Barbara Ann Scott doll

This doll was made by Reliable and depicts Barbara Ann Scott who was the 1948 figure skating gold medalist.

At first glance she doesn't look too bad?

Her outfit is original but the dress is quite faded.

She has a deep crack near her right eye and a couple smaller cracks in her chin. Much of the skim composition in the facial area has bubbled off of the base composition.

The paint on her limbs is faded, crazed and flaking in some areas.

Interestingly, her torso never had a skim composition layer. The factory skipped that step and sprayed paint directly on the base composition.

Barbara Ann has arrived with a request to get her composition totally restored and have a new, replica outfit made.

So, off we go.....

First, the crazed paint and lifting compo gets removed.

Here is what is left of Barbara Ann's face once the lifting layers were removed.

And here is her face filled, recontoured, sanded and primed.

Barbara Ann dolls have rather muted eyebrows and eyelashes.

They have brown eyelashes instead of the typical black. Multistroke eyebrows instead of a single stroke.

So that gets all duplicated on this doll's features.

On to hair and wardrobe next.....

New replica outfit. Her original outfit will be saved.

Original wig and skates....freshened up.

Restringing all-bisque dolls

 

Here are 4 small all-bisque dolls who have arrived to get restrung and dressed.

The smaller two are assembled with wire.

This is their original assembly method so, other than a wee bit of twisting one wire to tighten up the joint....they will be left as is.

The next biggest is assembled with pegged in elastic.

The elastic is shot so it will get replaced.

The legs are already done.

Here are the arms after taking out the old elastic and pegs and inserting new elastic.

One side of the elastic gets held in place with a new peg.....here a toothpick is working nicely as a peg.

The elastic gets pulled to a nice tension and then it gets pegged in place on the other side.

Snip off the elastic and peg flush to the bisque and voila!

The biggest doll is strung with elastic through loops on her limbs.

The elastic needs replacing.

Here is a better view of the stringing loops.

To restring this type of system you pass elastic (I used 1.5mm round elastic) through all the loops and tie it off tightly.

The biggest doll gets an outfit made first so I can get the hang of miniature clothing.

The biggest doll is only 6" tall!

Their small sizes makes good use of scraps of antique fabric. I knew saving little bits of fabric would come in handy some day...

Then the next smallest gets some clothing....

And then we go even smaller...

All done.

 

"Baby", the Puffalump, gets a new body

 

"Baby' is on the left.

She is a well loved Puffalump doll.

She has arrived to get a new body. Her owner has already found a body donor....that would be the doll on the right.

Puffalumps were very soft, light toys made from a type of parachute material.

This light fabric did not hold up well when Puffalumps were well loved.

There is almost no fabric left on the back of Baby's head.

Baby's face gets separated from her body and her body gets unstuffed.

This is a view into Baby's new body.

Her access point is in her derrier. This is looking up into her head. Her head has to be unstuffed and turned inside out in order to do the face transfer.

The face switch has been done.

Baby's old body has had a bath and is going to be placed into her new body along with the stuffing.

Re-stuffed with the old body nestled inside.

Now to stitch up the access spot....

Done!

Topsy Baby

 

This doll was made by 'Reliable' in the early 1960's and was sold as 'Topsy Baby' or 'Topsy Baby Darling'.

She has arrived for cleaning and repairs.

Her cloth in her legs is worn and has she has previous mends.

One arm has many mends too.

Quite a cute face!

Topsy Baby's owner wants her body kept original. Not totally replaced with a new fabric one. A couple of options are reviewed and it is decided to line her body with new fabric. This will keep her original cloth on the outside and strengthen it throughout the torn and holey areas.

So on to disassembly......

Topsy Baby's head has stuffing inside which is kept in with a wooden plug. This is a common finding in this vintage of doll.

That is a lot of stuffing!

But it needs to come out to clean her head well.

More disassembly.

Here is the front and back of her body....and a piece of muslin that I have dyed. The muslin will line her body.

On the right is one side of her body before it gets lined and mended.

On the left is the other side after getting lined and mended.

The lined body parts get sewn together along the previous seam lines.

And, after a bit of a fight (vinyl is not always easy to sew into cloth), the end is in sight.

One washed, lined and repaired body, several washed vinyl bits and a pile of stuffing that came out of the body are ready for the final reassembly.  The head has already been restuffed and plugged.

Done.

And dressed.

 

1950's walking doll repair

 

This is 'Susie Stepps'.

She is made od hard plastic and dates to the 1950's.

She had a fall and her eyes fell out.

While her eye issue was being investigated....her head fell off

She has arrived to be reassembled.

Here are her eyes.

This type of eye clamps on to a projection inside the head.

That is the projection inside the head between the eyes. One side is chipped and crumbled which is why the eye clamp fell off.

With the mount getting reinforced with epoxy putty, the eye mechanism can be clamped on again.

Head reattached, arms restrung and even some new eyelashes....she is ready to go home.