#jointed bear

Many of you have found me through my post about a lot of types of Pooh Bears.  Well, this fall, another style Winnie the Pooh came to the hospital.  Since he was being repaired as a gift for a birthday on January 1 (today!) I thought I’d share his story with you today too. :-)

This Pooh wasn’t a long time member of his family.  His original adopter wrote:

A few years ago I wandered into an antique shop and saw what looked like an old, well loved Pooh-bear.  I knew my brother would love him but he’s in no condition to be loved so I just sent a picture to him.   Recently I was in the area again and decided to check and see Pooh was still there - and he was!  By this time I had decided that I had to get him for my brother. 

Well, Pooh really did need some help.  Here are his diagnosis photos:

You can see he was wearing through his joints... and if you zoom in you may be able to see how his fur is thinning in many spots as well.  Since he’d been in an antique store for so long, he also needed a spa.  Our plan was to clean him up, redo his joints, line his torso, and stitch any other wounds.

Here he is starting his spa:

The surprise when Pooh was unstuffed was that whoever made him, put many of the scraps of his original fur inside as stuffing, so we could use those to patch bald spots and got a perfect fur match!

Here’s Pooh’s heart being made and installed:

And here he is all better, ready to fly home!

His adopter wrote:

Some of you may remember previous posts of big and little patients, but I think todays is the greatest size variation. :-)

Monday, the smallest jointed bear I’ve worked on arrived (though I do own some that rival him in size).  His name is Bar (there should be two dots on top of the a) and he is nearly 70 years old and comes from Germany.  He used to ride around town on  his person’s bicycle handles but now his person’s daughter has brought him in for some foot and muzzle work and a new eye.  His eye, btw, is about a mm across.  I’m special ordering a new glass one for him because I don’t keep that size in stock!

Then yesterday, Tuesday, one of my largest patients arrived.  He definitely came in the largest box (60x25x25″) and he’ll need it to be a bit taller when he flies home, because he’ll be able to hold his head up.  His name is Atticus (isn’t that a great name?) and he’s a giraffe.  His person rescued him after years in a preschool being loved and climbed on by toddlers, so he neck is droopy and his legs are twisted and he has a few small wounds and a pretty bad spinal scar.  But... he’ll feel much better soon!  And he has the loveliest, kind expression.  You can see why his person needed to rescue him!

Here are a few photos of the duo:

The new year began with a quick visit from a bear who lost his head, quite literally!

Here he is on arrival:

You can see the head joint on his neck.  And if you look closely, you may be able to see that the cardboard washer inside his head actually tore in half.  I haven’t seen one do that before on a neck joint.  Anyway, I replaced the whole joint (torso and head sides) with a modern plastic joint.  I also stitched down that loose thread on his left finger.

Here he is ready to fly home to GA:

His person said:  Great! 

Huge selection of vintage Teddy Bear sewing patterns just added!  

This little fellow is one of the first miniature teddy bears I made, back in about 1992.