05x08 - Flexiwhirl Seesaw

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop, where
precious but faded treasures...

It's in a bit of a sorry state.

..are restored
to their former glory.

I'm going to teach you how to do it
the old-fashioned way. All right.

Furniture restorer Jay Blades...

Now the fun begins. I know.

So nice that we can be part of that
history to just keep things going.

..and a dream team
of expert craftspeople...

Looks absolutely amazing.

Wicked. You really start to see the
thought that went into making it.

..come together to work their magic.

Teamwork.
BOTH: Absolutely.

Yes! Beautiful.

Employing heritage craft skills
passed down the generation.

Ooh. It's my duty to make sure that
this all goes back in working order.

Preserving irreplaceable heirlooms.

It's absolutely amazing!
It really is.

It's like keeping
a bit of our family history alive.

The team will restore the items...

SHE GASPS

..the memories...

Yes! Yes!

..and unlock the stories
that they hold.

It's touched my heart.

It's amazing.

In The Repair Shop today,

embroidery expert Sara
needs some help...

Get in and mix it.

Me mix it? Yeah, yeah,
you're taller than me. OK.

..to revive
a hand-stitched masterpiece.

Look at that. Look at that.

The last bit is the best.
Now, that is really cool.

And it's a family affair,

as the Fletchers work together
on a gentleman's sh**ting stick.

Looks professionally made,
doesn't it?

Well, of course, you made it.
It's beautiful.

Why did you use single pack?
Are you going to varnish it on top?

You reduce it with thinners. OK.
It's not as hard as...

VEHICLE APPROACHES
Oh, here we go. Here we go.

The first craftsman
to be put to the test -

metal worker Dominic Chinea.

Hello. Hello.

I'm Jay. I'm Joanna.

Hi, Joanna. Hi, Joanna. I'm Dom.
Nice to see you.

Joanna Butterwick has brought
a rare and curious item...

Ooh, look at that.

..that gave her immense joy
as a child.

And she's hoping
The Repair Shop team

can help her replicate that joy
for a new generation.

Come on in. Thank you.
You need to tell us what this is.

This is a seesaw which goes
up and down and round and round.

Hold on. The seesaw normally
goes like that. Goes up and down.

And then spins around...?
And spins around too.

So this is from a funfair then,
must be?

No, my sister had
a very wealthy godmother,

and I think she must have brought it
over from America in the 1930s.

Brilliant. Right.

She gave it to me on the condition
that I had it mended.

So what did it do? It sat in
my garage for probably 35 years.

So have you played on this then?
Oh, as a child, endlessly, yes.

All the time. So you would seesaw...
And whizz round and round, yes.

Can we open this? Shall we try?

Flap your end over. Yeah.

Like that. That's it, yeah.

So what would you like Dom
to do to this, then?

Make it work!

THEY CHUCKLE

I've got a young family
that comes and stays with me

for about two months every summer.
OK.

And they're always asking me
to get it mended as well.

So this is what pushed me
into doing it.

So they're excited to get on this.

Yes. And they're
very adventurous children,

so they'll enjoy it, too. OK.

So you would like it to be usable?
Yes, please.

And then look shiny again,
the way that you remember it?

Yes, that would be wonderful. OK.

Thank you, Joanna, for bringing this
in. Thank you so much.

It's a pleasure. Lovely to meet you.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

It's been lovely.
You take care now. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

This is cool, isn't it? It is cool.
Isn't it brilliant?

I feel it was disgraceful of me
to leave such a beautiful toy

in such a terrible condition
for so long.

If Dom is able
to get it working again,

it will be wonderful
to have a functioning toy.

The children
will be simply delighted.

So, sounds like
you've got your work cut out.

The timber on here, I think is quite
nice. It's beautiful, isn't it?

It's just structurally,
isn't it, really?

It's just the mechanism in here,
the metal work.

This is rusty,
got missing parts here.

OK. The main thing
is getting it apart.

You know what,
that's going to be the issue -

trying to get this mechanism apart.

I need to get in there
to see what's broken.

All right, let's get it over to your
bench so you can get it apart.

