Cathie's New 'Do

My Bella Cathie doll from France arrived with four hair plugs missing, so I ordered some Ash Blonde (color number 10) Saran KatSilk hair from http://www.restoredoll.com/.  The hair arrived, and I was a little disappointed, because the color is off a little bit.  I wish I could buy a color wheel that had a sample of all the colors on it, but I don't think there is one available.  At any rate, the color difference was not enough to be distracting, so I went ahead as planned.

When I reroot a doll, the only things I need are a pair of scissors, a long doll needle, the doll, and the hair. 

It was actually quite a task to replace only four missing plugs on this doll.  The neck hole is very small (maybe an inch in diameter), and the vinyl is thick and very difficult to push the needle through.  I ended up heating her head up a little with a hairdryer just to make the job a little easier.  Once the plugs were replaced, I used the steam function on my iron to get the new hair to lay down.

Steamy!

Perhaps the most difficult part of this task was getting her ponytail back through her neck and head holes.  While the neck hole is about an inch in diameter, the head hole is even smaller, maybe 1.5 centimeters.  At first, I tried binding the hair together with saran wrap, which was an utter failure.  Then, I decided to use a ponytail holder to bind the hair as tightly as I could.  I then bound the ponytail holder to a pencil, and used the pencil to push up through the neck hole and head hole.  To get her head back on her body, I had to re-heat her using the hair dryer.  Then I was able to squeeze the head back into place. 

Close-up of the new plugs.  Can you discern the color difference?

Welcome to the USA!!

Read More

Cathie de Bella

I finally got a Cathie de Bella doll.  She wasn't in too bad of shape, except for the smell.  Every doll I buy from France has a very strong odor of cigarettes.  At the moment, I'm in the process of bringing her up to 100%.  She is missing four hair plugs on the front of her hairline, so I ordered some Ash Blonde hair from http://www.restoredoll.com/ .  They have very high quality, saran doll hair that is especially matched to vintage dolls.  I will post more once I have started the restoration process.

Head removed, waiting on hair to arrive so I can fill the empty hair plugs.

Read More

Blast from the Past!!

My Grandma and Grandpa bought me a tub full of Barbies from the 80's at a yard sale! I had such a blast this weekend going through them. I chose a few of them to keep, and a few of them to list on eBay. I'm going to share some of the photos with you guys.


Did anybody have any of these dolls?

Magic Moves Barbie from 1985. I always thought she was so pretty and secretly coveted the one that my friend Deni had. She has a switch on her back that, when flipped, moves her arms up beside her hair.

This is Loving You Barbie from 1983. Adorable!

A collection of Tropical Barbies from 1985. I'm pretty sure I had every single one of these dolls. The nice thing is all their swimsuits and hair accessories were in the tub :)

I have no idea who this Barbie is, but she appears to be from the late 80's or very early 90's. 

She has a bows for earrings and a ring! I think she's really cute.

Totally Hair Barbie from 1991. This was the best selling Barbie of all time. 

I know I had one, and I'm sure you did, too!

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

Read More

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!

Read More

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 :)

Read More

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 :)

Read More