Formative Years

Even when I was a wee one, I loved my dolls.  I thought I would share some old photos my Grandma dug up for me.

Here I am, in 1985 (age 3) receiving my second Cabbage Patch Doll.  It was one of the babies with a pacifier.  Yes, I still have this doll.

Here is me in 1987 (age 5) receiving the Heart Family dolls.  This was the mom.  Yes, I still have them all.

Here is me again in 1987, with a rag doll.  Apparantly I was showing off.  Yes, I still have her.

This is clearly not me, but my Granny with two dolls I received in 1993.  A Happy Holidays Barbie and American Girl Addy (this was the first year she was produced).  Still have both.

Again in 1993 (age 11), with Masquerade Ball Barbie.  I was so proud of her because this was the first year my Mom thought I was mature enough to have a Bob Mackie Barbie.  They were very expensive, and I still have her.

Clearly, fashion was not my forte in 1994 (age 12), but I did get a My Size Bride Barbie for Christmas.  No, I never wore her clothes, and yes, I probably still could.  Hahaha!

In April of 1994 (age 12 still), I received a Bedtime Theresa doll.  This is the only doll whose whereabouts I'm not 100% sure of, but she's probably in my huge bag of Barbies.

Well, there you have it, a brief history of Allison's Doll Collection.  Enjoy!

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Tara from the Crissy Family

Wow!  What a find!  I got her from Goodwill....isn't that AMAZING?  This doll easily sells for over $100 on eBay.  Needless to say, I was very excited.  Even though she isn't on my "Wishlist", she probably would have fallen in at number 11.  Of course, my new little girl needed some TLC.

Her eyes were all gunky...part of it was that fungus that grows on the glue of the Crissy doll's eyes, and then some of it was just good ol' dirt.  Her hair was also wild.  I was very excited, however, that she still had her original shoes on.

Some rats may live in that hair...

Gunky eyes


I scrubbed her down with Clorox wipes, as is my tradition.  Then I washed her hair in the sink with some laundry detergent and warm water.  I was thrilled to discover that not only had her hair not been cut, but it was in great condition, nice and silky, and a very long, working ponytail.  I got the gunk of her eyes with a Q-tip, my fingernail, and a tiny electronics flat head screwdriver.  If you ever use a screwdriver, be careful, because I actually chipped a tiiiiiiny little amount of white paint off her eye.  I can repaint it, but it's towards the back of her eyeball and not really noticeable, so I'm not going to bother.  I rebraided her little side-burn hairs (hahahahaha) and tied them with red ribbon.

Now, for the finished product:

Isn't she pretty?!  I dressed her in Checkered Check, and left her original yellow shoes on.  I think she's just adorable :)

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Scratch One Off The Wishlist :)

This week, I received my Juanita Perez dolls from Mexico.  These are the dolls that are currently being produced, not the vintage versions.  They are very pretty dolls.  They have a huge mass of rooted hair which is really heavy, and the vinyl seems heavier, too.  I also received 2 extra dresses and some accessories to go with the dolls. 

Picking flowers for their new mom....hahahahaha!!!

They're very pretty dolls and I'm very happy with them.  Special thanks to Afner for helping me coordinate and translate to order the dolls :)

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How To Rewig an American Girl Doll (Video Tutorial)

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Poupee Crissy avec de nouveaux vêtements

After I bought my French Crissys a few months ago, I decided I wanted to find some original clothing for them to wear.  I have been trolling French eBay ever since, and came across an outfit that I thought was originally made for Crissy.  The reason I thought this is that one of the Crissys I bought came sporting the same top when she arrived here in the States.  The top is an orange material with a large pocketbook sewn onto it.  When the new outfit arrived, it's orange was MUCH darker than the top I already had, and the lines on it were wider.  Here is a photo for comparison:

The left top is the one I originally received, the right top is the one I just purchased, along with pants.

After receiving the new outfit, I was not entirely convinced that it was, in fact, intended for Crissy.  The pants were really long and had extra-wide flare at the bottom.  If it was intended for her, I think that there is a top that goes under it.  I believe that a white body-suit type thing was made for French Crissy (I have one of them), and that maybe it was supposed to be worn under this outfit.  At any rate, I put her in the outfit, sans the body-suit underneath.

New outfit, with unmatching yellow shoes.  Ha! 

Still leaving something to be desired, I will continue my quest on French eBay until I find an outfit that is flirty, fun, and most importantly, original.

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Another Lili Ledy Crissy

I bought two Mexican Crissys at the same time, and this is the other one that I bought.  She was in horrible shape, and I didn't really think she'd turn out very well, but she was really cheap, so I bought her anyway.  Her hair was absolutely horrific, and she had a huge Kool-Aid stain all around her mouth (haha!). 

Pre-Treatment

The first thing I did with her was sanitize using Clorox wipes.  She was so grimey.  Next, I got to work on the ink stain.  Using Oxy-10, I started the long process of bleaching away the red stain.

She reminds me of Hannibal Lecter...

After quite a few weeks, I switched to the Walmart brand of Oxy-10, and after one treatment, it appeared as if the vinyl was also getting bleached out.  So at this point, I stopped the bleaching process.

You can see the lighter area all around her mouth.

Next, I used Testors enamel paints and painted her mouth.

Looking better...

The next step was to wash her hair, which turned the water in my sink almost black.  To keep water out of her eyes, I taped two cotton balls down over them while I washed her hair.  Then I styled her hair and was suprised at how well it came out.  I wanted her to have a Spanish style dress, so I used some red cloth and black lace material and made a dress for her.  I'm not the best seamstress in the world but it came out okay.

 

The finished product.  Much better!

Even though she was the less expensive Crissy, she came out looking the best.  It just goes to show what a little work and time will do!!

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