BaaBaa the Sheep

Baabaa has just had (or will have soon, as of Feb 2025), his 21st birthday! He has been well loved and he came to visit to have his holes fixed up and plenty of TLC as befits a veteran sheep! He needed a fair bit of work, despite (or because of?) his small size.

I’m not sure what brand he is, but though the fleece part of the body had holes in, it had fared much better than the paler material legs and face which was originally a micro plush of some sort. First of all I gave Baabaa a good bath after removing any residual stuffing. He needed three soaks, refreshing the water/detergent solution after an hour or so each time, and two washes! This brought back the semi-golden colour of his fleece, which on arrival was more like a grey.

Once he was clean and dry I was able to start tackling the holes. I began with the feet and legs - attaching new pads of felt to the inside of the feet to strengthen them. I could then stitch through where the small holes were to seal them up. I quickly decided that the legs needed the same treatment as they were either holey or threatening to become holey. The felt did a good job of supporting the fragile fabric and once completed they felt a lot sturdier.

The face was the next challenge. Fortunately I was sent a couple of photos which showed Baabaa when he was fairly new, so I had a good idea of how his eyes should be positioned and how big they should be. Next came the 3D jigsaw. I used some grey plush with a short nap and stitched panels behind each of the existing portions of the face. This filled in the gaps where bits were missing and gave me something to stitch to. Using the existing seams meant that I was able to match the shape accurately. Once these were in place I could stitch down the original material to the new plush so that the whole thing became integral. I then added the eyes and restitched the nose and mouth embroidery which was mostly missing. Again the photos were really helpful! I was instructed to leave the one remaining tattered ear as it was, as it had been like that for a long time.

Finally I turned my attention to the holes in the fleece. There had been a large gaping hole in the belly that had been sewn up previously, distorting the shape, so that was patched to take up the space from the tear. The other holes were patched and then Baabaa was restuffed and sewn back up ready to surprise his owner on her birthday ♥

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