Elphie the blue elephant

Elphie’s person (one of you dear people) wrote back in April 2019, when the world was very different, about Elphie needing some help.

Here are the diagnostic photos she sent:

Now Elphie was an Eden elephant, and originally had a pull in his trunk that attached to a music box. That was long gone (and something I couldn’t fix), but otherwise, he was in pretty good shape. The felt at his heels were worn, and his ears and trunk tip, once pink check, had faded to white. He had also lost some of his plumpness to hugs over the years.

We agreed on a treatment plan: gentle spa, recovering of inner ears, trunk tip, and heels.

But then, as you know, life happens, and then the world happened, and all of a sudden it was September 2021 and Elphie’s person wrote again. They were in a much better place, and ready to send Elphie to the hospital. The only change was a small seam wound that Elphie needed stitched up too. No problem. :-)

Elphie didn’t have far to fly, his person lives about 50 miles from me. But he did take a bit to work up the courage for the solo trip, so didn’t arrive till Thanksgiving.

First things first, Elphie got a bubble bath:

Nice and clean, he got restuffed, including a heart of original stuffing, blue and white as a memory of the colors when he arrived at the hospital:

On to the transplants… Elphie was one of those rare patients who I had perfect fabric matches for! So his new pink and white checked inner ears and nose tip, and new pink felt heels, were just right. Here he is posing to get his chubbiness adjusted:

Here he is showing off some more of his wound repairs….

And here he is, ready for his second solo flight, back home!

He flew home just after New Years (flying during the holidays could scare even the bravest elephant what with all those heavy packages). He arrived home promptly and his person wrote:

Dear Beth,

Happy New Year!

I just received Elphie and I’m so full of love and appreciation for the work you do.

You’re more than welcome to share Elphie’s story on your blog!

I am so excited about him living hopefully another 27 years thanks to your care and expertise.

Lambie from Boston

Lambie was another springtime patient… which makes sense as lambs tend to arrive in spring, don’t they? Anyway, Lambie is a patterned pink terry lamb, which means her skin has thicker terry areas, and thinner smooth areas, and that leads to uneaven wear which can lead to holes. I’ve seen quite a few of her relatives in the hospital. Here are some of her diagnosis photos:

Her person wanted to keep her as close to original as possible, including her narrow waist, but to stabilize her, patching her wounds and recovering her feet. No cleaning so she could keep her original stuffing.

As I said, Lambie arrived in the spring and the first step was choosing fabric to patch her holes. Here were the options:

I actually had a perfect match for the original textured pattern of her feet, so we were all set there. A decision was made and surgery proceeded until she was once again whole (and hole-less) and ready for more hugs!

Her person wrote:

“Oh my gosh you are a miracle worker!! She looks GREAT! Thank you!”

and she flew home. :-)

Dirt the Gund Dog

Dirt’s person is one of you. :-) She wrote last spring:

“I have had him since I was born and he is getting close to 30 years old. He has been with me everywhere I have traveled and lived (my dad even drove an hour both ways to get my dog from my bed when I forgot him going to the airport and almost missed our flight). I am not sure he needs “repairs” necessarily as his is in pretty good shape but I am no expert. His paws are all good and still has both eye buttons, they are just hidden by his fur.

I was hoping maybe a good clean and some re-stuffing as his neck and body have gotten quite limp over the past few years.”

Here are his diagnosis photos:

I bet by now, if you’ve been reading a while, you can guess what I suggested…. a gentle spa! And that’s what he came in for, just a little spa.

Here he is in his bubble bath:

Here’s his heart made from original stuffing:

Here he is clean and restuffed with his fur fluffed. You can see he fluffed pretty nicely…. his seam was open to adjust chubbiness as needed:

We added just a touch more chubbiness (on the advice of his person’s mom) and then closed him up and packed him up to fly home to Colorado:

His person wrote:

“Oh I’m so excited! Thank you so much! You are more than welcome to share his story! My mom and older sister have been reminiscing about how good he looks. They both remember his golden tips that were hidden in dirt and mats!”

And when he arrived home, she added:

“Dirt has arrived safe and sound back home! He enjoyed his spa/hospital visit and has a brand new leash on life and a new tag for his collar with his name! Thank you so much again for everything. Cannot wait to read the blog story on his visit!”

And this is that story. :-)

Patches the Quilted Bunny

First, Happy New Year all! I hope that 2022 is a year of hope and happiness for you all. :-)

Ok, the story of Patches the bunny. He was a very well loved, quilted cloth bunny, who, at 25 years old, had been worn down by his adventures. Here is his diagnosis photo:

Fortunately, I had just treated a similar bear, whose condition was a bit more stable, so I had a good idea of what his legs should be, shape and proportionwise:

As you can see, the bear had a number of quilted areas recovered (pink dots, turquoise dots, blue marble, check and leopard), and that was the plan for Patches too. The new fabric is always a bit brighter, and darker, but fades to blend better over time.

