American Girl Sonali

I'm back!!

So, over the winter I got a seasonal job, I really didn't have the energy to do doll repairs, but since that is over with, I have way more time for doll restoration!

First up in my American Girl doll, Sonali. Sonali was a christmas gift in 2009 when I was 13. I always thought Sonali was a beautiful doll, but for whatever reason my Sonali started to get really dry ends. I was 13 when I got her, I took good care of her, but for whatever reason she had dry hair with me, and then the hair lost it's curl. I decided to re-curl it, but I made the new curls way too small, and the het didn't help the dry hair, so when I brushed her hair out, I was greeted with this hair abomination

Yikes!! I really messed up, So I was deadset on her hair being so terrible, I had to get a new head from AG. But then I got a clothes steamer, which I heard was supposed to do wonders on doll hair, so I thought I would try it out before sending Sonali in. Well, here's what I got!

Beautiful, smooth, silky hair! I couldn't believe it! A clothes steamer really does wonders for doll hair! While having her Sonali's hair straight for awhile was fun to play with, I wanted Sonali's original curls back, so with water and a curling iron, I got her back to normal : )

 

The Big Thrift Store Shopping Day Part 3

And here is doll #3... Rapunzel #3!

Here she is! Overall, she's not that bad, but she has ink in her hair! I've never gotten ink out of any doll hair before, but I know it can be done. I'll brush and wash her hair first before I try to get the ink out

IDK if she'll end up being sold or given to my niece yet, but you'll see sometime later

The Big Thrift Store Shopping Day Part 2

So for the second time this week, I found a nude Disney Animator Merida Doll!

She has yellow undies and the first Merida I found has green undies, so at least I can tell them apart!

Her hair feels a little plastic-y, like someone sprayed hairspray in it or something. I'm still working on Merida 1, her ends are still very very frizzy. I think I'm going to try to steam it later. With Merida 2 I'll just wash it for now. If you were keeping track, I got all three dolls for $2 each! I'm so excited to get to work on so many new dolls!

The Repairs:

So, Let me just say that Merida needed a whole lot of repairs in an odd order. Her hair was tangles in odd places, I couldn't find the ends! So I started with steaming her hair, then I washed it and then brushed it out. It's usually in the reverse order! But overall Merida is turning out alright. She still has some of the plastic-y feel in her hair, but I'm gonna keep working on that

I guess my camera got some steam too!

The Big Thrift Store Shopping Day Part 1

So after a long day of thrift shopping, I came back with three very messy ladies. There is a lot of stuff to post about them, so I'm doing this in parts. Part 1- Tiana

I was actually pretty excited, I haven't found a Tiana doll yet! Tiana has such a beautiful face, but wow was this doll gross when I found her. Her body was wet and weird smelling, and her body was sticky. I seriously have never touched anything grosser. First thing I did with her when I got home was to wash her whole body down with soap, water and a sponge. She feels really soft now. Seriously, that gunk on her body was so bad that was the first thing I did when i got home, even though i was rushing to get out the door!

Unfortunately her hair is so thin its unsalvageable : ( I'm going to look into buying her a wig. She is going to my neice

My Welcome Back

I am bouncing back from my eBay woes, I found these two beauties at my local thrift stores the other day

A Disney Animator Merida doll, and a Cinderella toddler doll. I also found a Rapunzel Barbie sized doll, but I forgot to take before pics, so I'll update her later. I'm planning on giving Rapunzel and Cinderella to my niece for Christmas, but I need to find/sew clothes for all of them first!

Before:

After!:

Cinderella was a very easy brushing, hair washing and skin cleaning. She has a tiny mark on her leg that I am going to try to remove with some Oxy treatment. I already have the fabric ready to make clothes for her, can't wait for her to be all done! (Also, if anyone has seen Glee before, doesn't she look like Heather Morris who played Brittany?)

 Before:

Merida has some problems, her hair is very dry, I brushed it out and am doing a Downey dunk on her right now. I'm not sure if her hair can hold up to a steaming, but i may try if the downey dunk doesn't work. Then I will have to redo her curls, so I have a challenge ahead of myself with her! She also has some staining for her dress on her tummy, with dirty skin too. She seems like more of a challenge but I am ready for it!

Also, I got a poor AG waif on its way to me, and I'm so excited to fix her up because I haven't fixed an AG in awhile. I also got her for a steal, and I'm so excited!

Rapunzel 2

So heres the rest of the little snippet! I found another Rapunzel doll, and she cleaned up really nicely!

Before

After!

Sorry for the quality of the after pics, but she has already been sold and has made her way to her new home, so I had to work with the eBay pics I had saved

A Little Snippet

So I've been busy with school and such, but heres a little snippet of whats to come!

So far I fixed up her hair, with the usual brushing and washing : )