Try. Yeah. OK.

So this main central hub
is my main headache, really.

It's holding
the whole thing together.

It's also the mechanism to make it
spin, which it isn't at the moment.

I'm hoping that this main bar,

if I can get this pin out,
should just drive out that way.

And that one pin
is what's holding these two arms on.

So if that comes out, then I'll be
left with the main hub and two arms,

which would be ideal cos then
I can put these to one side

and just deal with
this main central section.

The Flexy Whirl seesaw
was produced in America

by SL Allan and Company
back in the 1930s,

meaning they are now rare
and collectable,

providing, of course,
Dom can get it up and running again.

Get these out.

Brilliant. So now we've got
the wooden pieces out the way,

both big arms,
I've got actually better access

to the main central hub parts.

The rust is so bad I can't actually
really tell what's what in there,

which makes me a bit nervous.
I basically need to break this down

into all of
its individual components

and get it completely apart
so I can fix it

to then put it back together.

As Dom battles to free
90-year-old nuts and bolts,

another project
is arriving at The Repair Shop.

Valerie Wilson is hoping hand
embroidery expert Sara Dennis

can breathe new life
into a century-old heirloom

that was a real labour of love.

How are we doing? You all right?
I'm fine, thank you.

I'm Jay. Hello, Jay. And you are?

I'm Valerie. Sara. Hello, Sara.

So what have we got here, then?

It's a bedspread
that my mother made.

Your mum made this? She made it.
And she did all the embroidery.

She designed it. Oh, my goodness.
And, um...

..it took her 500 hours
to complete. 500 hours?!

Oh, it's huge, it must've done.

That's going round all the way
round. All the way round.

So how big is this?
Is this a double bed, then?

It's a double bed. Right.
A 4'6" double bed size.

That is... Peacocks.

You've got peacocks,
you've got chickens. Yeah.

You've got flowers. Your mum
was a good artist, wasn't she?

She was a wonderful artist, yes.
And a beautiful seamstress.

I mean, there's cut work,
there's fantastic stitches.

Cut work is what?
You actually cut the linen away

and then re-weave stitches in
and then...

So that's hard to do?
Very difficult.

And then that's pulled work,

where you actually pull
the threads together

and create a different effect.
To make, like, a pattern like that?

Like a honeycomb.
Yeah, it's unbelievable.

It's absolutely beautiful.

Was your mum a professional, then?
Cos this is really impressive.

Well, I mean, she could
have been a professional.

She went to
the Hornsey School of Art... OK.

..and this when she was about
22, 23 years old. Right.

And she actually did a baby's bonnet
that was hung in the Royal Academy.

It's quite something to have
textiles in the Royal Academy. Yeah.

They don't often put textiles in.
No, they don't.

But when she graduated
from the art school,

she'd already met my father
and, um, she got married.

And in those days,
when you get married, that's it.

She had me very late.

She was 44 when she had me.

And she'd had four other children.

Um...

And she ended up with, um, dementia
from the age of 55, really.

Um...so, um...

..you know, I didn't have her long.
But what I have got...

..is this beautiful bedspread.

..and her wonderful embroideries
that she did.

So why have you brought it into us?
What would you like us to do?

Well, occasionally I did, um,
use it on my bed. Right.

And it must've got caught underneath
one of the legs, or something?

And, without thinking,
you sort of pull it

and then you're, "Ohhhh!"

And I suddenly found
THAT was what had happened.

VALERIE LAUGHS

But this is nearly 100 years old,
isn't it?

In four years,
it will be 100 years old.

It's not too bad for 100 years old,
is it, really?

Well, no, I suppose not.
And, it has to be said,

I've never dared do anything
in the way of cleaning or anything.

So, there's bits, you know,
stains and things. Stains.

What's that, a pen mark?
It does look like biro?

It does look like biro, doesn't it?

But I just don't know
how it happened, actually.

If we're able
to get this restored...?

It would mean the world to me,
because...

..she was such a wonderful woman
and it gives me a warm glow

to know that she has done something
that is so incredible.

Um, and that's her legacy, really.

