How to age mohair for vintage style teddy

[elize]

Beary forum members I am going to make my first real vintage teddy. :rolleye: I am going to age the mohair in an attempt to get that old aged vintage look . As this is a first for me I'll take pictures for the forum and post them as I go along. I do welcome any comments and any advice. :o
Step 1: choose my mohair and pattern.
Step 2: age mohair in diluted bleach (I know what happens if the bleach is not diluted:ashamed: )

[oldbearsandfriends]

How exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing the birth of you wonderful creation, please be really careful with the bleach as it can make the cloth thin in places. I understand you can buy aged mohair now, is this true?

[Bears and Beads]

Hello
Regarding aged mohair. We in South Africa have a wonderful Mohair supplier, namely LouBear Mohair. They are situated in Paarl and will crush most of their own mohair for you, so that you get a lovely old look. You can check out their mohair on www.loubear.com (http://www.loubear.com).
Enjoy looking
Regards
Carol

[elize]

I'll be careful with the bleach as I can still remember the day when I wanted to make my orange shirt white. I hardly diluted the bleach and left it far toooo long in the bleach. My shirt or actually scraps of cotton was left and it looked like orange & white wet tissue paper:ashamed::ashamed::ashamed:

[elize]

Step1: I have decided to use a piece of the mohair that I keep for experimenting with. (The bear in the pictures are made from the same mohair- I'll use the same pattern with slight modifications). I have washed the mohair in a luke-warm water with a very mild soap( tip:any dye, tea, coffee etc. takes better to mohair that has been pre-washed). I rinsed it in cold water and squeezed it slightly to get rid of some water(the wet mohair smelled like my cat when I bath her "happy6:). You can squeeze it more and leave it all crinkled to add to a vintage look. I dried the mohair in the sun - flat on the grass. I prefer to take a piece of mohair, dye it and then cut my pattern pieces. Previously I cut the pattern pieces and then dyed it - with hot water - and a) it shrunk so I had a bear that was slightly smaller than what I wanted. b)use a good quality mohair otherwise the pattern pieces will fray

[oldbearsandfriends]

Oh, he is soooooo cute!

[elize]

Step 2: Mix 2 litres of water & 400ml bleach in a plastic container and put the dry mohair in the bleach mixture. (remember to wear platic gloves when working with bleach) After 45 minutes I could not see any real effects of the bleach on the colour of the mohair. So while I waited I planted my tomatoes, chillies and onions.:rolleye2:
After an hour and 45 minutes I added 100ml bleach on top of my mohair – to get some sections lighter than others. After 2 hours I could see the mohair becoming lighter in some places (picture 1 & 2).
After 3 hours I added another 100ml bleach on the mohair and had a cup of tea while I waited.:Winking:

[elize]

After 6 hours I took the mohair out of the bleach and washed it with washing powder. I then added clean water to my bucket put the mohair in and added 1 cup of vinegar(neutralize bleach) – leave it for 30 min or longer. You can see the difference in colour; original mohair on right and on the left the mohair that was in the bleach for 6 hours.

[bobbybaer]

OK - I see the result but nevertheless I wonder in what that will "age" your bear.....
Are you going to continue with other mixtures like coffee, tea,leafes or other?:confused:

[elize]

Yes, the next step will be to immerse the mohair in either tea or coffee or cold/ hot dye. I am also experimenting with hot chocolate & vanilla extract that looks great as a stain on the mohair"happy6:

I wanted to get the Mohair a bit lighter and decided to put it in bleach again today. (1litre of water & 400ml bleach for 3 hours) I washed it and then put it in a water with a cup of vinegar. As you can see it is a bit lighter, got more creases and in some places it has lost some of the pile - I must admit the mohair looks old and wrinkly:Winking:
to be continued...

[elize]

Step 3: I brewed some tea with a litre of water and 15-18 teabags and added a cup of very strong coffee (grinded half a cup of Kenya coffee beans). I let the coffee and tea brew separate for an hour, mixed it and then immersed my mohair. I left the mohair in the mixture for 3 hours and dried it in the sun. The mohair was very hard and smelled like coffee.:p In the first picture you can see the mohair is darker in some places and in the second picture you can see it is wrinkled. I washed it with a mild soap and as soon as it is dry I'll decide if I need more colour to the mohair.
to be continued...

[elize]

I rinsed my mohair once more with plain water. It really has got a great warm honey colour to it. Now I am happy to go to the next step - step 4: my pattern for the vintage bear. I looked at some of my old bears as well as old photographs of old bears. I noticed the following: they are not stuffed hard at all (old bears feel lumpy), I have changed my pattern to give the vintage ted a little tummy, a hump, smaller ears and centre seam in the gusset."happy6:
to be continued...

