Ellie – before and after

Roxanne’s classmate and friend, Z., is very attached to a little stuffed elephant, Ellie, that has been with him since he was a baby.  Four years of constant love and companionship, plus many many washings, had made poor Ellie totally threadbare.  You could literally see the stuffing through his body and he was falling apart in Z.’s hands. 

Of course, this particular elephant is no longer in production and is not available anywhere, not even on eBay.  Z.’s parents asked me to see what could be done to save Ellie and today they dropped him off for some major surgery.

Here are Ellie’s before and after pictures

His head, legs and tail seemed to me to be in alright condition.  I cut his body along the seam lines and then used the pieces to create new panels in soft blue fleece  and yellow jersey that Z. and his mom had picked out. I sewed them together, creating an entirely new body, catching the legs and tail in the seams.  I then restuffed him with brand new stuffing, keeping that squishy feel of a well-loved toy, and finally reattached Ellie’s head with doubled extra-stong thread.  I couldn’t resist this shot of Ellie’s head before I reattached it

I hope Z. doesn’t see this because that might totally freak him out. 

I only had an hour and a half to work on this because it had to be finished before Z.’s nap time.  I wrote this note to Z. when I returned the finished Ellie to him:

"Dear Z.,

-Ellie"