Thank you for bringing it in.
Thank you. OK. Thank you.

Leave it with us. All right.
Thank you, Valerie.

Thank you very much.
Let me lead you out.

You feel a little nervous
leaving it behind,

but having said that, it's had
nothing done to it for years,

and is in such a state,

and it be so wonderful
for it to be repaired

and looking at least
as good as it can do.

So obviously Valerie's most worried
about this rather ragged tear here

that she's made with her bed.

So I'm going to have to
make a backing

out of a similar type of linen.

The new material goes
under the old bedspread.

But, before I do anything
with this tear at all,

I need to do something
with the biro marks.

And they're pretty old and dried in.

I'm going to have to use a solvent
and work down layer by layer.

So I literally drop a tiny bit
of solvent onto the biro stain...

..give it a rub in...

..and you can see already
the biro's coming off.

I'll leave it for 15 minutes
to soak through

and I'm going to have to redo it
20, 30 times

until it comes clean.

So, once we've got rid of the biro,

I can wash the whole bedspread.

And finally, I have
to re-embroider it.

Valerie's mother
was a very, very talented lady,

so this is not going
to be an easy job!

In an attempt to dismantle the
see-saw's rusty central mechanism,

metal maestro Dom is using heat
to help loosen the ancient fixings.

I'm terrified of cracking
this cast section

because cast iron
is just a nightmare.

If that breaks, I will just be
in a world of trouble.

I don't want to get it too hot

because that could risk fracturing
and cracking the cast.

I'm putting so much pressure,
leaning on this.

If that's all seized up in there,
it's just there's a huge risk

that something's going to snap
or something's going to break.

Yes!

DOM LAUGHS

Getting that pin out
was nerve-racking.

I'm really relieved that that's out.
Now I can finally have access

to this main little castle nut
in the middle here.

At least I can see
what I'm working with now.

Brilliant.

Now I can lift off this top piece.
This is a big moment.

Ah!

All right, OK.
So that is ball bearings in there.

These are all individual
little loose ba*ls. But that's good.

That means basically now
I'll bag up all of these ba*ls -

before I drop them on the floor
and lose them -

keep those safe and then the other
parts can go off to be sandblasted,

clean it all up. And that should
reassemble really nicely.

That should spin really freely.

I've got all the wooden parts
separated from all the metal parts.

Now it's just time to sort of
get stuck into these.

I love the paintwork. It looks
beautiful. It's the original paint.

Really nice. Unfortunately,
the paint is just a bit too far gone

on these,
on the seats and the handlebars.

It's always sad to have to sand off
the original paint,

but Joanna's kind of
made that decision for me, almost,

because she wants to be able
to use the seesaw again.

And to be able to use it,

these parts, at least, need to
be sanded down and repainted.

Hopefully I can keep
the rest of the original paint.

With the seat and handlebars
sanded and primed,

they can be finished
with a hard-wearing gloss paint.

It's a lovely red colour,
really is nice, a deep red.

And it's, er... It's the same paint
I'm going to use for this,

the woodwork, as for the metal work
for the main central hub section.

Different primer,
because that's metal, this is wood.

But the same top coat,
so it all ties in nicely.

I've got all the steel parts for the
seesaw back from sandblasting now.

It's usually bad news, basically,

when things come back
from sandblasting -

it strips off all the paint,
all the flaky rust,

all the loose bits and just
leaves me with the bare solid metal,

which is quite often not very much.

But, in this case, all the metal
work looks in really good condition.

The main hub was really rusty
in there -

it was all seized
with that spinning mechanism.

This has cleaned all of that out.

So now, once I put
the ball bearings back in,

that should reassemble
really nicely.

That should spin really freely.

Next, a memento from
a special father-and-son project.

Brian Greaves is hoping
leather expert Suzie Fletcher

can preserve
his treasured possession.

Hello. How are we doing? I'm Jay.

I'm Brian. Hello, Brian.

I'm Suzie. Oh, hello, hello.
Lovely to meet you.

That's nice.

This is my father's sh**ting stick.

