A Very Large Visitor in a Sorry State

I had a huge parcel delivered yesterday and absolutely loved the contents as soon as I saw him.

Meet Herbert, a 23" bear named after my Paternal Grandfather whom I never met.  Grandad French left the army with shrapnel war wounds from WW1. 
This old boy has many 'wounds' of his own and I will consider it an honour to restore him and hopefully give him many more years in a new home.

 

 

 
For a start there is this patched area around his leg joint.  It has been patched very badly with a piece of sheepskin!  I am not sure that it will need a patch once the leg has been re-attached correctly.

Then there is problems with his arms.  The joints are fine, but the wood wool filling has settled making it look as if he has a broken arm, and the joint is showing at the top seam.

 

His paw pads have been replaced/covered, quite neatly, but stitched on the outside with a very dark brown material.  I am planning to give him new pads in a slightly lighter ultrasuede.  I will wait to see how damaged his original foot pads are once I get the covering material off. 

 

His head has numerous darns, especially around his nose.  These will be staying as they are quite neatly sewn, and in my opinion it will do more harm than good if I unpick them.  They are part of his history and give him character.  His nose and mouth appear to be original.

For some reason he has holes in the back of his ears that will need closing. 

 

I may find other problems as I go through the restoration process, but as long as I can make him strong enough to last many more years, I will be happy.

Unfortunately he has had to have the obligatory few days in the freezer that all of the old timers get when they arrive.  This (hopefully) will get rid of any nasties that may be lurking in the wood wool or mohair.  

When he comes out of quarantine I will post on here as I go along, to show the work in progress.  In the meantime, my 12" Pud Bears Panda appears to like having a big brother to look up to.

I believe him to be a 1930's - 1940's Chiltern bear.

Chiltern Bear 'Darnit'

Darnit, with his strange button eyes.

I have not blogged for quite a while, but I just had to show off this cute Chiltern bear that I have christened Darnit.  He has quite extensive darning to his eye sockets, hence his name.
Here are his before and after photos.


What a difference a nice pair of glass eyes makes.
Darnit is now SOLD

He came to me with odd sized white button eyes, one stitched on with green wool and the other with white wool.  A delicate operation and he now looks much happier with his amber glass eyes.

He is very worn with just tufts of mohair and is quite saggy.  His paw pads are all intact though and he has his original nose and mouth.  I restitched his back seam as it was not very neat and put a few stitches in one of his ears.

He is now available in my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/PollysVintageBears

Chiltern Bear Little Jimmy Before and After 'Plastic' Surgery

I had a pretty little 14" Chiltern bear to mend before he could be put for sale.
His nose had a hole in it about the size of a 50p piece.

 



I found a piece of mohair of a similar colour and trimmed it back so it looked a bit worn.  It was then pinned into place ready for sewing.



Patch sewn into place

Pinned ready for sewing

 

 


Little Jimmy is now SOLD

 

See my other bears at  www.etsy.com/shop/pollysvintagebears 





Chiltern Bear Hubert's Big Day is Here

I'm really keen to get Hubert  finished and looking gorgeous.  I couldn't wait, and he has already had his teddy bath (it's 8am here in the UK).

Hubert relaxing in his bath

I even took photos to show you, he's not modest so doesn't mind.  Not that he wears clothes anyway!
Bet you didn't know that bears like to play with a toy duck in the bath.
He made a lot of mess - oats everywhere, I had to get the vacuum cleaner out to tidy up after him.


Waiting to be brushed out

He has to wait a little while now for the oats to do their job and lift the dirt from his mohair.  If any of you have an old bear that needs a freshen up, it really is like magic.  Their mohair comes up much cleaner and softer after this treatment.  It can be a bit of a pain getting it all out from the joint areas and around the ears, but I'm sure they love the attention of a good firm brushing.

I'm now wondering if he will require a nice ribbon or bell, or even a cardigan/waistcoat.



At the moment I am veering towards a bell or two on a cord /ribbon around his neck.  I don't want to cover this beautiful boy too much and his body mohair is strong so he doesn't need covering for protection.

And here he is in his before and after photos.

 



"Anyone there"?



 



"Hi, I can see you now"

"I feel poorly"



"That's better"
Hubert is now SOLD

I found him 3 bells, and fastened them around his neck with a black cord.  His eyes are a dark amber, a bit darker than they would have been originally, but it is so difficult to get hold of antique eyes.  At the moment I have had to buy in some new glass eyes for replacements as I have tried, with no success to find the old ones.

He is a handsome boy and, at 21"/53cm, quite a substantial bear.

He will be available on my website www.pollysvintagebears.weebly.com and in my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/PollysVintageBears