Repairing a Cloth Faced Doll

  When I was redoing Ivy's room I came across this poor girl.

  I had actually owned this doll before I even met Ken. I found her at Big Lots, back when ours was called 'Odd Lots',(Because there was already a store in Ohio called 'Big Lots',so they couldn't use the name.),and had all sorts of weird stuff,sometimes only one of some things. It used to be interesting to shop at Odd Lots, because you never knew what you'd find. Their buyers were encouraged to take things that were interesting and a great deal, even if they could only buy a few,or even one of them. I know this because after the store where we worked when we met went out of business, Ken assistant managed an Odd Lots. Now Big Lots is just like any other store, carrying mostly the same stuff all the time, and the same stuff as everybody else. They're not cheaper than everybody else any more either. When I found this doll, she was the only one of her kind in the store. I bought her because I thought she was so pretty and she reminded me of the doll in the book "Magic Elizabeth".
 

 "Magic Elizabeth" was one of my favourite childhood books, and my kids all loved it when I read it to them. You may have read my review of the book HERE.  So I intended to give the doll to one of my future children, and Ivy got it. 
  I realize the doll, (Let's call her 'Elizabeth' from now on.), has a more 1920's dress ,but hey,it's a general reminding,not an exact duplicate.
  Anyway, she had seen better days when I found her. She had been shoved up against Ivy's window at some point,while laying on Ivy's bed. In the winter the windows sweat from the cold air outside meeting the warmer, (although not by much!), air inside our house. The doll got wet, and apparently she was there for a while. Ivy frequently shoved things against the window and they got wet that way. Her curtains suffered too. The doll had mildew stains all over her face, and somewhat milder staining on her chest. I don't remember if I had to put her dress back on her when I found her or not, but it's perfectly fine,so she may have been naked. Her hair has come unglued too, and a piece of it was found separately from her head. So I rescued the loose hunk of hair. (I guess that's a 'hank' of hair really.)
   I thought about using Stain Devils for mildew stains on her, but that would have meant using a huge amount of the stuff, and then washing Elizabeth, which would have been hard on her. That type of hair doesn't wash well. It unravels Also, her stains were so bad that I didn't think even Stain Devils could help her.

  I decided instead to give her a paint job. Amazingly, the ivory paint I already have was pretty much a perfect match for her.

I wish it had been a matte paint, instead of a gloss, but at least she didn't turn out shiny.

Her arms and legs were fine,so I only had to paint her face and torso. I was no way going to try to recreate that face,so I painted around the painted features. She looks a lot better now, but I had to go over her face pretty thickly with the paint to cover all the staining,so now her face is stiff and scratchy.
 

  Her body didn't require as much paint,since the staining wasn't as bad there, so it's not too bad. I wish her face hadn't come out so scratchy. She's not exactly cuddly now. She was also now awfully pale and a bit scary looking. That's not cuddly either. So, even though we weren't positive there had been blush on her cheeks before,,after consulting with  Ivy, I blushed Elizabeth's cheeks. It wasn't as easy as you would think. That's because I used watered down acrylic paint,and while the one cheek worked out fine, the other one wouldn't hold the paint. Instead, the watery paint being rubbed in by my finger began to wash away the ivory paint underneath! I had to stop and let what was there dry, and then do another coat...a few times.his is how she looks now.

 

 
 I still need to replace that hank of hair, but at the moment it has gotten mislaid. (I put it somewhere safe so it wouldn't get accidentally thrown away,or stuck full of cat hair.)

 

  Her bangs need to be glued to her forehead. You can see from the first picture that the forehead is darker, and the dark place is in a straight line. Obviously they were glued before.

  I have to find the other hank of hair first though. Then I can put the hair back like it should be.

See? That one piece of her bangs is trying to get away already.

    I'm going to try sewing it to her head instead of just gluing it. Ivy might some day want to pass her along to the kid she says she's never going to have,and sewing will last longer and be less stiff than glue.