The Doll Doctor

As you may already know, I recently found this Cissy doll.

I was thrilled, to say the least, but poor Cissy had a little trouble...

Cissy's head was a bit loose.  This is not unusual for older dolls.

I knew she needed to be restrung, but I was afraid to try this myself.

What we needed was a Doll Doctor!

A quick web search and I found Dr. Toni only 30 minutes away.

After a couple of emails we set up an appointment for Cissy.

 Click here to visit Dr. Toni's Doll Repair

Dr. Toni does all kinds of doll repair.

Restoring broken and damaged dolls, repainting faces,

restringing - you name it!

Dr. Toni and her husband also make reproduction "Bleuette"

Doll Furniture. 

Dr. Toni's website

This is Maxwell, who played with my son 

while Cissy was being operated on.

The Doctor's office is in their workshop, which is

FULL of every kind of doll part you could imagine.

 Everything was very neat and tidy.  

 The work table was covered in a soft towel to protect

their patients from scuffs.

OH CISSY!

Before I could turn around Cissy was taken apart!
Cissy's arms were loose too so we did it all.

(Sorry to those who are squeamish)

Dr. Toni and her husband are a team at restringing.

It took 2 pair of hands to get Cissy back together!

(It's hard seeing you like this m'dear)

 Ah, a new firm head again.

And the arms!

In a little less than 10 minutes she was done.

With hair a little mussed, but firmly restrung!

Here she is all ready for a night out.

 Her head is firm on her shoulders again.

Thank you Dr. Toni!

Shirley Temple Doll

I was thrifting yesterday and I found this Shirley Temple doll.

She is an Ideal 1958 Shirley Temple doll, 14" tall.

She is VERY dirty but amazingly still had her original dress.

 

She has these adorable dimples.

Some of her curls are intact.

The back of her hair is not so good.

AS I said VERY dirty.

  

She had some green marks on her forehead

And some red marks on her legs.

 Her dress and panties were dirty as well.

Her panties will need new elastic.

I gathered my usual cleaning crew.

And set her dress and panties to soak in cold water 

with a few drops of Dawn.

She has rooted hair so I was able to really lather her up.

I left the shampoo to soak in her hair while I started 

cleaning her body and this was left behind - YUK!

I rinsed her hair and washed it a second time.

I happened to have these 2 doll dresses that fit her!

So she wore one of these while her yellow dress dried.

Her curls needed some help so I rolled her up in straws.

This works great for small dolls. I also use the small

size bobby pins to help hold them in place.

HERE SHE IS!!

Her dress had lost some kind of decoration missing from the 

front so I decided to add a bow.

I put new elastic in her panties and made her

a crinoline to go under her skirt.

She is waiting for some new shoes.

Until then Bennet will keep her toes warm.

SO ADORABLE!

Here she is in her green dress.

Here is the back of her hair - much better.

Her she is in the red stripe sundress.

And this is a Muffy Vanderbear dress that I decided to try on.

Pretty cute, but needs some fitting.

Definitely a keeper!

Toni doll shoe makeover

Just like Cissy, my Toni had these plastic shoes that were kinda blah.

So I did another shoe makeover!

 The first pair are white.

I made a paper pattern just like with Cissy's shoes.

Using my pattern I cut out the felt and glued it down.

 Then hot-glued the strap in place - VOILA!

 Much better.

The second pair is red. 

Luckily I had some red felt scraps!

Black strap.

 Both finished.

I really like the red and black together! 

 Here are both pair together.

Just as I was finishing the shoes my Mom called 

so I made a couple hats while we talked.

This pink and ivory.

AND...

This red and black.

Very pretty Toni!