1980s Strawberry Shortcake Dolls!

This past week, I was visiting a friend

in Ridgecrest, CA.  We both LOVE

thrifting. Guess what I found?

I found this basket full of Strawberry Shortcake dolls

The ORIGINAL ones from the early 1980s!

Here is everything that was in the basket.

Nineteen Strawberry dolls!

Three Sweet Scents Dolls.

This American Girl Doll

"Pretty in Plaid" dress.

And KEN! 

He is a 1968 Mattel Malaysia doll.

Here are ALL the clothes and shoes

ready for a wash. BOY! were they dirty!

Twenty-Two DOLLS! All needing a Spa

and other repair work!

Ahhh, a nice soak in the doll bath!

(Or the sink to you and me)

Even after a soak, many dolls

had weird spots or grey discoloration.

A few of the first batch to get the

acne cream treatment.

A couple dolls had weird brown marks.

Others had this grey skin discoloration. 

I hope I can get these stains out!

All these girls got acne cream and saran wrap.

Then they get laid in the sun.

Here they are sunning on my back deck.

These are the first six dolls to get a brush out.

The top four are Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

L-R Lemon Meringue, Strawberry Shortcake, 

another Lemon Meringe and Raspberry Tart

The bottom two dolls are Sweet Scents dolls,

Bubble Gum and Grape. I believe they were

a competitor doll set to Strawberry Shortcake.

Here's Ken in some borrowed clothes.

I got this tux, but it was TOO SMALL!

Apparently the newer Ken dolls are not

as muscly any more.

BUT, This Ken outfit is on the way!

I had some repairs as well. This little cap 

needed new elastic.  Other hats I dyed pink with 

vinegar water and food coloring.

This little Lime Chiffon dress needed some

repairs to frays. Other dresses were just missing!

A little at a time I started getting 

dolls identified and redressed

Strawberry Shortcake

Angel Cake.

Blueberry Muffin.

A friend of Strawberry called

Elf Herself.

This is Berry Baby

Butter Cookie

This is Berry Baby

Apricot

As I was dressing dolls, I saw that

some dolls were missing their outfit.

I decided to make a couple replacements

Not popular with some collectors, but

I like them.

Lemon Meringue dress by me.

Raspberry Tart dress by me.

This is Lime Chiffon

Another Raspberry Tart

I have two Lemon Merigues

Two Raspberry Tarts

And two Blueberry Muffins

Well do you want to see them all now?

HERE

THEY 

ARE!

A few dolls are still sunning away their spots, but

here is the majority of the dolls.  Many do not have 

shoes or their hats, but overall a very nice group.

Oh, don't forget Ken and the AG dress.

Ken looks great in his letterman jacket, jeans

and white tennies.

And here is Emma in the AG dress.

WHEW!

What a workout!

My Favorite Thrift Store Dolls

Most of my absolute favorite dolls came from thrift stores.
I wanted to share my favorites with you. 

I'm going to start with the littlest.

This is a 1967 Florence Niddle Kiddle.

I found her naked and alone in a thrift store bin.

She was way down at the bottom 

underneath a lot of other toys! 

She is 3 inches tall.

Finding Florence

I made her this travel case room.

When I was a girl I had a Barbie travel case and 

I loved it!

I would take it to my Grandma's house when we 

would stay with her during school breaks.

Since then I have made several travel cases.

I love the idea of a traveling doll room!

This is florence in her Nurses Uniform, that

I made for her.

Yes, Florence Niddle is a nurse!

This is my 1957 Betsy McCall, Melanie.

When I found her, her head was off!

I only paid $5.00 for her!

Finding Melanie

But now she is lovely!

I made this traveling case room for Melanie and Sophie.

Sophie and Melanie

One of my earliest thrift store dolls

is my Pleasant Co. Molly.  

I found her in this green velvet Christmas dress.

Her hair was AWFUL! Her wig was 

frizzy and someone had chopped 

off a lot of her hair.

(It was me before I knew how to fix doll hair)

Since then I found a replacement 

Molly wig and she is lovely!

Re-wigging Molly

Here she is now! 

This is Bonnie. She is a 1977 Madame

 Alexander Pussycat Doll. This is

how she looked when I found her!

Finding Bonnie

Here she is now!

This is my 1950s era Tiny Tears Doll.

She was in desperate need of a bath!

I also refreshed her lips and cheeks.

Finding Lara

Here is Lara now! I just love her!

I found this Madame Alexander Maggie

in a used book store! Can you believe it?

In a back corner was a box with dolls

in pieces, except for Maggie.

Finding Maggie

After a lot of work and a new wig

Here she is! You can see I 

re-dyed her skirt and added

some embroidery roses to cover

the holes, lots of holes.

Another early find was my 

Madame Alexander Cissy Doll.

I did a double take when I saw her!

She was lying on a stack of 1980s porcelain 

dolls you find in almost every thrift store.

I stopped shopping right then and went

straight to the register, I was in shock!

Finding Cissy

Here she is refreshed with a new hat.

And here she is with her matching 

shopping basket.

This is MaryLou. She is a 1955 

Miss Revlon Doll and the DIRTIEST 

doll I have ever worked on!

Finding MaryLou

Here she is from a recent hairstyle refresh.

This is another Miss Revlon, Laura Ann. 

I found her in Albequerque, NM

in a second hand store.

All I could see was a bit of that stripe dress

inside a case full of  porcelain dolls.

Finding Laura Ann

Here she is! Lovely in yellow stripes.

My two Miss Revlons love to pose!

I owe this Revlon Crown Princess doll

to my daughter! We were thrifting together

and she brought me this little doll and asked.

"Mom, is this a good doll?"

Oh yes! She is a 1950s Crown Princess doll.

She is a precursor to the Little Miss Revlon Doll.

Finding Viola, Crown Princess Doll

Here she is now Viola, Revlon Crown Princess.

One of my absolute favorites is Shea. 

She is circled in the picture from the 

Estate Sale where I found her.

She is a 1972 Ideal Crissy Doll. 

Finding Shea

When she first came home with me

she was a hot mess.

Here she is today! So lovely!

This is her sister Crissy when I first

found her.  She is a 1969 Crissy doll.

OK, OK! She's not

actually from a thrift store, but I 

couldn't leave her out!

Finding Crissy

Here is Crissy today! I think I love

these Crissy dolls so much because

I played with them when I was a 

little girl. I loved their long hair and

VERY groovy fashions!

My next doll came from this thrift in

Ridgecrest CA.  My bestie lives here

and our favorite thing is going to 

all the thrift stores in town.

Compassion Resource Center

I found Mia, another of the Crissy Doll Family

right here about 4 years ago.

(I recreated this image for effect :)

I saw her across the room and I knew...

Here she is today in a granny dress I made.

I know that I am frequently finding and restoring

dolls here on this blog, but these are the dolls

that I really connected with in some way.

I hope you enjoyed seeing them all together.

Me and Crissy

(It is me 6 yrs old, but I added Crissy with my photo editor because 

apparently my mom did not take a picture of us together!)