Breathing Life into the Past

Many children attach themselves to an item early on in life. These items can be a doll, blanket, or a trinket. We call them loveys, blankies, etc. but they all have the same function, to provide comfort and a sense of safety for that child. In the early 1980s, I was given a brown teddy bear by my parents and my sister was given a similar one that was a tan color. While my sister doesn’t know what happened to hers, mine has managed to stay with me over multiple moves. I always intended to let my child have this teddy bear to love as I loved it when I was a kid.

Teddy, circa 1983

When my son was two years old, he was given a Buzz Lightyear doll. This doll was practically attached to him until last year when he finally decided to let him go…well not really let him go, but packed away in the closet. My daughter took a different journey to find her lovey. Originally I allowed her to hold onto my precious teddy bear, but soon found her plucking his fur out. Out of love for this little bear, I placed him on the shelf and continued to look for something she would like. Finally she attached to a rainbow heart bear from Build-A-Bear that her brother picked out for her when she was still in utero. The little bear was decked out in Wonder Woman attire at the time of purchase, but those pieces were soon lost to the void that is the toy box.

So what does this have to do with crafts? Well, one of my friends and customers, Julie, reached out to me a while back to see if I could help repair her daughter’s lovey. This blanket was made originally for her son 18 years ago, but it was her daughter that attached to it. The blanket had been through multiple repairs by the woman that originally crafted it but at 90 years-old, her ability to repair the item became unlikely.

Julie sent the blanket to me to see if there was anything that I could do to bring new life to this well-loved blanket. The day I received it, I laid it out and began to work out how best to attack the repairs. The yarn in many places was barely holding on to life. Holes were riddled throughout and the edges appeared shredded. We decided that I would trim off the tatters on the end and where I could, reuse the original yarn to patch up the holes. I would then use a similar yarn colorway to marry the two pieces back together and a coordinating yarn for the border.

With every step of the repairs, I sent photos to Julie for approval from her, and of course her daughter. The blanket is not still being used as a lovey, but it is sentimental. Just as I would be gutted if my daughter had completed plucking out my teddy bear’s fur, Julie and her daughter would most likely feel the same if I were to have destroyed her blanket. It was not our intention to make it look brand new, but instead mend it and give it a new life, even if that life is just being folded up and put onto a shelf as a reminder of the comfort that it brought throughout the years.