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So, I saw this little old bear on eBay, and I bid on it, I won it, it is now here.......why do I do this? This poor little bear is in big need of repair. 
When you repair bears, do you remove the old stuffing? That's what I think I want to do with this poor guy.
Sophie Z'OursYou bought him because you wanted to adopt him and to give him a lot of love!!! 
I never tried to repair a bear, but I am thinking about a 50 year old bear of a friend of mine, who need serious repairs. Unfortunately I never got tought how to do it so I cannot help but would be interested by the answer... 
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Kran-Beary'sHi,
When you repair a bear, you want to leave as much of the bear in original condition as possible... including the stuffing. I've restored several bears like the one in your photo. Some have been newer, 'circus' bears. These are the kind that were used as giveaways at travelling fairs. However...the GUND company also made a bear that looks very much like yours, and if yours is a GUND, he could be worth a fair bit of $$$$$. So...you'll want to keep him original.
I've both surface washed with woolite...the skin and have taken bears apart, removing the stuffing before I've washed the skin. You have to be careful though...some colors and dyes will run. Also, sometimes the stuffin inside has dyes that will stain your bear if it gets wet. This is especially true of stuffings used in the 1940's war era. It's called SUB and is the waste from the textile industry. I had one bear full of green stuffing, and the dyes ran like crazy! Almost destroyed the bear even with a light surface wash.
Hope this helps you out a little....and good for you for giving this fine guy a new home!
hugs,
nt
How do I find out what kind of bear he is? There are no tags....the fur is quite shabby, bare spots....not sure I want to even surface wash him.
BUT! I used his shape and style as an inspiration and am going to make others for my workshop bears. I almost finished one yesterday....will take pictures of him and post it sometime!
pandamac