What's it used for, then?
People out sh**ting

use them when they'd like
a bit of a rest,

cos, you know, you fold it out
and you've got yourself a seat.

So it's like a portable chair?

Yeah. OK. Yeah. Nice.

So how come you've got this, then?

Well, it belonged to my father,
John Greaves. OK.

So my father
was probably the most knowledgeable

Dickens expert in the country,
and even the Oliver Twist film,

the first musical one... Yes.

..they had him on the set,

and he lectured
all over the country. OK.

And, in fact, all over the world.
Yeah, yeah.

And during these talks,
he would become the character.

It was amazing.

He would read a passage from
the book and he'd change his voice,

and he would change his whole
demeanour and character. Yeah. Yeah.

He looked like Pickwick anyway.

THEY LAUGH

But he wrote several books
on Dickens. Really?

I had a very, very memorable -
and moving, almost - trip with him.

When I was a young man,
I was a photographer

and I went round the country with
him, photographing Dickens sites,

places that were in the books.

Right. Like Hampstead Ponds,
which is in Pickwick Papers.

Right. But he had a very bad leg.
OK.

And because
we were standing around a lot -

you know how long photographers
take taking things! -

he used this... OK. ..to have a rest
while I was doing the work.

But he was a wonderful man.

So you two had a good relationship,
then, if you went touring around.

Yeah. This is why
this has an importance,

because this was a special time...
Yeah, yeah.

..and it brings back memories.
Yeah. Yeah.

So what would you like us
to do to the stick, then?

Well, it would be
absolutely marvellous

if it could be made usable again.
OK.

One - of course,
it would be marvellous

because of the memories
it brings back. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

But two - it would be jolly useful!

Yeah! Absolutely, yeah.

As you can see here, obviously,
this all needs replacing.

It would be nice,
if it was possible -

this is an adjustable device,
so you can tension the seat... OK.

..and adjust it. Yeah.

But the one on this side was missing
when I got the stick

and I just made one
out of a bit of wire,

but, of course,
that isn't adjustable,

so it'd be nice if another
one of those could be put in.

It'll be a challenge, I'm sure,

but I'm looking forward
to getting started on it.

So thanks so much, Brian.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

I think if my father
was looking down now

and he saw what was going on
with the sh**ting stick,

he would be amazed
and very proud, really,

that I was taking this trouble and
that it did invoke these memories

of a wonderful time
we had together.

So what have you got to do on
this one, then? What this needs is,

the webbing needs to be replaced,
because it's rotten,

and this is all covered
with leather. Right.

And also, obviously, the leather
goes round the handles here.

Handles, yeah. But the one thing
I'm a little out of my depth with

is this tension spoke here. OK.

We need a new one on this side.
Yeah.

Well, you know who
we've got to get on that.

We've got to get your brother
on that one.

OK. No, that's a good idea. Yeah.

So why don't I go ahead
and start stripping this down?

OK. And I'm going to order you the
materials that you need for that.

OK. Perfect. Thanks so much, Jay.
No problem.

I'm going to start
by taking off the leather

that wraps round the handle here.

It's literally just peeling off
in my fingers.

The seat mechanism
is really very clever.

And this is the repair
that Brian did, which has worked,

and that's great, but I'm just going
to have to remove this metalwork,

as this will be replaced.

Just open that up.

Slide that off. So that's lovely.

Now I've got this piece taken off,
I'm able to use this as the pattern

for when I come to make
the new seat.

I just need to take this
over to Steve

and ask him sweetly if he'll make me
a replacement spoke.

Hiya.

Got a favour to ask. Right.

Right, this is Brian's
walking stick,

and this is a tension spoke

that you can use to adjust
the tension on the actual seat.

Right. And this is the one
that Brian made up. Oh, I see.

And we would like a new one made.

Or something...another one
of those? Yes.

But there is a problem,
because I also need the stick.

I need to cover this with leather.

Right. So how quickly
can you get that done?

I can do it straight away for you.
Aw, you're a superstar!

OK. Thank you very much. Cheers!

So now I've got Brian's
sh**ting stick stripped down,

I can start making the inside
of the actual seat.

