“It’s the nicest thing to be able to do,” a woman who has made and repaired hundreds of teddy bears has said.
Sarah Wilkinson started her business Bears of Brighouse in mid-2022; she makes teddies, as well as repairs them and soft toys, from her home in Brighouse, West Yorkshire.
The 39-year-old made her first teddy in September 2021, called Hadley, which she said is “delightfully imperfect”, and has since gone on to make hundreds more.
She then turned her hand to repairing teddies and soft toys in April 2022, which led to the creation of her business around May of that year and hundreds of repairs and commissions.
Mrs Wilkinson said the most common repairs she tends to include fixing teddies that have been chewed by dogs.
“So, they’ll bring me a bear with a bit missing and they’ll say the dog’s eaten it or the dog’s chewed it and usually they’re like a jigsaw puzzle, so the dog hasn’t taken any of it – it’s just in pieces,” she told the PA news agency.
She said she gets repair requests from people of different ages and the time it takes to fix each item can range from an hour to a couple of weeks.
“Most of my customers are probably 60 plus because they have bears which have been handed down to them, which is lovely or things they want to pass on as an heirloom,” she added.
“The tiniest repairs, I can do them while people are waiting.
“If it’s for a child, I might say come back in an hour because it just needs a couple of stitches and restuffing because it’s flat to the other end of the scale, where somebody brings me something that used to look like a bear and it actually could be just a piece of fabric that someone else might throw away.”
In terms of making teddies, she said it can take from a couple of hours to a month.
“I’ve done quite a few people’s pet dogs and they take the longest (a few weeks) and are really hard work, but are really rewarding,” she explained.
“I have to source all the different coloured fabrics and get the face right as well because the face is the most important bit and it has to look like their dog.”
She said her job brings her immense joy and she is thankful to be able to witness the happiness it brings her customers.
“I can’t even explain the feeling, it’s the nicest thing to be able to do,” she said.
“Every bear tells a story – even the ones I’m repairing – I love to look at them and think, ‘what’s happened to you?’
“I feel like our bears are an extension of the self – we put all our memories and emotions into the bear.”
Teacher Vicki Wrench was helped by Mrs Wilkinson after her six-year-old son Oliver’s toy ended up looking a little worse for wear and required a fix and a clean.
The monkey toy, called George, was left with his neck hanging off and without stuffing as his young owner often holds him by the neck to cuddle him – and was “filthy from being taken here, there and everywhere”.
The youngster won the toy at a hook a duck at a funfair when he was two and it has been a member of his family ever since.
“If you ask Oliver how many people are in our family, he will always say five,” said Mrs Wrench, who is 35 and lives in Birkenshaw, West Yorkshire.
“George is a fully fledged member of the Wrench family – he comes absolutely everywhere with us and he was starting to look really worse for wear.
“We were on holiday and George’s neck was fully hanging off and he was just distraught and he was crying and he thought George was going to break and he’d never have him again.”
Mrs Wrench said she tried to repair George by restuffing him with cotton balls and fastening his neck up, but to no avail so looked online for professional help.
After discovering Bears of Brighouse and a quick drive, Mrs Wilkinson worked her magic and George looked brand new again after his neck was repaired, he was restuffed, cleaned and brushed – and it only took a couple of hours in July.
The youngster waited in eager anticipation for George while he had his “operation”.
“He just kept talking about George going for his operation and he was really excited when he saw him again,” Mrs Wrench added.
“(Mrs Wilkinson) made sure she could get it done quickly so that he wouldn’t be without him for more than a couple of hours.”
More information about Bears of Brighouse can be found here: https://bearsofbrighouse.wordpress.com/
