How to Make an Old Stuffed Animal Look New Again

When I was a child I had a very special stuffed animal domestic dog named Barnard. He was all dark-brown except for the white lining on his ears and his feet were weighty, like beanbags. I carried Barnard around by 1 ear while sucking my pollex for…well for more than years than I care to acknowledge (Yep, I sucked my thumb until I was 13. Don't judge.) Ane day when I was seven or eight-years-old the stitches on Barnard's ear finally gave fashion and it vicious off.

My mom doesn't really sew. We didn't have a sewing car and I don't remember her always sewing, simply she fixed information technology. She sewed it on astern, with the white lining facing out, but I yet loved Barnard despite his inverse appearance.

Because that's the thing. Even if you don't sew, you lot'll become out the needle and thread to repair a special blimp animal for a child.

Beloved stuffed animals get a member of the family and are often as important to the parents equally they are to the child. If you're a parent and y'all've ever lost your child'south lovey you know what I'm talking about. If information technology become's dropped on a walk, or left in a restaurant, or in the airport (don't even think most it!) your heart is broken. These toys are irreplaceable. Fifty-fifty if you can discover the aforementioned stuffed animal again, information technology doesn't feel or await the style that sometime, well-loved one did.

At present I'm a mom of three piddling girls and I'yard a stuffed animal designer. I'yard pretty confident that I can repair my daugthers' special toys when they go frayed and threadbare, when the seams outburst or the stuffing compresses, or if an ear falls off. And I can show you how so that you can make skilful repairs, too!

This post is the kickoff in a new occasional serial chosen "Animal Infirmary: Intensive Treat the Intensely Loved" in which I will bear witness you lot how to brand common repairs on your child'southward favorite stuffed animate being. From simple fixes like sewing upwardly a burst seam to more complex repairs like replacing mitt pads and reattaching jointed limbs, my intention is to help you mend and care for the special softies in your family's life.

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To set for this series I put a post up on the Wellesley Mother's Forum listing serve asking if anyone's kid had a special stuffed animal in need of repair. The Mother'due south Forum is a pretty active group in town, most 600 members potent. To say I was deluged with requests would exist an understatement. The stuffed animals that came in were of every variety from a handmade horse that was a gift from a corking aunt to a lamb that had traveled the world and had been pond 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 Animal Infirmary in society to illustrate how to perform the most common repairs. I hope you'll enjoy seeing them restored to wellness.

To kick off the series allow's meet a very endearing little guy named Pigawig. When Pigawig arrived it was clear that his snout had been repaired once before, but the repair was now completely threadbare. Here he is:

Here's a shut-upward of his snout.

That flake of orange was the former stuffing peeking out through a pigsty that had adult 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 beloved Barnard, Pigawig had been fixed, just poorly. The patch was too large and didn't match the original cloth.

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

I cut a new, more appropriately sized patch from pink fleece. It was merely about 1/4 inch larger than the surface area that needed roofing.

I folded the edges to the dorsum past 1/4 inch and used a simple running run up to temporarily baste them that way.

I pinned the patch in place and then I ladder stitched information technology to his snout using lite pink thread. Be sure to necktie a double know before trimming off the thread.

The patch stands out quite a bit because it is make clean and new, but after a few romps exterior and a couple of hugs to tear-stained cheeks it'll blend right in. And with an appropriately sized patch Pigawig looks more similar to his original handsome self.

I promise this showtime installment is helpful to you lot and if you have any item stories virtually the loss or repair of a favorite lovey, please share.

In the side by side installment I'll be talking well-nigh what to exercise when toy stuffing has become extremely compressed with a wonderful bear named Crane Homo (she's a girl).

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

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