It's wonderful to see Mr. Bear's legs back into good order again....The fabric is very old and fragile so I have resewn all the tears and relined his legs completely...I still had to be extremely careful when replacing his stuffing as I can't take away the fact that his fabric is approx 113 years old and you have to assess just how much pressure it can take...
I believe his original wood wool had got damp over the years and had expanded and stretched the fabric beyond what it could take, hence the tears around the ankles...this is always a weak point on a bear and the wood wool can tend to form hard clumps when it settles over time, the hard edges also wear out the fabric and cause it to split....
I've inserted some beautifully soft kapok against his paw pads to protect them in the future and then filled in with wood wool...I combined a mixture of wood wool and kapok inside his ankle joints which will help to give them more structure.
I have also very carefully cleaned Mr Bear...His fabric was far too fragile to get wet so I gave his fur a very light 'suds's wash and also removed dirt and fluff from his fabric underlayer...His fur is looking so much brighter and feels lovely and soft now (He also smells nicely of bear!)
I'll post some more updates next week once I've completed some more repairs....
Carol
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