Doll hospital, continued

I've been working on  the rescue dolls little by little over the past weeks - also reorganizing the playroom so that all my sewing stuff can be in there. It's slow going.

#26 really just needed a cleaning - and some hair care. She still has some small green markings on her torso and her hair is not great, but I'm still astonished by how gorgeous she was just to begin with.  One wipe-down and she looked ready to be played with. This is a beautiful doll.

Before

After

I also need to do more work on Kirsten, who appears to have had some haircuts in strategic places around her scalp, and her wig is dry and brittle - but her eyelids cleaned up very nicely.

Before

After

Next: Nellie. This picture really doesn't do justice to how grimy she was.

Nellie and Pink Lady were the two who I unstuffed and threw into the washing machine because it was just that bad. I cleaned her face multiple times, getting layers of dirt off. I also washed as much of her hair as I dared - which was really just the ends.

Here she is now:

There are some lingering stains on her body, but for the most part the washing machine worked nicely. Nellie turned out to be astonishingly orange.

 

Here she is with Larkin (my custom Grace). Together, either Larkin looks sallow and drab or Nellie looks incredibly pink/orange. It was interesting to compare their coloring; Nellie's hair is lighter, her freckles are much more faded, and her eyes are a deeper blue.

Finally: Pink Lady, who I've tentatively identified as Just Like You #33 based on her face mold, blue eyes, and strawberry-blonde hair with a left side part. You will recall she got her name because of the gigantic pink stain on her torso.

Pink Lady and Nellie with their respective stuffing

• The problems just kept mounting the more I worked on her.
• She was entirely filthy, even her eyes. 
• Her eyelashes had been cut unevenly in spots.
• The pink stain issue, of course. This was mostly resolved with a trip through the washing machine and some rubbing alcohol; I think it was paint?
• A large section of her hair was matted with gunk that would not come out even with washing . . . I don’t even want to speculate on what it was, but after it dried and was relatively cleaner, I noticed a persistent foul smell. Even the wig cap itself seemed spotted with dirt.

At that point I decided to just strip off the wig, since her eyes were fairly dirty too and I wanted to try an eye swap. The wig came off very easily (the easiest wig I’ve ever removed) and there were brown spot-stains on the inside of the wig cap and imprinted on the head.

At this point I was ready to throw out the Biohazard Wig, but as an experiment decided to try throwing it in the washing machine. There wasn't anything to lose at that point.

I put it in a pillowcase and washed it on the delicate setting. It came out very tangled and frizzy and dry. The smell had gone and I couldn’t find the dried gunk in the hair, but the spots were still evident on the wig cap. I ended up pitching it - it just grossed me out too much.

The spots did clean off the head with the aid of some Magic Eraser.

As all these issues kept popping up, it became clear that Pink Lady was the one I was going to keep for my customization experiments. Although I love #26 (especially #26) and Nellie, I don't have room for them. So I used Pink Lady for my first eye removal (which ended up being more my brother's first eye removal). I think the eyes benefited from cleaning; they were full of sand and dirt. Since I wanted to try out heterochromia, I put one eye back in and replaced the other with a green eye.

Before

After

At this point I don't think I'd notice the pink stain if it wasn't pointed out to me. Unfortunately, you can tell pretty easily that the eyes are from different manufacturers (even without the snipped-eyelash issue). However, I think she's up for some new looks and experiments. I want to try a brunette wig on her.

The Great Doll-Rescue Project Begins

Warning ahead for naked dolls.

There happens to be a flea market relatively near my home. I had seen some relatively cheap dolls that looked like good TLC projects there before, but this was the first time I had decided to set out to find some dolls specifically to repair.

 I picked up all four of these girls, and they are in surprisingly good shape! Most have good firm limbs and their eyes seem to be in pretty good shape, maybe sticking a little bit.

Furthest to the left, here's the one I'm referring to as Pink Lady because she came with what looks like pink nail polish all over her cloth body. I almost left her there, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it when I was taking everyone else.