Patches was going to have lots of new patches, new quilted and new quilted legs, but keep his sock ear. Patches arrived from the East Coast and surgery began. It took nearly two months… hand sewing each little patch takes time you know. :-)

Here he is, almost all better:

One final tweak… a little patch on the hole of his sock ear, and he was ready to fly back East:

His person wrote:

“Patches arrived home safely. He looks great! Showed my son a pic and he thought I bought a new bunny … :)”

and the White Elephant (Blue Teddy and the White Elephant part 2)

So Blue Teddy made it home and in her same email where she was so happy with arrival, his person wrote:

“Given the beautiful work on him, I am really hoping you will consider the same makeover /full recover on the white elephant. I will upload some pics of him shortly so that you can assess? I am wondering if we couldn’t find a similar fabric for him in natural cream.”

Here are the elephant’s diagnosis photos (including one of him next to the healthy Blue Teddy):

The elephant was getting fully recovered in a similar faux sheepskin, but with faux suede inner ears.

Now recovering was fairly straightforward, but ear reattachment, not so much. Should the suede part be in or out? Should the ears dangle or be closer to his head? Here are some of the option photos:

(yes, that’s my teddy bear, the mascot of my site, sticking his head into the last photo :-)).

Decision? Gray underneath, hanging down.

Finally, the White Elephant was healthy and ready to fly home:

Home cross country to MA he flew, where Blue Teddy was waiting. Here is their reunion photo:

Their person wrote:

“Just arrived this morning, none the worse for his long journey…….and looking GORGEOUS!!!!! You have done an outstanding job with these two….beautifully mended and without losing their old ‘personalities’…. I can’t believe I waited 30 years to have them seen to…..but frankly am only too happy that I did wait….. and found Realms of Gold…..

Thank you, thank you for your lovely work!”

Blue Teddy in Distress… plus an elephant pt. 1

Blue Teddy is his person’s favorite bear. At 70 plus years old though, he was showing his age pretty severely. Here are a couple of his diagnosis photos:

ufNot only was he deflating, and having joint issues, but his fabric was disintegrating in place due to age and drying, and as you can see, he was no longer blue. While initially the plan was a spa, new joints, and wound repair, in person examination of his fabric proved he really needed all new fur, and his original fur was too fragile to clean so “the full works” recover it was. Finding blue lamb style fur (that funky texture he has), took a bit, but eventually we found a good match.

Here are his initial recover photos, with his facial features reembroidered, fully recovered, and joints repaired. Those are original eyes, just different lighting:

His nose needed some tweaking, and here it is in the final form:

“Well done!!!! He looks so huggable!” said his person.

Blue Teddy headed home, but already his person was thinking of sending his friend, White Elephant, for similar treatment.

BTW, when Blue Teddy arrived home, his person wrote:

“Delighted to say that Blue Teddy arrived home today in his splendid new suit…and he looks fantastic! What is particularly delightful is that you restored his face back to his original personality. I can’t believe how good he looks!!!!!!”

Next up, White Elephant’s visit to the hospital.

Boppy the German Lamb Pt 2

so… Boppy’s story continues….

He got recovered in velour and it was time to check his chubbiness:

His original buttons had been transplanted on top of his new lederhosen, and his original eyes are now over his new skin, but his nose and smile were reembroidered. He was plump but squishy, the plan being that hug rehab at home would flatten his stuffing over time. His person’s response? “His squishyness looks perfect!!”

So Boppy got closed up and then there was one final touch. Remember his old bright red patches? We saved one and turned it into a heart patch as a memory of his past:

His person’s reaction: “Thats amazing!! (Like nearly tears amazing).”

Boppy the 18 year old German Lamb Pt. 1

Hi all! I hope you are enjoying your holidays! I finally am catching up on patients, which means I can take a small break and share some of their stories with you again. :-) I’m going to write a bunch and space them out posting-wise. First up is Boppy the German Lamb (who found me here, actually). His person first contacted me over a year ago after he had a “thankfully short” scuffle with a cat.

Here are some of the diagnosis photos his person sent:

As you may or may not be able to tell, he was originally all velour, not fur, and he had had a few surgeries in the past. I get a lot of whole or partially velour patients… I have a veritable rainbow of velour fabrics sitting on shelves so I can try to color match them as needed.

Boppy’s treatment plan included full recovering (his skin was really too thin to do anything else at this point since he was still actively having adventures) and a spa. His surgery was scheduled a few months out, so he arrived at the hospital last winter.