We need something in the centre,
like, to give it a very strong core,

and there is a material that we use
called flax webbing,

which prevents the leather
that covers it from stretching,

cos obviously, there's a lot
of weight goes on this

when you're sitting on it.

This is the first thing
to get sewn onto the ends

of the sh**ting stick.

Right, so just lay that on the flax.

This is pulling the flax
really tightly over the fitting

to get that
to really bond super-tight.

So now I can go ahead
and sew that together.

So just waxing my thread -

this is a linen thread,
which is a natural material,

and if I didn't cover it
with beeswax,

the friction of it
going through the material

would start to fray
each of the fibres.

Nice tight seam
we've got going there.

What we need to do is just run
a bit more glue along here -

make sure that webbing
is not going to start fraying -

and sew the other end.

Outside the barn, it's laundry day

for the century-old
embroidered bedspread.

Having removed the ink stains,
Sara must now gingerly hand wash

the delicate linen.

So what I've got for you -
we're going to wash in this one.

Yeah. And I gathered you might need
to rinse it as well, do ya?

I do need to rinse it.

Look at this. I got a lovely mangle.
And an old mangle!

Sorted! Brilliant.

So now, what we got to do, then?
We've got a clean drum. Yeah.

And we need to put in
some pure soap. OK.

And that just goes in like that.

And then literally - water softener.

What do we do now, then?

Get in and mix it. Me, mix it?

Yeah. You're taller than me. OK.

That's fine. That's fine -
as long as it's mixed up.

So now we just put it in,
but really gently.

Right.

Now we have to leave it
for a little while.

That's the washing? Yeah.

When I used to wash my shirts,
I used to get the collar like that.

Yeah. And proper scrub it.

Yeah. You can't.
You just can't do it.

A, it's all linen, and B,
you've got all the embroidery on it.

I thought we were
going to wash this. No.

You got me out here
under false pretences.

SHE LAUGHS

Wow!

We're putting it in there
to just wash out all of the soap.

Yeah. And just rinse it off.

And then we leave that
in there for how long?

Well, we can change it now.

So just let the water drip out
as well? Yeah.

OK. That's it.

Sure you can manage that?
Yeah, I can just about. All right.

Before the excess water can be
squeezed out of the bedspread,

it's wrapped to prevent
any marking from the mangle.

OK. So let's fold this to this.
Yeah.

So we're going to have to go round
the other side of the mangle.

Off we go. Yeah? Yeah.

Nice. Look at that.

Look at that. The last bit's the
best. Now that is really cool! Yeah.

So what is it like?
Is it all right now then, yeah?

Yeah, it's much drier. So we'll
hang it out on the line. OK.

So gently. If you go that way
and I'll feed it to you, as it were.

Yay! That's cool.

We're done!

With the bedspread clean and dry,

Sara can begin work
on patching the damaged sections.

So before we can even start
repairing the bedspread,

we have to make sure
that the fabric I'm using

is the same colour as the bedspread,
and as you can see, it's white.

So we tea-dye.

We actually dye it with tea
to make the white

go into a sort of
antiquey linen cream colour.

And I've decided
from my samples there

that I need two litres of hot water,
just as if you're making tea,

and it's a bit like
a chemistry experiment.

I now put the tea bag in
for a minute

and then I take the tea bag out,

because I've got the colour
that I want in that water.

If you keep the tea bag in it,
it'll keep getting darker

and darker and darker,
and I don't want that.

So I'm going to put those in now,

making sure all of them
stay submerged.

So I'm done,

and, as you can see, it's going
to come out just the colour we want.

So I'm going to pop that
back in the jug...

..and I'm done.

With the patch
now the perfect colour

to blend invisibly
into the bedspread,

Sara can start stitching it on.

So I've pinned the bedspread
onto the new linen.

The new fabric is underneath.

This is obviously
the bedspread on top,

and that's the area I'm patching,

and I'm using what's
called an invisible thread.

It's a very, very, very fine
polyester thread,

so that really, not much
of the patch can be seen.

