So I have a large teddy that I have been sleeping with for a few years that's getting dirty. I do wash him every summer and let him dry on the hottest of days, but he's getting fairly worn. Do I take him to a drycleaner or just keep washing him or something else? The little bear in me doesn't want to have his teddy replaced.
I was wondering about this as well. I found this in searching:
How do you wash a teddy bear without ruining it?
For most teddy bear cleaning, we recommend a surface clean. The best way to do this is with carpet foam or a mild shampoo and warm water solution. Do not get your toy very wet – just enough water to loosen the dirt. A steam cleaner is helpful if you have one.
While I have never actually washed a teddy bear before I have found that I can often wash things made of a delicate material by using a combination of baby shampoo and lukewarm water.
For example I have found that I can keep wearing the same pajama bottoms for months (or even years) longer by putting baby shampoo over any visible stains and then rinsing in a sink or bathtub until I don’t see any more suds. Whenever this doesn’t work I wash them in the washing machine using the most gentle cycle possible.
I find that either Johnson and Johnson’s baby shampoo or the Target Up and Up brands work well for hand washing items like this. If you don’t have any baby shampoo available you can try using the Palmolive OXY dish soap for hand washing dishes in the same way. I hear that Dawn also works for this (it makes sense based on the ads with the baby ducks) but I have never actually tried it so I don’t know this from personal experience.
For an item like a teddy bear you might try a wash cloth with some Palmolive OXY or some baby shampoo on it that has been soaked in lukewarm water and then rung out. Then the the wash cloth should be wet but not too wet.
When it comes to drying you can probably let it air dry in a room with the window open if you only surface clean a small part of the teddy bear. If this is not possible or not practical you might need to machine dry it on either the most gentle cycle or a low heat setting one step up from that.
My mum used to wash our plushies in a washing machine, then always felt guilty when she hung them up to dry by their ears! Inevitably this caused some seams to split but that was easily fixed with a needle and thread, but my velvet panda (Susie) required required some serious re-skinning a couple of times by the surgeon-general (grandma).
I've thought about getting my bear dry cleaned since he is also showing signs of wear, but I worry he'd get ruined. When I was a kid my mom used to wash our stuffies and their stuffing would bunch up and the eyes would get all scuffed up and white from tumbling around in the washer and dryer. I don't want that to happen to my bear, so maybe I'll just try to wipe him down to clean his fur.
Inevitably this caused some seams to split but that was easily fixed with a needle and thread, but my velvet panda (Susie) required required some serious re-skinning a couple of times by the surgeon-general (grandma).