She is filthy. I'm going to have to figure out how to clean her hair - some sections are black with gunk. As I started wiping her down, I found evidence that there had been some nail polish lipstick applied at some point.

She and Nellie are the grossest out of the group; I saw them there a couple of weeks ago, when they were marked at a higher price, and I think they've been sitting there collecting dust for a while.

I believe this is Kirsten. Maybe one of the American Girl of Today/Just Like You line that looks similar? The others all have American Girl stamps on their necks, but hers says Pleasant Company.
Her limbs are a little loose, and it looks like someone attempted to apply some eyeshadow. There was a little paint on one arm and some reddish stains on her legs. When I took her hair out of its bun, it looked like it had been cut.

JLY #26. Isn't she gorgeous?!? She's also in fantastic shape and I barely had to wipe down her limbs at all. Her hair is another story; I hope I can get it looking nice without losing those curls.

And Nellie. Nellie used to be one of my dream dolls; I ended up creating Larkin based on, among other things, my favorite traits from Nellie. She's pretty grungy too.

So far, I have started wiping them down. The great news is that all that gunk and dust has been wiping off pretty easily - even the "eye shadow" on Kirsten! There are a few marks I haven't been able to get off yet, and I'm sort of dreading the attack on their hair, but Kirsten's (?) wig is already choppy, and I think the straight hair may be more forgiving.

I was concerned about Pink Lady and Nellie's cloth bodies; they were pretty grungy, too. So I beheaded and unstuffed them, put their bodies into a pillowcase, and am going to try machine-washing them and then letting them air-dry. We will see how this affects Pink Lady's nail polish stains.

I don't know if you can tell very well from this photo, but their stuffing looks very different. Pink Lady's was in lots of small fluffy clumps. Nellie's is much more flat and in large, distinct sections.

The plan is to get these girls fixed up and move them on to new homes. One may be staying here for a custom that I have in mind. We shall see.

Helen Exley Gift Books

Another doll book for the collection! 

While in Europe, my brother came across a bunch of Helen Exley gift books in a gift shop in France. The book measures about 2 ½ by 2 ¼ inches and comes in a thick cardboard holder, which I will probably leave off.

Here it is in the container.

And here it is out of the container, with Larkin. It's a good size (and matches her coat perfectly). Inside, there are pictures and quotes in a large type.

All in all, a decent doll book. I think this particular one will make a good "language textbook" for school scenes.

The Sad Tale of the Second-hand #58

I have a couple of doll-related projects I'm working on now. 

One: the dollhouse. I have the top two rooms pretty much set up. I'm working on decorating the lowest floor, which is a kitchen/eating space/restaurant.

The other thing I've been working on started when I bought a doll secondhand on impulse. I have had a Truly Me #58 on my wishlist for a while, after seeing a really beautiful Addy in a thrift shop, and then falling for #58's bouncy curls. So when I saw an opportunity to buy a used #58, I went for it.

Looking back, this purchase was not a good idea. This poor dolly had a couple of major issues. On the other hand, I have enjoyed working to repair her, although my first-time repair job has not had entirely great results.

Here's what she looked like when she first showed up. 

So far so good.

Except that she had a huge hole in her side! 

And her hair ... I don't know how long it was in that ponytail, but it did not want to come down. 

First: the hole. It had been stitched together somewhat - not a pretty job, but thick and sturdy thread. The problem was that the fabric itself was fraying and stuffing was peeking out.

And the hole seemed to get a little bigger each time I handled her. It caught on everything.

My first thought was to patch it, but that was kind of drastic. Instead, I tried stitching. There was a lot of frayed material to cover, and the fabric was still fraying as I pushed my needle through. It was bad, guys. This was no longer a case of "well, a patch would be unsightly." We were far past that issue. This was Patch or Doll Hospital territory.

