Restoring Plush with Yellowed Glue

[Duenia]

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I found this little unicorn from my childhood last night buried in a tote of my stuffed animals. I remember loving her as a kid but her glue has severely yellowed since then. I'm wondering if anyone might have some recommendations on how to restore her. Since it's glue I imagine my best bet would be to try and remove the glue and reglue her together myself but I have no idea how to get the glue off without hurting her.

Some close ups. I'm especially concerned about her little ears because the fabric is so thin.

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Thoughts? Has anyone done something similar?

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Someone mentioned using warm water and laundry detergent to help soften up the glue for removal. I'd agree that your best bet would be to take off the original glue and then either re-glue or sew by hand. It sounds like you just must be very careful and work slowly to not damage the original fur.

[Duenia]

I didn't think of laundry detergent - thanks

[achab1984]

Oh my gosh! I had that also as a child! WOW! Memories!

[Emberfly]

I can't wait to see how this goes.  I also have a similar one I unearthed not too long ago.  Mine's not rainbow haired but same unicorn.  She is also sporting discoloured glue spots.

[Duenia]

The hot water really helped loosen up the glue so I could remove the pieces.

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Hot water loosened the glue and then since her fur is white I was able to use acetone nail polish on qtip removed to separate some of the fuzz from the glue. It all balled up though and since the fuzz was under where the mane would be I ended up doing a little trimming to get the glue off. Once the bulk was off the laundry detergent really helped with some of the discoloration that was left over.

I did have to trim the end of the collar to get the glue off since the fabric was too fragile but it stretches while wet nicely.

The seam under her mane was split so I fixed that up and then started working on getting her mane sewn in. The angles are extremely difficult on that

I do think I will need to cut new ears for her since they're felt and one of them is falling apart just from removing it (granted that started as a kid). But the glue is soaked all the way through and does not want to budge.

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There's still some glue I can't remove on her horn as well but it's mostly hidden by her mane now.

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It's obviously still there in some spots but it's not a glaring issue anymore I can live with that once I get her some ears

[tailrustedtealeaf]

She looks wonderful now! It's good to see that the warm water helped out. I can't wait to see her with ears.