Here’s Boppy in his bubble bath:

And here’s his heart being made with a bit of original stuffing:

Next up was fabric selection from the rainbow of velours:

His lederhosen were originally navy, and I had to special order that.

To be continued…..

If a mouse looks like a cookie….

Benjamin the mouse (who looks like a mouse from a famous book) lived with a little boy for the first six years of both their lives. But one day, a dog mistook Benjamin for a cookie, and this was the result:

For almost six years, Benjamin was hidden away… too damaged to play with but too loved to part with. Until, the little boy’s mother heard about a stuffed animal hospital, and sent Benjamin my way.

Benjamin didn’t need a spa, he’d been cleaned up all those years ago, but he did need his parts put back together (arm attached, chest reattached to legs, overalls repaired) and some supplemental stuffing (since he hadn’t had any cookies recently). Here are his first photos after surgery. These are to check his chubbiness, so he still had some open seams:

And here he is all better, ready to fly home for more adventures (with his boy, but hopefully not with the dog!):

He’s perfect! wrote his family.

Yoshter continued….

So the problem was… Yoshter had too many scales! Fortunately, removing one and redistributing the others was a fairly straightforward surgery.

Here he is, all better and ready to fly home to Michigan:

His person wrote:

AAAH he looks wonderful!!

And once he was home there was one more email. His person wrote:

HE’S HOME!! Oh goodness, I just had the worst day at work and coming home to find him waiting for me and getting to hug him was exactly what I needed. He looks even better in person than in the photos!! So much healthier than he was before, and the new tail fabric is so soft!! Thank you so much for helping him!

And here’s the photo of him happily at home:

For you dino and Mario fans… May I present Yoshter

Yoshter’s person first wrote in January. He was 20 plus years old and had had many adventures, including travelling, going to college, and some nerve wracking washing machine rides (he won’t do that anymore). But now, he had a few issues that needed more expert assistance. Here are his diagnosis photos:

As you can see, he had some fading, and stuffing compression. His spine scales were felt and had flopped and suffered from pilling. And he once had mechanics inside, which no longer worked, so he and his person wanted the velcro removed and his white chest fabric extended so he could have a full belly and tail.

An appointment was made for surgery, and a bed reserved for Yoshter’s arrival in April. First step in treatment upon arrival was a spa to see if we could help with his color fade. I don’t redye patients, but lots of times the spa does brighten them up. Here’s Yoshter in his bubble bath:

Once he had dried (I don’t show drying because honestly, fully deflated stuffed animals sitting on towels under skylights is not attractive, and can be a bit traumatizing)… his velcro came out and he got stuffed to his fullest potential so I could figure out how far to extend his belly, then got a heart with a bit of his original stuffing. Green of course! To match his skin. :-)

For his belly/tail extension, there was really only one fabric which felt right, so surgery proceeded once it was approved. Here’s his tail:

And here he is with new scales… can you spot my mistake?

stay tuned for the next post for the answer and the end of Yoshter’s story…..

Postscript for a teddy bear story

A lot of folks were asking, so I thought I’d answer in a very short post. when patients are recovered, the original fur/skin is always inside, reinforcing the new skin. I follow the original seams as well. Sometimes, people opt to have patients lined instead, which puts the new fabric on the inside, reinforcing the original worn fabric, but then the original fabric can continue to wear. And sometimes people opt to do both, line and recover a patient so there’s three layers: lining, original skin, and new fur. Of course, full recovering is always a choice for an animal’s person. Sometimes I just do partial transplants, still usually over the existing skin, and sometimes we leave the worn skin as is because, after all, that wear is from hugs and holds lots of memories. The only time old fur or skin is removed, is if it has been burned so badly that it has melted and is now more rock than fabric. Then that part is removed and new fur is added to repair the hole (just like it would be added for any other hole, actually). The cool thing about recovering though, like the teddy bear had, is that it’s completely reversible if need be (though I’ve only had to do that once in over a decade of repairs, when a lion’s family changed their minds about fur fabric).

I hope this brief, pictureless post helps answer the questions. :-)

 Hi all!  I hope you are all safe and doing well!

As I have mentioned, this year has been crazy busy in the hospital (which is good, because it keeps me from paying too much attention to the rest of the world), but of course, as you’ve seen, that means my posts have slowed down tremendously.  But I promise, I’ve been storing up stories and I do want to share them with you all!  So, even though the hospital is still quite full (I have patients booked into the fall), I wanted to take a short break from sewing and share a few new tales (and tails) with you. :-)  I’m going to write up a bunch, and schedule them to come out over a few weeks, so keep your eyes open. :-)

I’m working backwards through my patients, so first up is a teddy bear who went home just last week.  His person wrote to me back in February.  He’s over 30 years old and she felt he could use some tlc.  Here are the diagnosis photos she sent:

Not too bad, but clearly well loved.  I offered several treatments, from just recovering his missing footpads and stitching his wounds, to transplants for bald spots, lining if the bald spots were acceptable but reinforcement was desired, full recovering, and of course a spa.  His person opted for full recovering and a spa, as well as a new nose and eyes.  A bed was reserved for his hospital arrival, scheduled for mid-June.