Back to my first plan: patching. First I used a little fusible bonding in the middle to hold the patch in place, and then I carefully stitched around the edges. I finished up with a large helping of FrayCheck.

This is the closest fabric match I could find. She won't be wearing bikinis anytime soon, but I think she is less likely to develop a case of the Giant Torso Hole.

Next: the hair. 

I love #58's hair and I think a lot of people do judging by how many pictures I see of her. However, I don't know that there's anyway to get those gorgeous curls back after a certain point.

In my girl's case, some of her curls (mostly towards the crown of her head) seemed intact, but the greater part were stretched out and hopelessly tangled. Especially around the back of her neck, the curls were completely flattened out. Also, on the back of her head, it seemed there had been some hair loss with thin and almost bald patches.

I tried finger curling and then wetting the hair and curling it around a pencil. Nothing helped very much; her hair still wanted to go vertical.

I could not find any tutorials on restoring #58's hair, although there were plenty out there for other curly-haired AGs. 

"I can't make it much worse," I thought.

I proceeded to make it worse.

This was not working. At this point I'd pretty much lost what was left of her curls. I decided to try other wigs.

Here she is in a Grace wig (specifically the one that used to be on Larkin).

Then I went researching wigs similar to 58's. One recommendation was the Kamilah wig by Global Dolls, which is no longer produced but is still available through some secondhand sellers. I purchased one in a 10-11 size.

A close enough color match.

It fits snugly on her head, so well I've had no need to glue it in place. The curls are very small and tight. It's a different look from most of the dolls I've seen. Less big and fluffy.

The original wig is currently in my room with some more curlers in it; as long as I have it, I am not totally willing to give up on it. So this will probably not be the end of Second-hand #58's transformation.

I tend to have a "character" for most of my dolls, and this girl is still unnamed. I had the name Guenevere in mind for a #58, but I may end up keeping that name for a new #58 with an intact wig. We'll see where this goes.

A doll for Elphaba

I don't have a proper camera at the moment and have had to borrow a family member's iPad when I want to take pictures, so that has put a damper on the blog. I will continue to try to post every now and then, though.

First: I found another producer of miniature books. This is Ariel Books' "Tiny Tomes." They have a variety of different subjects.

I ordered a little Life of St. Francis and I'm very pleased with it.

Yesterday I went by a doll show, which was a lot of fun. I snagged some American Girl sets I'd been wanting. One of my favorite finds, though, was a Happy Meal Madame Alexander.

Elphaba got a lookalike doll of her very own!

It's hard to tell from this photo, but this doll's skin is significantly lighter than Elphaba's. 

I also got a Dorothy and a Tin Man.

 I think Elphaba would have liked to take Little Dorothy's ruby slippers, but unfortunately they're molded on.

There was a lot of amazing stuff at the doll show. One lady had hand-knitted sweaters, coats, socks and mittens for 18" dolls. I couldn't resist those mittens! Here's Nanea trying a set on for the first time.

The Next Big Thing: Update

The dollhouse has been painted, and I am currently working on furnishing it! It has two rooms, a storage space on the bottom, and that upper area for a third room. 

One of the things about this wardrobe is that it's a wooden frame with pressboard walls. This meant it was lighter, but it also meant everything had to be anchored into the frame. I'm just glad to have it all together and safely back out of the garage and into the playroom.

BEFORE AND AFTER:

Currently, I have a modern bedroom on the "roof" and the parlor on the upper floor. The bottom floor will be a kitchen, and beneath that is a small storage area.

It's hard to take pictures of this room because the humans' ceiling fan gets in the way.

Here's the parlor. It's currently looking very crowded because I decorated it for Christmas. (Doll furniture is deceptively large!) And here we have the reason it was so important to have those spacious ceilings: the Christmas tree. 

I'm still working on both of these rooms and finding the exact arrangement that I want. Still, they're mostly done as far as finding furniture goes (the parlor even has a little too much at the moment). What will need more work is the kitchen.