My latest project: Restoring 1950s dolls
 

This past spring my sister, who is 89, gave me 4 1950s dolls that her girls had. She only has grandsons. She asked me to give them to my granddaughters. I have decided to try and restore them and give them to my 2 youngest granddaughters (13 and 14-years old) and 2 to my great granddaughters (11 and 3-years old). All dolls will be kept for "looking at" and not "playing with" as they are very fragile. The eyes still work and their faces are still beautiful but the hair is quite fragile.

I checked on line and started my NEW journey. The first doll that I picked to start with is a "Revlon Doll". She has an older body and face. Also, her hair is attached directly to the head. The 2 larger dolls, which my sister calls "Chatty Cathies" are 18" baby dolls with hair attached to a mesh fabric, which disintegrates upon sewing.

The blonde doll's hair was in better shape, except that there is a bald spot on one side. The other 18" doll's hair would just "pull off" so I sewed the pieces to a mesh fabric and glued the hair pieces back on. So far so good.

The last doll is a Horsman doll. She is 15" high and is also a baby doll. Her hair was a bit easier to manage. The advice that I used from on line was to pick the hair with a "dog comb". I do not have dogs or a dog comb so (of course) I used a large needle. Strand by strand. They also said to spray the hair with Skin So Soft, which I happened to have for mosquito repellent. The oil is natural and brought the hair back to a beautiful shine. They said to roll on perm rods and use hot blow dryer to set synthetic hair. The small doll is not finished yet!

Once I had the hair under control, I decided to make new clothes.

Here are some before and after photos. 1 is before, middle ones progress and last ones after.
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they are all awesome you did a fantastic job I just love them..............even at my age I still love dolls I always will, I have some 18 inch dolls not AG dolls and i still love makeing clothes and dressing them

That IS awesome! I never had a Chattie Cathy. I wanted one but my mom wouldn't buy it. lol. I did have a Miss Revlon doll and a Horsman doll. I'm so glad you are going to restore those for your granddaughers.

You did a great job--beautiful

when i was little, our lady land lords took me into their house and showed me their dolls on the bed. they had china faces and not to be played with. i'd never played with dolls anyway but thought they were beautiful.

Terrific work; all of the dolls are beautiful.

I love dolls from this era! The Revlon is beautiful. I don't believe any are Chatty Cathy, however. She came out in 1960 and looks like this:

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Mattel also made "Chatty Baby" which looks nothing like CC... and also "Charmin' Chatty Cathy", who also has her own unique look. All were talking dolls, with pull strings in the back and speakers on their abdomens.

You are doing great with the hair. It's amazing how that hair holds up! Love your set job on the dark haired doll.

Those dolls look so fresh and clean. You did a wonderful job!

this reminds me of a gift my mom gave my sister one year for Christmas. We were poor and lived in a 4 room apt. My mom got my sister, about 3 at the time, a walking talking doll. Maybe Chatty Cathy. So it's christmas eve about 11 at night. My mom goes to wrap it and it started talking. "I am a big girl", Over and over again. So my aunt starts shaking her to shut her up, but she just kept on saying things. It was a funny memory from back in the late 60's, early 70's. We talk of her still and shaking that darn doll to shut up!

That's hilarious! That wasn't one of Chatty Cathy's phrases, so I wonder what doll that was? :D