[elize]

I started sewing the vintage ted but I am not happy with the way the body looks. :( I have cut another body and will see if I am happy with that.
to be continues...

[bobbybaer]

I started sewing the vintage ted but I am not happy with the way the body looks. :( I have cut another body and will see if I am happy with that.
to be continues...

Do you want to have a vintage "classic" bear:confused:
or a "destroyed" bear who looks like he dried the tears from many generations of children?
Everyone doesn't have the same idea of "vintage" so you first have to mae sure hw "old" your bear should look.
Then, watch photos from real "once upon the time bears" an you will see that there are big differences..........
Only for their heads you can have a round head with a short muzzle or a large head with a peaked nose.
Sorry, but it's not a bleached mohair that makes a vintage bear:ashamed:.
The same for the body and the arms/legs...........
The bear could have a slim body with slim and long arms/legs or just be
chubby , have short arms/legs...........
Arms/legs can be straight or arms could be curved like golf clubs......:confused3:
Hope that you can use the body you alredy cut out to make a smaller bear from.

[elize]

I torn the mohair in the process but I could use the old body to cut a new body. I must agree that bleached mohair does not make a vintage bear. It is just another process to get the mohair to look old. My vintage bear is going to have long arms, be dirty in some places, he should look like he was loved and played with and in the process he lost some of his mohair pile."happy6:

[elize]

Well the body is ready for the vintage bear but I was not happy with the head so I am busy to make another head. :rolleye::rolleyes::rolleye:
to be continued...

[elize]

At last the "Teddy" made with bleached mohair is ready for the forum. He does not really look old, I started with his ageing process. When he looks much older he will be posted again on the forum.

[oldbearsandfriends]

elize, he is adorable! soooo cute, I guess he doesn’t look old but, he is very cute and has a that special something about him!!!

Teddy Bears of Whitney make some wonderful antique replica bears, I wonder how they make them so real?

I have many old fellows here and was thinking of trying my hand at creating a replica...not to sure how I would go, never sewn before!!! anyhow if I do I'll be seeking heaps of advise I'm sure!!lol

[elize]

Thanks, he needs to get old - quickly. I allready started with his paw pads - I'll post more pictures soon. Sewing is not difficult, I think we need a "how to make a teddy bear" thread with lots of pictures:rolleye2:

[bobbybaer]

:rolleye2:I just finished my new old style bears from very old mohair-velvet .
The fabric is natural vintage with natural used parts - I only had to give preferece to those parts;)when cutting out my bears.
So what - it's another way to make antique style bears, isn't it?!:ashamed:

[elize]

This is definitely a much easier way to make a vintage bear.
Great pair. Love those noses.:Winking::Winking:

[LadyEva]

I like both your bears. I don't make this type of bear but it sure looks interesting.

[Elizabeth]

Love this mohair and it will save lots of time in making vintage teddy bears"happy6:

[elize]

I used Liquitex acrylic paint for airbrushing my vintage style teddy. As liquitex acrylic paint is not available in South-Africa I bought it on ebay. My husband gave me a lesson in airbrushing and "voila" here is my teddy - at last:papabear::mamabear:
On the left is the vinatge ted without any airbrushing and on the right you can see what a difference airbrushing makes to a teddy"happy6:

[bobbybaer]

:love:great job , Elize!
It seems you just succeeded to make your dream bear as you described him.
It looks great with the air brush.
I myself, still go on with paintbrushing ..... maybe one day (hopefully) I can affort to buy all I need for professional air brush as I don't trust in those mecanical sets....well - hope never dies!

Did you notice - in your area - that customer ask more and more for old style bears?
After all, I decided to make other animals and so , after the bears, now rabbits and elephants join the bobbybaer family.

[elize]

Thanks, I can not wait to make the next vintage ted. Love those elephants and rabbit.:cute: I will do detailed posts on the airbrushing, airbrushes, ink and techniques that I have used.

I do not really understand the collectors in South-Africa. At the last fair I attended I did not take any bears to sell.There were not one artist with old vintage type bears. If I go next year I'll make only vintage teddies. I tried to get collectors to get on the forum but it is not easy. But I agree old vintage style teds are very popular.

[bobbybaer]

I went to an exhibiton on October 15th........
Had many bears and critters with me but even if the visitors have been very interested in my vintage bears, they bought only timeless creations and commanded puppies.

[elize]

Wow, it looks great