Ginny by Vogue

This is what poor Ginny looked like when I got her. She was offered "for parts" but I just couldn't give up on her. She was a MESS.... she looked like she had been displayed for a very long time, she was covered with that sticky kind of dust like on the top of the refrigerator. 

Her wig was falling apart. So I made a new wig base and sewed her hair on the new base. I've never done this before so it was kind of iffy. I ordered a brown curly wig for her Just in Case. 

So finally today I fixed her hair and she's wearing a dress made by Cindy Rice. I got it when Cindy had an odds and ends sale awhile ago. I guess the next dress needs to be a Ginny one, since there are two dolls and this one dress. Other than the Brownie uniform my mom made, but both Ginnys said they wanted something fancier. So right now they are sharing. 

yeah. imagination. Will I be one of those old ladies who carry around a baby doll in the nursing home??

Her head is still slightly tipped when her legs are straight. I don't know how to fix that, so she's tipping her head inquisitively until I know how do to that. She's just for display, after all she's sixty years old or so. 

NOTE>>>> I found a tutorial for how to fix her innards but it involves taking a razor blade and slicing her head and body in half... I think she will remain inquisitive, maybe someone in the future would be brave enough to do that, but not me. 

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?

Ginny

This little one was mine when I was little. Her hair fell apart years ago and she spend quite a few years bald. Ten years or so ago, I got her a wig-- braided like hers was. Since I've been doing doll hair lately I thought I'd try something new. Using this idea, I set her hair with the same rollers as I used on Daisy. It might end up re-braided, but it's worth a try.

Will post results tomorrow.

Wellll.... not much difference. I think I need to use smaller "rollers". She doesn't look bad with her hair just down but I'll keep experimenting.

The dress she is wearing my mom made. It needs a bit of TLC. I downloaded a pattern to make her more clothes. Now to Do. It.