Right, well, we've finished
the actual patch of the bedspread

with the new linen,
but it's a corner piece,

so I've had to be able to transfer
the design over,

so I've traced a design
from one of the other corners.

Luckily, they're all
exactly the same.

Then I've traced the tracing
onto tissue paper.

I'm now going to sew this tissue
paper onto the linen,

tacking it on in a blue,

so that I can see where I'm going.

Right. I'm down at the end now,
nearly, so very carefully...

..without dislodging
these blue stitches,

we rip off the tissue paper, and
then what I'm left with underneath,

you'll see -

I've got a...effectively, a sketch
line of where I'm going to go.

So now I've got some cotton perle,
which I've matched...

..to this linen.

I'm going to recreate
the trellis here,

the inside bit of that,

so the brother to that one
I'm going to create there.

I've got a bit of a quandary now.

I never put - and shouldn't put -
knots in my work, ever.

Marion's mother has put knots
in her work on the back.

So do I put knots on the work on the
back, or do I do how I should do,

and I think I'm going to put knots
on the work in the back,

so that it looks as much
like Marion's mother's as possible.

So, against all the rules,
I'm going to go in from the back.

So I've got quite a lot to do,
but it's fun anyway. It's great.

Despite the ups and downs,

Dom has nearly completed
the restoration of the 1930s seesaw.

You're making a lot of noise
out here.

I know. sorry. Eh? Yeah, I know.

Just a final assembly now
of the seesaw.

It's looking smart, no?
It is looking smart.

You have cleaned that up well!
It's coming together.

Blimey! Look, you've already
done one side already.

Yeah, Steaming ahead with one side.

These... Yeah, these are going to
end up sitting out here.

This is all very nearly there now.

But just lots of little fiddly
nuts and bolts. OK.

If you don't mind giving us a hand.

OK. I hold that, I hold that,
you poke that through the holes.

We'll line these up. Oh, that goes
in the middle. This...so...yeah.

This is proper fiddly.
This is...yeah! This is, like...

I'm so glad you're here, Jay,
cos this...

I don't even know
if we can do it with two of us.

How do you do this?

All right.

DOM LAUGHS

I'm not sure! All right.

So that's got to go
through this hole.

Through those two in the middle.
Through there. Through there.

Right, let me spin it.
There you are. Thank you. Cool

Perfect.

So basically... So hopefully now,
if we let go, that should...

Look! Well done! Brilliant!

That is cool! Look!

But that's... It's holding. Yeah.

Does it spin as well?
I really hope so. It should do.

Ooh, over there! Isn't that cool?

That is very cool.
Look, it goes up and down. Yeah.

Round and round.
The younger ones in the family

are going to really enjoy this.

It's brilliant, isn't it?

This seesaw provided Joanna
hours of fun as a youngster,

but the years saw it deteriorate,

with missing parts
and rusty components,

but hours of patient endeavour
by Dom have revived it,

ready to be enjoyed
by a new generation.

Oh, my goodness!

Great unveiling!

Hello! Hello. Hello. How are you?
Hi. I'm Jay. Your name is? Molly.

Molly. Betty. Betty. And you are?

Daisy. Daisy.

And hello again. Hello.
How you doing? You all right?

Yes, fine. Who have you brought
with you, then?

They're very dear family friends,
who I've known all their lives,

and Daisy I've known all her life.

Oh, Daisy. So have you had a go
on this when it was working?

No. It's always been broken.
It's always been broken.

It's always... Oh, you've seen this
before as well, then?

Yeah, in the back of the garage.
It's just, like...

Just shoved at the back.
Shoved at the back. Yeah. OK, right.

So, Janet, when you brought it in,
what was it like? Do you remember?

Oh, it was in a very sad state.
Right.

A lot of chipped paint and rust.

And I wasn't sure
you were ever going to be able

to make it work again.

So what would you like to see
underneath this blanket?

Um... A really nice big seesaw!

OK! That goes up and down
and round and round!

OK. All right.

She doesn't want much, does she?
Doesn't want much! OK!

So, girls,
are you ready to see this?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah? OK. Let's do it.

