How to Make an Old Stuffed Animal Look New Again

When I was a child I had a very special stuffed animal canis familiaris named Barnard. He was all chocolate-brown except for the white lining on his ears and his feet were weighty, similar beanbags. I carried Barnard effectually by one ear while sucking my thumb for…well for more years than I care to admit (Yes, I sucked my pollex until I was 13. Don't judge.) One day when I was vii or eight-years-old the stitches on Barnard's ear finally gave style and information technology barbarous off.

My mom doesn't really sew together. We didn't have a sewing machine and I don't remember her e'er sewing, merely she stock-still information technology. She sewed it on backward, with the white lining facing out, but I nonetheless loved Barnard despite his inverse advent.

Because that's the thing. Even if you lot don't stitch, yous'll get out the needle and thread to repair a special stuffed animal for a child.

Beloved blimp animals become a member of the family unit and are often equally important to the parents as they are to the child. If yous're a parent and yous've always lost your child'southward lovey you know what I'thou talking about. If it get'due south dropped on a walk, or left in a eatery, or in the aerodrome (don't even remember most it!) your eye is broken. These toys are irreplaceable. Even if you lot can notice the aforementioned blimp animal again, it doesn't feel or expect the way that old, well-loved one did.

Now I'thou a mom of 3 little girls and I'one thousand a stuffed animal designer. I'm pretty confident that I can repair my daugthers' special toys when they get frayed and threadbare, when the seams outburst or the stuffing compresses, or if an ear falls off. And I can bear witness you how so that y'all tin make skilful repairs, too!

This post is the commencement in a new occasional series called "Animal Hospital: Intensive Care for the Intensely Loved" in which I will show you lot how to brand mutual repairs on your child'southward favorite stuffed animal. From unproblematic fixes like sewing up a flare-up seam to more complex repairs like replacing manus pads and reattaching jointed limbs, my intention is to help you mend and care for the special softies in your family unit's life.

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To prepare for this series I put a post upward on the Wellesley Mother's Forum list serve request if anyone'southward kid had a special stuffed animal in need of repair. The Mother'south Forum is a pretty agile group in boondocks, almost 600 members strong. To say I was deluged with requests would be an understatement. The stuffed animals that came in were of every variety from a handmade horse that was a souvenir from a bully aunt to a lamb that had traveled the world and had been swimming on several occasions, this was a very special and well-loved crew.

I photographed each of them before, during, and after their visit to my Animate being Infirmary in society to illustrate how to perform the most common repairs. I promise you lot'll savor seeing them restored to wellness.

To boot off the serial permit's meet a very endearing little guy named Pigawig. When Pigawig arrived information technology was clear that his snout had been repaired once earlier, but the repair was now completely threadbare. Here he is:

Here'southward a close-up of his snout.

That bit of orange was the sometime stuffing peeking out through a hole that had developed many years prior. The threadbare satin was a patch that had been put over the hole, but was now almost completely worn away. Like my dear Barnard, Pigawig had been fixed, but poorly. The patch was as well large and didn't match the original cloth.

I took a seam ripper and very advisedly removed the quondam patch. Then I added some polyfill stuffing to flesh out his collapsed snout.

I cut a new, more appropriately sized patch from pink fleece. Information technology was simply about 1/four inch larger than the area that needed covering.

I folded the edges to the back by one/4 inch and used a simple running sew to temporarily drip them that way.

I pinned the patch in place and then I ladder stitched it to his snout using light pink thread. Exist certain to tie a double know earlier trimming off the thread.

The patch stands out quite a flake because it is clean and new, only after a few romps outside and a couple of hugs to tear-stained cheeks information technology'll alloy right in. And with an accordingly sized patch Pigawig looks more than like to his original handsome cocky.

I hope this first installment is helpful to you and if you accept whatever particular stories almost the loss or repair of a favorite lovey, please share.

In the next installment I'll be talking about what to do when toy stuffing has get extremely compressed with a wonderful bear named Crane Man (she's a girl).

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Source: https://whileshenaps.com/2012/11/how-to-repair-a-special-stuffed-animal.html