overnight soak.  The pieces were all dried and pressed out so that Isobel could create the new pattern pieces on the selected new Mohair fabric.  She tells me all the original bits of Edward have been tacked onto the new fabric and almost all the new pieces have been sewn together.  So, it will not be too long before the story of Edward Bear's therapy will be appearing here.

Meanwhile, you will have to bear (oops, pun not intended!) your souls in patience, and I'll say Goodnight to you all.  Cy Bear