Mending an Antique Teddy Bear 3

The final part of this very special project was the most difficult. It was the customers wish, that especially the facial expression of her teddy should be kept the same. But how could this be done? The muzzle was badly damaged and had lost a lot of stuffing, the embroidered nose had traces of older layers of yarns, so I supposed it had been mended over and over again. Of course it's one of the most exposed parts of a teddy.

First I made a "new" muzzle, starting with paper patterns I made after the old muzzle. As with the other damaged parts of the teddy, I used some Schulte mohair, left side up. This time I left the pile, I thought it would kind of "wrap" better around the original part, thus being also better bolster the muzzle and give it a nice shape.



The two lateral pieces were sewn together. Only after that step I basted the middle part of the nose in place, just to make sure the new muzzle has exactly the same shape as the old one, not too loose, not too tight. This had to be done with extra caution - I didn't want to do more damage to the teddy, and the original fabric and stuffing was very brittle and fragile.
Then I pinned the new muzzle right over the old one in place, and fixed it with ladder stitch.

Finally, I embroidered a new nose with black cotton yarn. The teddy, according to his owner, never seemed to have a mouth, so I just left it that way.
Further I fixed the eyes again, as they were quite loose. The ears needed mending as well, and since there was quite a big hole on the back neck, the head dangled too much and made the hole even bigger. After re-stuffing and closing the hole, the teddy could keep his head upright again - he looked a lot better.

As the whole fabric of this fellow was already very thin, I decided to make some clothes for the teddy. As he obviously was a boy, he got a shirt, checkered trousers and shoes.
I was quite pleased with the result. The teddy looked less tatty, and still he showed the traces of time and the authentic look of an antique and very loved teddy.

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.