I guess I didn't think I had enough to do...

Thrift store SCORE today.The dolls were 75 cents apiece because on Tuesdays that thrift store has 25% off for Seniors which I gladly admitted. Actually, Lulu was marked 75 cents, so that made her 56 cents. I think Ricky was also marked 79 cents. I loved the regular Ricky and was a little sad to see him go, but thought he would be fun for JP who is being raised bilingually.

There's a Beanie Bopper named Lovable Lulu on the left. I have several others of those. Her hair was all tangly and as I straightened it out I saw that someone cut her bangs right down to the roots. It isn't super obvious, but I might take some of her back hair and make bangs. Right now I just surface washed her and re-tied her hair. 

Mini Ricky is next. This one's batteries are dead, so tomorrow I get some batteries and we will see what he says when you squeeze his tummy. I basically brushed him off well and got some junk out of his hair. These soft dolls can't really be washed but I spray them well with Lysol and let them dry. 

The next three are.... Bratz dolls with no feet. Can't leave the face painting alone. I already stripped the face off Cloe (the blonde) All have very tangled hair. All will need clothes, I downloaded the Tree Change Dolls knit and crochet patterns and I think that I can use Stacie's pants pattern with a little tweaking. Dresses would be simple. 

So now there are dolls waiting line, and decisions to be made, And something to reward myself when I get the chores done. 

 

I'm scared.

Can you hear the zombie music? This poor girl was sold "for parts" or TLC. There's a reason she was cheap. She looks about the same vintage as my Ginny, and I seem to be collecting two of whatever.

I am choosing TLC for this sweetie. She is filthy. Her wig is half off. It's in reasonably good condition although the cap has disintegrated. She only has half her eyelashes on one eye, her eyelids are painted different colors! She has no eyebrows and very little lips. She also has a crack on one shoulder and a small crack that hasn't split on her back.

She won't be a Play doll obviously but I have hopes for her. So far I started cleaning her, eased off her wig. Someone hot glued part of it. That came right off. I've been reading about wigs and I am going to re-use this one, hopefully. The seam has a tiny break in it but I am thinking fray-check. I will have to test it on an obscure part of the wig.

So this girl will be a learning experience. I love to fix stuff. I'm going to learn a lot such as How to Attach Wigs and How to Paint Eyebrows and Lips and How to Fix cracks. This is a bit more of an adventure that the 70s and 80s dolls I have done, and the minimum work I've had to do on my own littles.

So far I have cleaned her up a lot, taken off her wig so I can replace it STRAIGHT instead of wonky.

 She looks far less scary. I am still a little scared, thinking about doing a good job on her even though I don't really know what I'm doing. I have no idea on what kind of paint to use, or what kind of glue to use for her wig.

I did restring my own Ginny, so I do know how to do that much. I have the other hair bow, and amazingly her wig style is pretty intact. I can't imagine why she is so filthy. Well played with I guess but not loved in the last few years?

Here she is before I took her wig off. There's still lots of dirt to coax out of the nooks and crannies. What I imagine happened is that she was on a doll stand or something and not dusted for many years. The dirt is really sticky like the top of the refrigerator gets! I have to get more of those pointy q tips to get in those corners. I don't think I am going to try to repaint her eyelids, even though they are different colors you can't tell when her eyes are open.

So my goals for her are:

REALLY clean.
cracks repaired
maybe repaint her lips and eyebrows
hair re glued
make dress for her
let her join the Littles crew

and maybe do more with her eyes and eyelids when I know more. They work really well, unlike my Ginny, whose eyes have to be pried open once in awhile. The walking mechanism still works, although she's a bit pigeon-toed; but if she's displayed nobody will know. My Ginny stands by herself. This one might need a stand. We will see.

NOTE on 9/18... she's clean. I rebuilt her wig by making a new wig cap for her, washing the hair, restitching it to gauze and sewing it to the wig cap. Didn't take pictures. She says no pictures until her dress is done and her eyebrows are back. I think her hair is doing pretty well for a fifty plus year old wig. Right now her arms are off and maybe tomorrow I'll fix her cracks and her dress.

The Littles

Today I decided to bite the bullet and restring my poor Betsy whose head fell off. What I found out (by holding a flashlight to her head!) is that they must have put the rubber band for her head on before they even put her together! That means that little rubber band held up since 1959 when I got her-- 57 years! Pretty amazing! Of course I never really played hard with her, and many of those years were sitting in a box, sad to say. I restrung her after watching some tutorials, mainly

http://mandalineartfulliving.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-mccall-twins-visit-hospital.html

with some thoughts from who knows where else. Her McCall twins look just like mine, falling apart! Ten years ago, a friend who used to run a doll hospital fixed her for me, her hip had broken and her crotch cracked. He fixed her up good as new, but didn't restring her head. She went back to the box.

Recently, I got out my old dolls and found out she'd lost her head. I researched getting her restrung, but found out it would cost me $30 or so. So then I started learning about restringing.

I used kind of a combination. I got some rubber bands for littles from dollspart. I did Ginny's arms (her walking mechanism still works!!) and Betsy 2's arms since her head is still on, although a bit wobbly. Poor Betsy 1 had no head. I used some elastic cord for her head, tied in in well, and then a rubber band for her arms. She is happy to be altogether.

And here's a picture of the three repaired ones (still needing hair attention but that's minor) and The Lotties on the right. I have no idea why I bought them other than their cuteness. At least they are small. :)

And I've been playing around with posing the Lotties. I saw the calendar on the wall and thought it might be a good background.

and of course Rain Puddles Lottie got jealous.

here's a picture of the three Old Little Girls. Wouldn't it be fun to be seven again?

Betsy's new dress

30 hours of riding in the car to go see my daughter... more like 32 total. She moved far far away. She had a sweet new baby I had to go meet. I took some crochet thread Just In Case I felt like making something. Here's what I did.

No pattern. I started out making a vest for Yasmin. Didn't like it, so decided to turn it into a Betsy dress. Just kept holding it up to the doll and adding stitches. Added the collar/sleeves as an afterthought. Like I did for the Barbie dresses.  Still needs a petticoat, but the basic dress finished.  Of course then I saw her hair was a mess. Oh well. She'll get a formal portrait later.