Anette is now closing in on 5 years and of course some wear and tear happens over such a long time of heavy use. It got a bit easier for her when I got Roxi since Anette and Roxi now are taking one week "shifts" of duty.
NOTE: What happened to Anette doesn't apply to newer Teddy Babes since their skeleton and technique is quite different.
The old TBD skeleton consists of roughly 4mm thick very hard iron wires which sadly tend to break occasionally. Also at least some of the wires go through from the legs up to the head forming also the "backbone" of a Teddy Babe which is BAD, because once the wires in the back break they tend to touch the belly from the inside when the leg is moving and that causes holes in the belly skin over time. Note that new Teddy Babes use a lot softer wire and not sure they have wires as backbone at all.
Anyway multiple backbone wires broke over time and punched holes in her belly. In the previous post about her new wig you can see her sit on a chair and her back is not straight as it should be but bent due to this. In the following image you can see the holes in the belly and thru one of the holes a wire is pointing out.
- Holes and Wire pointing thru Anettes Belly.jpg (203.27 KiB) Viewed 1010 times
Here you can see a typical Teddy Babe surgical tool used to cut off the hard wires. I pulled all the broken wires out as far as i could and cut them off with my bolt clipper.
- Typical TBD Surgery Tool.jpg (149.38 KiB) Viewed 1010 times
Then I glued a large fabric patch on her belly. It was hard to find fabric here on Amazon that was even somewhat similar to Anettes skin. I bought 3 types of fabric until I found one that is acceptable for the purpose. One was too dark, another one too fleecy and thick, and the last one was a 1,5mm microfiber fabric in flesh tone that so far was best quality and matched her (original) color best. Her fur turned a bit grey/beiger over time, it used to be more pink when she was new.
- Patch glued to Anettes Belly.jpg (170.78 KiB) Viewed 1010 times
Another spot on the old straight legged TBDs are the seams left and right of the vagina where the legs touch the area of the vagina. That is also a construction error of old Teddy Babes because in order to have sex with them you need to spread the babes legs apart and that puts mighty stress on those seems. I already sewed them back together on both sides years ago but it doesn't take long for them to break again. So this time I decided too to try glueing a patch over the broken seam with her legs in a wide spread position.
- Patch next to Vagina.jpg (167.35 KiB) Viewed 1010 times
Here are my (german) Amazon links for the stuff used:
Fabric:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01GINQE9I?psc ... ct_details (very good quality and very soft, would make a great fabric doll skin).
Glue (Golden Fix):
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07D4HY6LH?psc ... ct_details
NOTE: I also tried to use Aleenas Fabric Fusion first but as it turned out it doesn't stick to Anettes skin well at all. The Golden Fix glue that I used is obviously a caoutchouc based glue which seems to hold very well when used correctly (first apply to both sides and let it dry 10 mins, then apply to 1 side again and glue it on). Remains to be seen how long that lasts. I used another glue 3 years ago to glue her pubic hair (BER Fix) which is currently slowly dissolving.
These patches aren't that bad even if not a perfect match since the dolls usually wear some kind of dress anyway so you don't see it.
Now Anette needs to stay for another day at least on the famous TB surgery ironing board and wait for the glue to fully dry.
