Baby Bunny’s story is a long one, so be warned. 🙂
Baby Bunny’s story (at least for me) began with an extensive back story of her discovery in a box closet with many other animals. She was half decapitated and couldn’t be donated with the other animals. More importantly, her person’s mother looked at her and saw memories:
“My mother found some old photos of the toy and filled me in on the bunny backstory I could not recall including some of the details mentioned above. It had been purchased in Japan by a family member. Three year-old me carried it everywhere: around Japan, around Arizona, on a trip to Illinois. And the name of this bunny was the fabulously creative: Bunny Baby.Then, this e-mail was born. “
These are the photos that came with the email:
As you can see, Baby Bunny had some serious neck, head, and upper torso injuries (her person was concerned she might become the “Headless Horsebunny”!). We agreed on the following treatment:
1) Gentle spa (to remove closet and box dust)
2) neck repair with new fabric to reinforce
3) head wound repair
4) tail reattach
5) seam repair/tighten
Agreed, the bunny was on the way from Arizona within a few days. And we started with a spa:
In the meantime, Baby Bunny’s family had been perusing this blog and found this post: https://doctorbeth.tumblr.com/post/135724936125/sir-wolf
and she wrote:
First off, it is amazing!
Was this a one-off, or do you still ever do custom clothing for stuffed animals? Either way, I realize the prospect would require additional payment.
Bunny Baby used to wear my old baby clothes, and my mom was thinking of buying a couple new things at the store when Bunny returned, but none of the human baby stuff fits all that well considering Bunny’s unique plushie measurements.
My response was:
yep, i do make clothes when people request it. what were you thinking of?
Turns out they were thinking of a samurai outfit, or a kimono, or maybe a hoodie with earholes and jeans. I priced out all three and they decided to go ahead with all three! Of course first, Baby Bunny needed to get better so the clothes could be sized to the right chubbiness.
Here’s her heart being made and installed:
And the wounds were treated and chubbiness judged:
Once that was set, clothing began. First up was the hoodie and jeans:
Bling is essential for an OG bunny….
Next up was the kimono fabric selection:
Her family chose the last option…and this is where an important change occurs. Turns out Baby Bunny’s family was mixing their gender in conversation…so from now on it was agreed that they are a they. (because I can’t use it for animals, warm blooded or stuffed):-)
While they were choosing kimono fabrics, I went to work on the samurai outfit, but I’m going to show it last. Here is Baby Bunny in the kimono:
Now note the floppier ears. At this point, I asked the family if they wanted a bit more stuffing in them, and we agreed to add that at the end.
Here is the bottom layer of the samurai outfit getting fitted:
And here’s Baby Bunny fully armored with stand up ears!
The family’s response:
“That’s so cute!” Is the verdict from Mom. 😀 If she’s happy, I’m happy.
Ready to fly home!
Their family wrote upon their arrival:
I just wanted to let you know that Bunny Baby arrived safely on Wednesday. My mother was extremely excited to unbox and look at both bunny and clothing alike. We also enjoyed the patient paper that came with….
Thank you so much for everything,
To paraphrase… if they’re happy, i’m happy… but i’m also really happy with the wardrobe of clothes! 🙂
Originally written September 24, 2019… this is part of a retrospective of older stuffed animal repair patient posts from my tumblr blog. You can read other back posts at doctorbeth.tumblr.com.
