A Tale of Two Bunnies
Recently a couple of Jellycat bunnies came to stay with us in order to rectify the damage the family’s hungry puppy had done to their ears! Their owner, Ethan, was somewhat distraught to find that his beloved Blue Bunny and Brown Bunny had had their ears munched, so his dad turned to us for help.
Before treatment - and looking rather deficient in the ear department!
The first step was to try to find some suitable material to make new ears from. It needed to be a similar colour and texture. Fortunately, I have quite a large stash of donor plush now and was lucky enough to find another bunny with blue-grey and brown two-tone ears, phew! That sorted out the missing ear on the blue bunny and the fronts of the ears for brown bunny. Another rummage yielded a soft brown fluffy plush that was perfect for the backs of the ears. Once the donor ears were unpicked I made a pattern and cut two matching ones from the fluffy plush. These were machine sewn together for longevity.
Brown bunny ready to receive his newly made ear.
All three ears were made and the missing end of the existing section of blue bunny’s ear patched on. The fun part now began… trying to get the original ear stumps out! As these Jellycat toys are designed for use from birth all of the appendages are very, very, tightly sewn on. So getting them out is usually a bit of a battle of will.
The joys of deconstruction!
The ear stubs finally removed after a lot of wrestling, it was now time to add bunnies’ new ears into the spaces. The trick here is to pin them in such a way that you don’t get stabbed multiple times as you try to work around them!
New ears attached successfully
Once the ears were securely stitched into place - I usually go around 2 or 3 times to make sure they are well secured - it was time to check over the rest of them. We agreed that they needed a top up of stuffing, and in the course of restuffing blue bunny I found a couple of holes forming around his armpit, so a new patch was applied there. One of his legs was also becoming detached, and on close inspection it looked like it had been reattached a few times. This was carefully unstitched and reinserted so his foot now dangles securely!
After adding some new stuffing and sewing them back up the bunnies are now back at home with their owner enjoying lots of cuddles!
Brown bunny and blue bunny ready to go home :)
If you have a cuddly or soft toy that needs some extra stitchy love then please do get in touch! We have a teddy repair info page and portfolio that you can visit… there are many other projects that haven’t made it into the portfolio yet, but Jellycats are a speciality!
Katie
