Mending an Antique Teddy Bear 2

After I managed to fix the damages caused by the joint discs that rubbed trough the fabric under the armpits, I moved on to the next "problem zones". As you can see on the photographs, there were some pretty nasty damages on the feet of the teddy.

There were several bigger holes on the body and the feet of the teddy. Some of them had to be re-stuffed as well first, in order to maintain the shape especially of the feet.

Between the upper legs you see the remains of the original fur.

I applied the same techniques as before: minor damages and thin fabric parts were mended by re-constructing the woven material of the original fabric. The huge holes through which the teddy already had lost some stuffing were covered with patches of Schulte mohair fabric. I used only the back of the fabric wrong side up, after having shaven off the mohair pile to make the patches less bulky.

How to fix a patch with pins and baste it to the body

Maybe you noticed the printed cotton fabric paws of the teddy. Originally, the teddy had probably felt paws. The cotton fabric patches were sewn over the original paws many years ago by the owners mother. In the meantime, also these mendings needed mending, as some cats used to chew the teddy's feet. To keep the memory of of a loving mother's cares for her daughter's teddy, I decided to make new cotton fabric patches in a very similar chocolate brown colour, but without printed pattern. I forgot to take some pictures of this step, but you can see them on the final pictures.