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!)

EASTER Dress Haul!

Hello Doll Friends.

In my last two posts I shared some vintage 

doll clothes I found in an antique shop.

Vintage Doll Clothes

While I was sharing these finds and explaining 

my usual method of searching for vintage

doll items online, I also found...

This adorable 1950s era doll dress.

I just loved the fabric pattern!

Next I found this Madame Alexander apron dress

for my Elise doll.

I also found this vintage style dress that I hope

will fit Elise as well.

Then I found this Miss Revlon Pink Stripe dress.

Lastly, I found this little lot. The dresses are rough made

for an 8 - 9 inch doll.  What I really wanted was 

the little quilt top in the corner!

While I was waiting for all these purchases to

arrive I started to get to work resizing this 

skirt and top.

When I resize something, I put it on inside

out and pin.  The pin will be my stitch line.

Before I reseam this blouse, I opened the

bottom hem so my repair will look

correct.

OK! Seam sewn, excess trimmed and now I 

am ready to re-hem the bottom. 

You will see the finished outfit at the end!

I next started working on this 1930s doll quilt.

Using the fabric from these little dresses

 and adding the blue and white fabric 

that came from...

this vintage baby dress that 

I refitted to my Sally Ann doll,...

I was able to make another eight quilt squares

using some linen fabric I had in my stash.

Here they are all stitched together.

I will finish this quilt at a later time.

Back to this dress. VERY cute fabric, but

I believe it may have been a first time

sewing project? 

On the left waistline hem there is this

folded over section.

On the right side it is smooth.

On the front of the bodice there is

a fold at the waist and it is

smooth at the neckline.

It is not obvious in my photo, but the neckline

does not lie properly either.

I love this fabric and I think I can

remake this doll outfit, but it

will have to wait til a later time.

The pink apron dress had some troubles as well.

This button hole was an obvious problem.

I used Fray Check all around the opening and

restitched the hole.

I thought this was all until I started 

pressing the dress.

Someone tried to hand stitch the left shoulder.

And the armhole.

The same thing on the right side.

I was sad to see how much work this

dress needed.  I will repair it 

at a later time, but not today.

 I decided to try and take some nice 

photos with the dress as-is.

This is me thinking about all the projects

I now have! Hehehe.

Looks like I will have a 

"Fix it" post in the future.

This dress had these floppy buttons.

I took them off and will add some other

decorative touch to this dress.

I put the dress on inside out and pin it.

The pins are my sewing line.

Here it is with a bit better fit.

All the dresses got a good pressing.

I know a couple of these dresses need some work

but overall I am very pleased with them all!

AND NOW THEY ARE READY!

 

HERE

THEY 

ARE!

This is very sweet, even with some issues.

I love how this came out. The embroidered

flowers add some much needed detail.

They also hide some stubborn stains!

Not too bad.  The black belt and bow

gives this dress a more vintage feel.

Now both my Miss Revlons have a pink stripe.

Here are Elise and Cissy in their matching

apron dresses by Madame alexander.

Everyone is pleased with their new dresses!

HAPPY EASTER 

From

THE SAVAGE PEA