Teddy arrived and started care with a spa.  It’s always best to clean before other surgeries.  While plushies don’t need to worry about infection, it is better to match furs to cleaned fur, and to be sure any stitching doesn’t tighten surface dirt or keep old stuffing in place.  Here he is in his bubble bath:

He’s a little guy, so the tub was more of a pool for him. :-)

Next, his person had to choose his new fur.  There were many options:

The first choice was the top one, and surgery proceeded.  Once stuffed and recovered, he needed a heart for a bit of his old stuffing.  Here’s that being made and put in:

Next decision, what fabric to use for his footpads and inner ears.  They had once been a smoother, darker fabric.  I found several nice solids, but I also had one with stars which was an almost perfect match to his original color:

His person loved the stars!  So that’s what we used.  Here he is fully recovered in his chubbiness approval pics.  His spine is open so I can adjust his stuffing….

Chubbiness approved!  Just needed to add his smile back….

And those ribbons were options to replace his old bow.  Again, his person chose my favorite, the sparkly one on the bottom.

Here he is all closed up, ribbon on, ready to fly home cross country:

Sparkling with a glitter ribbon and stars!

His person wrote:

He looks even better than I could have imagined!

As you may have guessed from my lack of posts recently, it’s been REALLY busy in the hospital.  As in, complex surgeries are currently scheduling in August.  But… This little hush puppy dog is going to be the feature of an Easter Basket when he gets home, so I thought it was pretty timely to share his story this weekend. :-)

His family actually wrote back in December after he had an unfortunate  run-in with the washing machine. (I will spare you all my opinion of washing machines and stuffed animals… if you haven’t read it, and you want to do so, it is here … and a second post is here.)  In the author’s defense, she didn’t put the puppy in the washing machine. :-)  She wrote:

There is no rush on this repair since he has been sitting in the laundry room for awhile. My 45 year old son rides bikes and this puppy has been with him on all of his MS Bike Runs. Sooo he wanted to wash him and his head got destroyed and it looks like a piece of his fur is missing from the back of his head.

Here are the diagnosis photos she sent:

Now coincidentally, I have one of these same exact puppies!  So I knew exactly what he was supposed to look like, and knew I had quite close fur if he needed any transplants.  We waited a few months for him to come in both because it was the holidays (always riskier for travel) and the hospital was crowded, and because it gave his stuffing time to thoroughly air dry before he went in a dark box for his trip (thus avoiding mildew issues).  He came in last month for wound repair only.  Here he is all better after his surgery:

His person wrote:

He looks new and I think he will look great in an Easter Basket. I am so happy I found you.

So here’s to you, a hopefully not quite so sad puppy.  I hope you (and all of you readers, too) have a happy Easter, are having a good pesach, or are just enjoying the start of spring.  :-)

Two Winnie the Poohs flew home this week, fully rejuvenated for a new year.  They’re a little different than the Poohs in my classic Pooh post, but pretty similar to each other, so I thought they’d be a good way to enter 2021.

First is a clothed Winnie the Pooh with a multicolored scarf.  Here is his diagnosis photo:

As you can see, he was a little flat, his fur was a bit compressed.  What you can’t see is that all those gathers in his scarf are wired, and the wires were poking through the scarf and scratching his human.  So the plan was a spa for his compression and weight loss, and hopefully some sewing to fix up his scarf.  Here he is in his bubble bath:

And here’s his heart being made and installed, a classic Pooh Bear heart with some of his original stuffing:

Then he had his first fur fluffing, and I sent photos to be sure his chubbiness was right before his scarf was refitted:

He’s perfect!!! said his person.

Then, for his scarf, I removed the wires and stitched the gathers instead, then refitted it onto him.  One more fur fluff, and he was ready to fly home:

The other Pooh wasn’t going to have a bath, and was much more worn (and quite a bit older).  Here’s his diagnosis photos:

The plan for this guy was to keep him as is inside, add a touch of supplemental stuffing to plump him up, and then fully recover him (thereby fixing balding, nose, and smile).  So, the first decision was what fur to use:

Pooh’s family opted for the furry fleece in the second photo.  So surgery proceeded.  And soon… Pooh was ready to fly home:

His family’s response… “That is awesome!”

I hope the newly smiling Pooh made you smile, and that you all have a happy (and better) 2021!