Fixing and Refreshing Vintage Doll Dresses

Since a lot of my dolls come naked or wearing ill-fitting clothes;

I am always on the look-out for vintage era dresses and slips. 

Most older doll accessories need repairs from age and mishandling.

I just thought I'd share a little about how I refresh the clothes I find.

WASHING

Frequently doll clothes and dolls get stored 

in a garage, basement or attic.  

That doll of grandma's may have stood on a 

shelf for years. No wonder they get musty!

Don't be afraid to wash doll clothes, even older fabrics.

Gentle handling is all it takes to refresh old doll clothes.

I find most of these old fabrics are helped by a gentle cold wash.

It removes dust and odor and refreshes the fabric.

Even many stains just dissolve away!

I like to use Fels Naptha, dawn or even a tiny bit 

of laundry detergent on sturdier cottons.

Fels Naptha is great for stains.

Get the cloth and bar wet and rub gently on the stain.

Then I let it soak, sometimes for several days.

Never scrub old fabrics - just swish.

I always separate dark colors and light colors to prevent

the dark dye discoloring lighter fabrics.

What is the exception to this?

HINT: I've brought faded pinks back by soaking with a red fabric!

After washing I lay the clothes flat on a towel to dry.

PRESSING

All my Vintage doll dresses get pressed after washing.

This step really makes your dolls dress look new again.

The trickiest part of pressing small doll's dresses are the gathers.

Be careful to adjust the iron's temperature to 

the  type of fabric you are pressing. 

Cottons use high heat, 

silks, and satins low heat.

My grandma taught me to iron gathers.

The iron approaches from the hem towards the gathers.

As you press towards the gathers lift the 

garment so the fabric is taught.

Lifting allows the iron's tip to reach right up

to the waist.  If you need practice, use something made 

of  a cotton fabric, they are the most durable.

This tiny ironing board was made by my husband 

to be a prop, but I use it!  

You could make a small ironing tool by covering

a small piece of smooth wood with cotton fabric.

This little board is SO useful for pressing doll dress sleeves.

REPAIRS

If you plan on restoring Vintage doll clothes it will

help immensely if you learn to hand stitch.

There are lots of how-to videos online. 

It is much easier than you might think!

This doll dress was not in bad condition.  

It's only real problem was some small tears in the lace. 

To repair lace, I fray check all around the tear.

After the Fray Check is dry, I use a single thread

and gently stitch the rent closed.

When I've closed the rent, I do a 3 loop tie.

(loop the thread 3x on the needle and pull it tight)

I like to press the fix and then I am done!

The repair is not invisible, 

but it looks better than before.

This is a common problem with older doll clothes.

Seams begin to fray and come loose. This little sleeve

would be impossible to machine stitch.

This sleeve I turned inside out and

hand stitched after using 

Fray check on both sides 

of the shoulder seam.

All done!  Fray check really works great

to stabilize older fabric that 

could continue to disintegrate.

Adding Elastic

Next is my method of adding new elastic

to old dresses without tearing open a seam.

Many doll dresses need new elastic, but

the fabric may be fragile and could be damaged

if it is taken apart with a seam ripper.

I have made a loop of small elastic that

fits the doll's arm.

I find something like this altoids can, or

a piece of cardboard that stretches

the elastic and still fits inside the sleeve.

While the elastic is stretched, I sew it into

the sleeve with straight stitches.

VOILA! New elastic without tearing 

open fragile fabric seams.

This method can be used for waistlines as well.

REFRESHING

This little brown dress, I believe, 

is factory made from the 1950s.

It has already been washed and pressed.

First thing I did was replace the white 

buttons with these little flowers.

This is not a highly valuable doll dress, so

I don't mind making little adjustments to add to it's interest.

Next I Fray Checked the back of the dress

which was rough edge and not stitched.

Next I zig-zagged the bodice/waist seam to reinforce it.

 The dress also needed new snaps.

I really just reinforced seams, and made this 

dress a little less likely to disintegrate over time.

 

And here is the brown dress being modeled by Shirley.

And here is the yellow dress being modeled by Nancy.

If you know how to do some basic stitching and fabric care,

purchasing Vintage doll dresses is a great way to add to

a doll's wardrobe and it's so much fun!

HAPPY STITCHING!