Lovey Repair was featured on CBS 2 NY!!

Lovey Repair was featured on CBS 2 NY!! If you're in NYC, you can tune into CBS NY Plus or channel 2.2 which is CBS NY Plus. It will air every half hour beginning now at 7:45p, 8:15p all the way until this time tomorrow evening!! 

If you can't see it in NYC, here's the link.

Whee!!

Sockie's in Las Vegas!

Sockie sent us greetings from Las Vegas! Hi Sockie!! Thanks for letting us "travel" with you!

Uh-Oh Eeyore!

From Eeyore's Owner:

"When I was a boy, my mother gave me a wonderful version of Winnie-the-Pooh's trustful, although frequently despondent, friend Eeyore.  Last year, I turned Eeyore over to my now two-year-old son, who has greatly enjoyed wrestling with it.

The other morning, I walked into my son's room to hear him announce, at top volume, "Uh-oh Eeyore!" And, in fact, he had managed to rip Eeyore's head nearly completely off, letting out a batch of stuffing.  And, the button that had faithfully held Eeyore's tail in place for nearly four decades had been ripped off.  "Uh-oh," indeed."

"They're funny things, Accidents.  You never have them till you're having them."

- Eeyore, A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Eeyore is, unsurprisingly, a bit delicate, and when his neck burst open it wasn't even on a seam.  So, we needed to reinforce the fabric at the tear with a bit of ironed-on interfacing.  That was the only way that the stitches would hold.  Eeyore was very brave:

"One can't complain. I have my friends. Someone spoke to me only yesterday."

- Eeyore, A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Thankfully, with just a bit of work, Eeyore was back in shape.  He even let Amalia recreate his birthday balloon scene:

"It just shows what can be done by taking a little trouble," said Eeyore. "Do you see, Pooh?" Do you see, Piglet? Brains first and then Hard Work."

- Eeyore, A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Thanks for coming over, Eeyore!

Super Bunny's Ready for Action!

Super Bunny is one of our sweetest patients yet!  Just a few inches high, he's kept his Owner well protected for nine years. In all that time he's held up beautifully and only needed a bit of repair on his paws. 

We met Super Bunny at, where else, Forty Carrots (their plain frozen yogurt with wheat germ topping may be the city's best kept secret.  Trust me. - Ed.).

While we usually keep past attempts at repair intact ('love marks,' we call them) the repair to Super Bunny's right hind leg, looked, in his Owner's opinion, like an "elephant foot."

Yeah.  Sorry.  It's totally an elephant foot.

Super Bunny's feet were so delicate that simple mending wasn't enough. In order to properly fix them we opened a small seam, removed the old fabric, turned each leg inside out, and stitched on new satin:

Don't look, Super Bunny!

After gently mending the front paws and delicately reinforcing all of the other seams, Super Bunny is ready to go!

A relieved Super Bunny with new toes, courtesy of Becca, and a custom made cape, courtesy of Amalia.

Thanks for stopping by, sweet Super Bunny!

What you Need is Lots of Soap!

With a nod to our most favorite book...

See the piggy, see the puddle, see muddy little puddle.

See the piggy in the middle of the muddy little puddle.... What you need is lots of soap!

Squishy-squashy, mooshy-squooshy, oofy-poofy.  Indeed, said little piggy.... I think we need some soap!

So they all dove way down derry

and were very, very merry.

Softy is Soft Again!

Softy wasn't soft.  

Or clean.  

In fact, his Owner's mother thought he was a lost cause and suggested (GASP!) throwing him away.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

All Softy needed was a bath.  And soap.  3 kinds.  With some nice conditioner and a good brushing he was back to his given name.

While one should always listen to one's mother (right, Amalia?), in this case we were happy to prove her wrong.

So glad we could help, Softy!!

Pretty Poppy!

Poppy is over 30 years old, and another hand-me-down lovey! He needed a spa day and some repairs before he was ready for his new 5-month-old owner:

First, unstuffed:

Then, a bath:

Next, new eyes!!