THEY GASP

Wow! Wow!
That's amazing! Wonderful.

Isn't it amazing?

It's beautiful.

Fantastic. It used to be
a lump of oldness. Yeah.

A lump of oldness? Yes.

That's a good way of describing it.
Technical term. Yeah.

But now it's new!
It is. It's a work of art.

It's just amazing.

Does it look better
than it did before? Yeah.

Are they going to be allowed
to have a go on it?

Well, what we'll do, we'll take it
outside... Come on, let's go.

..and you can have a go on it.
You're smiling already!

THEY LAUGH
All right!

Come on. Let's take it outside.
Yeah. Come on, then.

Oh, they're keen! They're on,
they're on. They're on.

Just make sure you be safe,
girls, yeah?

Yeah. And go round and round.
Push it.

Oh, isn't that wonderful?

THEY LAUGH

That's so good!

THEY LAUGH

Try and fly, try and fly!

THEY LAUGH

Very good, children!

My legs are too...!
I'm so dizzy!

Yes! Yeah!

Now, that is perfect.
That's perfect. That's it. Yeah.

Oh, it's wonderful.

My children played on the seesaw,

so it brought back
memories of that.

Did you play on the seesaw?
And myself, of course.

I could never imagine it
being that fun.

It's so fast
and just spins all the way round!

THEY LAUGH

It's Team Fletcher,

as siblings Steve and Suzie join
forces to repair the sh**ting stick

that helped a weary writer
survive a literary tour.

Suzie brought over
this sh**ting stick

and asked me to make
a new one of these units here.

It's to tension up the leather seat,

and I was in the middle
of making one,

and I suddenly realised that this
is actually a bicycle spoke,

with one of those tightening devices
that is on a bicycle wheel.

So I went over to Dom and asked him
if he'd got a bicycle wheel spoke

and in his drawers, he had one,

and it makes my job
ten times easier.

So I'm just going to cut this off
to the right length,

hook this into here.

I'm hoping this is just
going to tighten up nicely.

That's good.

There we go.
All ready to take over to Suzie.

She might think I've made it!

There we do.
What do you think of that?

Looks professionally made,
doesn't it?

Well, of course - you made it.
It's beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

I've actually taken it
out of one of Dom's drawers.

No! Yeah. Naughty, naughty boy.

It was an actual bicycle spoke.

OK. Yeah. Well, brilliant.
OK? Perfect. Thank you. OK.

I'm just going to move on
to making the leather

that's going to cover
the actual seat.

So I've chosen this pigskin,

because it's incredibly strong
but thin.

It doesn't have a tendency
to stretch easily,

so that, along with
the straining web,

we know that it's going to be a seat
that's going to stay strong

for a very long time.

Suzie cuts out two pieces of leather

that will encase the webbing
above and below.

This is all looking good. So I'm
just going to start glueing it.

I just need to glue them together.

So I want a really
strong contact here.

Just need to let that sit and cure

and then I can start
sewing it together.

Good. Really happy with that.

With the seat finished,

Suzie can turn her attention
to the handles.

OK, so I've got my leather.

I'm using pigskin, which I've
soaked, and that's going to allow it

to stretch around the curves
of the handle.

As this dries, then the leather
really pulls tight

and you get
a really nice smooth finish.

It'll become
a little bit lighter in colour,

and that will match the seat,

and I'm hoping that Brian's
going to be very happy with that.

After hours of meticulous
hand-embroidering,

Sara is putting the final
few stitches onto the bedspread,

first created in the 1920s.

Last stitch in,
tiny last stitch there.

Really satisfying coming to the end
of that.

So it's all done now,
I just need to weave in at the back.

So, once that's pressed, it'll look
much more like the original,

and hopefully
she'll be really pleased -

hopefully, she won't see it.

That would be great -
if she has to look for it!

Hoping Sara's expert artistry

has managed to repair
her beloved heirloom,

Valerie is back to collect the piece

her mother created
nearly 100 years ago.

I've missed not having it about.

Everything that is left of her
is those embroideries.

Hello. Hello!

