Teddy Bear Repair

In cleaning out a closet, I came across my teddy bear from when I was 1 year old. It certainly had seen better days. I placed him on the top of the trash pile. When the day finished and I was ready to take that pile out, I looked him in the face with his one remaining eye and could not let him go.

But what could I do - put him back in the hole he came from? No!

This called for some new thinking to bring this treasure out of the trash and give him a proper place in my home. I pulled out a stack of discarded interior design samples, nylon string, sewing thread, embroidery thread and recycled plastic pellets. With some time care and patience, my dear sweet bear now sits on the couch ready to live life again!!! Now if I can just keep my sweet black lab from thinking the bear is hers!

Old teddy bear

Interior Design fabric swatches

Sewing thread

Sewing Needles: straight, large eyed, curved

Embroidery thread

Fiber fill stuffing and/or plastic pellets

First step is to take a good look as to what state the teddy bear is in. Mine was missing nearly all the fur on all the gold areas, but the brown fur was generally only missing at the seams. The bear also had a large hole in the crotch where styrofoam pellets were slowly falling out. This had likely happened pretty steadily over the years since my poor bear was rather soft, couldn't sit up on his own and slouched pretty badly when I put him up against the wall.

I decided patch the gold areas and just embroider the brown areas. Oh and I stitched the hole in the crotch to keep any more stuffing from falling out while I worked with him.

I chose to go with the original color scheme for the repair, so I collected a number of gold interior design fabrics. (There is no reason that you can choose completely different colors.) I started with a neutral sewing thread, but later brought in heavier cream and brown nylon string for the embroidery. I had a number of googlie eyes that were larger than my bear's that I thought would make him cuter.

Often the fabric will have paper labeling glued to the back of the fabric. You can choose to keep the paper on the back if you are wanting more structure to the panels, but realize the sewing will be harder. I was going for a softer, more cuddly feel to the body.

I attached the patches with small stitches similar to boro stitching where there is a running set of small stitches. Most of these I made in parallel lines, but alternative patterns can be used to add interest. For example, I chose to create circles for the circle patches on the ends of the legs and arms. If you are interested in patterns, check out sashiko patterns for ideas.

Choose various fabric patterns, textures, colors, shapes and quality for interest. I chose more of a crazy quilt feel, but you could also choose to create a pattern or even create an image.

Whatever you choose, fabric edges should overlap to ensure the entire panel is strong and well covered.

Lastly, I wanted the muzzle to be made from one piece of fabric. Since the shape of the muzzle is three dimensional, I took a nearly straight rectangular piece and curved it over the bridge of the nose, overlapped the inside edges and tacked the entire shape down to the bear.

I fortunately had a bag of recycled polypropylene pellets to use as stuffing.

I started adding pellets at the reopened hole in the crotch. Heavier pellets in the bottom of bear will help the bear sit up on it's own.

Once the torso was filled, I stitched the hole at the crotch closed.

The legs were still soft, so I opened a hole at the seam between the gold and brown at the foot and filled the leg with more stuffing one leg at a time.

In the end, I likely added about 5 pounds of pellets - which means my bear is definitely heavier!

Most of the interior design fabrics will be woven fabrics and the edges will fray if not protected. I chose to add interest by covering the edges with embroidery. Since the teddy bear has a number of curves and shapes, it is helpful to have a curved needle. Mine is a thicker needle with a large eye that also was helpful with the thicker nylon string.

I chose to work with the nylon string to create an thick embroidery overlay for the edges. A number of different stitches can be used depending on the the look that you prefer. I chose to make a chain stitch on either side of the fabric edge and then stitched between fill the space between the two chain stitches. You can encircle the two lines of chain stitches, but I chose to make a figure 8 between the two lines to create more texture.

Lastly, I also doubled the string when I threaded the needle. This made the stitches messier, but I liked the lacy feel of the stitches. If you prefer something smoother, only use single thread.

Note: If you prefer not to embroider, the edges could be folded over when it is stitched to the bear like the inside edges of the muzzle in the prior step.

Embroidery stitches can also be used to create structure and shape in the fabrics. I shortened the length of the stitches on the inside of the ear to cup the ear and make it stand up on it's own.

I also chose to use the fabric and embroidery to make soft eyes versus using the hard plastic googlie eyes. For the eyes, I did choose a white fabric for the eyeball and a dark green for the iris. I used the brown nylon string with two threads on the outer circle or the eyeball and one thread around the iris. A sharpie marker was used to create the pupil and sewing thread in a stem stitch to create the highlight.

My bear's poor nose was about gone, so I did cut it off.

The new nose was a pom pom made from warm brown embroidery thread. The original template for the cardboard circle was a quarter. The thread used to tie off the threads is then sewn into the end of the original muzzle where the old nose was.

Most of the seams on the brown fur areas were still strong and just needed to be decorated. Here I just wrapped a stitch around the seam.

In the case of the crotch where there was a hole, I darned the hole by stitching across the seam to cover the hole, but then weaving the stitch along the seam to create a new fabric over the seam.

First, hug your bear! Welcome him back into your life!

I now feel I have a bear that is worth putting out where everyone can see it! He sits on my couch proudly watching movies with me, but he often falls asleep before the end. BTW, his favorite is The Jungle Book!