New eye!                    Old eye!

 Two new eyes!!

After some stitching, new stuffing and a good brushing, Poppy is ready for another 30 years of fun!

Thanks for coming to our Clinic, Poppy!

Sissy's Super Socks!

Sissy visited us all the way from the Boston area to see if we could help her poor feet!

While she was with us, we also changed her stuffing:

Poor Sissy's feet were in such bad shape that her Owner decided we should give her fuzzy socks instead (we had the perfect material left over from Bunny).

Cozy!

Sissy came to us tucked in a shoe box and we wanted to make sure she had a snugly ride home - so we also made her a little quilt:

Sleep tight, Sissy! Thanks for visiting!!

2nd Repair Clinic a Success!

Thank you Super Bunny, Rudolph, Eeyore, Piggie, Poppy and Softy for coming over!  Stay tuned for everyone's repair stories next week!

Igloo

Igloo is another one of Amalia's loveys.

Amalia: He is ADORABLE.  My Nana gave him to me.

He had a hole near his tail:

So we fixed him: 

It must be especially nice to live at NYC Lovey Repair, Right Igloo?

Latest Press!

Check out the Brooklyn!! borough paper - NYC Lovey Repair is on page 11!  Quite an honor for Brooklyn-born Amalia!

Triumphant Dino!

We see lots of puppy-attack victims! Dino's puppy, however, was pretty discriminating, going after just Dino's tooth, horn, and nostril.

We needed fabric to rebuild the horn... We looked, but it was REALLY hard to match Dino's "fur."  So instead, we did a graft from his tail (shhh - don't tell Dino!  We're hoping he doesn't notice!).

The tail "before."
Yep. Dino's on the subway.

Replacing the tail fur with a close substitute.

Given the minimal tail fabric we knew we only had one shot.  So we made a muslin test horn:

 Perfect.

The tail piece was just big enough to fashion a new horn, and we replaced both nostrils with a yellow felt.  The folks at Mood were kind enough to give us a swatch of the perfect tooth fabric, and voila!

Good as new!

Glad we could help, Dino!  Thanks for visiting!!

Spa Day for Lamby

Lamby Tichy is Grandma's childhood lovey that Amalia found on her last visit! Great-Grandpa brought Lamby back from Australia for Grandma when she was a little girl.  Great-Grandpa was a famous heart surgeon and he travelled to do his job.

Great-Grandpa Vladimir Leslie ("VL") Tichy

Lamby was long adored, but spent a bit too much time in the attic.

Lamby giving us the stink-eye

Lamby needed a bath, but was far too delicate to unstuff and wash so instead we used a dry foam method!

You can make your own foam with 1 cup of water and 2T mild dish soap and whizz it in the blender. Amalia says you might want to plug your ears, 'but it's hard if you also want to turn on the blender.'

Once you have your foam, use a soft tooth brush to gently massage the foam into the fur, and then wipe the fur clean with a washcloth.

Stink eye replaced with the hint of a prance

Shiny clean, Lamby is now part of our collection - thank you, Grandma and Great Grandpa!

Good-Looking Good Dreams Bear!

Good Dreams Bear is 40 years old, and is actually in pretty good shape!  His head was a bit floppy, though, because it was on a swivel joint that had broken, and he needed some fresh paws.

You can tell he's a fancy bear because all of his arms and legs can move.

And you can also tell he's old, because the fluff inside him isn't stuffed animal fluff but just scraps of fabric and string.  It reminded us of Scotch!

First we gave Good Dreams Bear a dry foam bath:

Then, we brought him to Mood Fabrics to match his paw fabric.  We took a REALLY close look, and it seemed like originally his paws were tan velveteen.  We hunted and hunted, and first found this:

Close, but not quite

 But then, wayyyyyy back underneath, we found the perfect match!

We patched on the new paws, gave him a good brushing, and Good Dreams Bear is all done!

Thanks for visiting, Good Dreams Bear!