Hello, Valerie.
Are you all right? Yes, thank you.

Hello, hello. Hello!

So are you excited? Very, yes.

So what are you hoping to see?
Repairs. OK.

Beautiful embroidery!

And clean and in
a decent state again... OK.

..as Mum would have wanted it.
As Mum would have wanted. Mm-hm.

Shall we show her? Yeah, let's.

Gosh.

Gosh, look at that.

Have you spotted the repair? No!

To tell you the truth,
I haven't even spotted the repair.

Where is it? Where's...?

Oh! That's your rip.

Oh, goodness me!

That is incredible.

I hope my embroidery's
up to your mother's standard.

Definitely.

You've done a brilliant job, Sara,
well done. Yeah. Thank you.

I think it's amazing. Yeah?
Absolutely incredible.

What would Mum think of it now,
then?

She'd be very, very pleased.
Yeah? Good. Very pleased.

Absolutely beautiful. All right,
let me give you a hand with this,

and get it out to the car for you.

Thank you.

Sara? Thank you.
It was my pleasure. God bless you.

OK, bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Bye.

The bedspread looks
absolutely amazing.

You wouldn't know there was a hole
there, it's absolutely incredible.

I cannot emphasise
how much it means to me.

I mean, it means the world to me,
it really does.

With the bedspread safely
on its way home,

Suzie is also on the final stages
of her assignment,

attaching the new seat sling
to the writer's sh**ting stick.

This is always a really fun time,
cos I get to see the final result.

So we come through
the handle portion,

put the spoke through...

So just going to screw
this little cap piece on,

and then...
So, when you're going to use it,

you just pull the seat open,
like this,

and there it is, nice and secure.

Nice and tidy,
ready for me to give to Brian.

Can't wait to see his face.

Eager to see what
Suzie has achieved,

Brian is back at The Repair Shop,

today accompanied
by his wife, Hazel.

I've come to collect
my sh**ting stick,

which belonged to my father, and
I'm really looking forward to it.

The sh**ting stick is
really important to Brian.

It made him talk
about his father so much,

and although I never met him,
he's become real to me.

Hello! Hello, Suzie.

Good to see you, Brian, how are you?
Very well, thank you.

Good. And who do we have here?
Hello. This is Hazel, my wife.

It's so lovely to meet you.

So how are you feeling?

Feeling very excited,
and a bit nervous, I think.

Well, are you ready to see
what I've been able to do?

Yes, I'm really
looking forward to it. OK, right.

Goodness me! Oh, goodness.

It's just like new.

Can I touch it?
THEY LAUGH

Yes, yes, please.

It's beautiful.

It's absolutely beautiful.

Can I open it up...?

It's really, really lovely.

And you've managed to replace
the...the missing spoke as well.

Well, that was Steve.
Oh, right. Yeah.

Oh, I've got two people to thank.
Yes.

What do you think
your father would think?

Well, he would be very,
um, proud, I'm sure,

that I've gone to
this, um, trouble -

or YOU'VE gone to this trouble -
to make it like new again.

It's important to me
because of its memories,

but it's also important as something
I really want to use. Good.

I like to have
a little rest now and again,

and this is just perfect for it.

Can't take your eyes off it,
can you? No.

It's more than I, um, hoped for.

It's really marvellous.

It's been absolutely delightful
meeting you

and being part of your story.

Thank you so much,
it's been a pleasure.

And thank you, I can't
thank you enough, really can't.

Bless you. OK. Lovely to meet you.

Enjoy many, many miles of walking.

And sitting.

And sitting! Take care.

Are you on it? Yeah.

The sh**ting stick's really
comfortable, it's, er, wonderful.

I'll be using it a lot.
You have to be careful, though,

otherwise you can, er, fall off.

Won't be able
to get you off it now, will I?

My father would be
very proud, I think,

to think that we've managed to
get the sh**ting stick repaired.

Very special memories.

Join us again...

..for restorations large...

Are you all right? You look
a bit worried about this one.

I am worried.

..and small...

I'm terrified that one of them's
going to ping out of the tweezers.

..in The Repair Shop.