DIY Doll Stringing

This doll is not one I have up for sale, but another of my Elise dolls. Madame Alexander Elise is by far one of my favorite dolls to collect, albeit one of the most expensive dolls I collect, so I have several nice ones! I bought Elise's peignoir set several years before I bought the doll to wear it. In fact, the peignoir set was one of my earliest Elise purchases. For some reason many people don't care for nighties and peignoir sets, so I bought this tagged, near-mint set for an extremely good price. Elise's peignoir set is made of a light pink material that is like super-silky, super-soft, super-light nylon. My mom has an Elise peignoir from her childhood that is made of a slightly different material. I think my mom's is Elise's crepe peignoir, but I'm not sure what material mine is made of. The doll, on the other hand, I bought just a few years ago at a local doll show. The man I bought her from collected and redressed Elise dolls, and had many beautiful exa

I mentioned in my post about the doll show that I bought a new doll there. I will take some pictures and post them soon, but first I think I am going to clean her up and soak her dress. (Someone has washed it and wrung it out — arrghhhh — but a good soaking should remove most of the wrinkles!) In the meantime, I have plenty of other dolls that I have photographed and have yet to blog about, including some other dolls for sale, so stay tuned!

Here we are at the doll show, with an hour left to go! I can get wireless Internet here, so I wanted to post an update. It has been a long day — I got up at 6:30 am to get dressed, get breakfast, and load up the car with my mom. We arrived just before 8:00, with an hour to get ready before the doors opened to the early birds. The first hour and a half was our best. Within perhaps forty minutes, I sold three dolls — my 1950 Wendy Bride and two Binnie Walker "project dolls" — as well as some vintage doll clothing. Of course, I also bought a doll (which I will post pictures of soon), so I pretty much broke even. My mom sold several doll books and some more vintage clothing — enough to buy a different doll book she wants. I guess that's really why we do these doll shows: so that we can buy more! I took a picture of our booth before we sold a couple of things: The next doll show is December 7th, and we're planning on doing that one too. I think next time I'll market a

We will be at the doll show for much of the day today, but I thought I would post pictures and a description of one more of the dolls we are selling. I'll let you know if she is still available after the show! This 14-inch strung bride is an early Madame Alexander hard plastic Wendy Bride, dating from 1950. She is all original and has clearly never been played with; unfortunately, she has probably been displayed in open air for many years, and her fragile outfit is discolored and deteriorating. First let's look at her positive qualities: 1) Wendy Bride is all original. She has white oilcloth shoes with bows (one bow missing), thigh-high rayon stockings, and white taffeta undies. She even has her original bouquet still tied to her hand. It looks like it's never been removed so I left it alone. 2) Wendy Bride's dress is tagged. 3) Wendy Bride has a beautiful strawberry-blond mohair wig, still in the original set. Mohair is super soft, and is therefore notoriously diffic

Tomorrow is the doll show — the first doll show my mom and I have ever sold at, although we have frequently attended these events. We are very excited! We are taking a number of dolls with us, as well as a big box of doll clothing. I didn't get around to posting pictures and descriptions of everything we'll be selling, but here are the ones I did get to: * Madame Alexander Princess Elizabeth outfit * Madame Alexander strung Maggie * 16-inch strung Effanbee Honey * Fortune Ninette or Duchess Randi * 19-inch Horsman Cindy fashion doll * 1953 Madame Alexander 18-inch Wendy Bride * Vogue Ginny Formals #6062 * Vogue Ginny in school dress and raincoat We are taking many other dolls to the show with us: a 1950 M.A. Wendy Bride, several Cosmopolitan Ginger dolls, a Madame Alexander "India" Alexander-kins, and more. Unfortunately, I underestimated the time I would need to get ready for the show, and ran out of time to photograph and post on each one. After the show I will p

Here's another Vogue Ginny for you Ginny collectors: a SLW (straight leg walker) doll in a pretty pale yellow tagged school dress, and a red and black Ginny raincoat. One of this Ginny's best selling points is her beautiful face. She has lovely blue eyes, perfect lips and brows, and prettily blushed cheeks. Ginny also has beautiful long brown hair. I believe the wig was meant to be in pigtails, because the stitched part continues all the way down to the nape of her neck. However, it also looks pretty in loose waves, so I'll leave the decision to her new owner. Ginny's dress is tagged with the Medford tag, which dates it to 1954-1956 — appropriate for a SLW doll. She wears basic undies just like those our Ginny Formals #6062 , also for sale, wears under her bloomers. Her shoes are marked Ginny and don't have heels, which makes them the hard-to-find 1954 shoes. Ginny will also come to you wearing a red-and-black plaid raincoat, marked "Ginny" on the hood. Th

This darling little socialite is a Vogue Ginny BKW (bent knee walker) wearing a tagged 1956 Formals #6062. The outfit is meant to be for a SLW (straight leg walker) doll, but we bought her from the original owner and she didn't know anything about the outfit being changed. As you can see, Ginny's eyebrows have some rubs. She has a beautiful wavy blond wig that goes perfectly with her formal gown. Her hair may have been cut but if so it was done well, and the length suits her. As far as I can tell, Ginny has all of her original outfit except for her pink tulle wrap and her black velvet hat. Her tagged dress is in perfect condition, and the taffeta on both the dress and the bloomers is crispy mint. The bloomers do have stretched elastic. Underneath the bloomers she wears what I believe must be the standard Ginny undies, so she may have been a nude doll that was bought and dressed (which would explain the different year on the outfit). I believe Ginny's shoes are also original

This doll is the 1953 Wendy Bride #1852, shown on page 197 of Linda Crowsey's Collector's Encyclopedia of Madame Alexander Dolls 1948-1965 . According to the book, a mint version of this doll with bouquet and hat box books for $1,800.00 and up. Our doll does not have her bouquet or hat box, but she is definitely near-mint, and therefore an unbelievable deal at $275! Wendy Bride is 18 inches tall and a walker. Her dress is tagged. We have a lot of pictures of her, but as you'll see they are all worth waiting for! Wendy's face is lovely: nice painted brows and lashes, ruby lips, and delicate pink blush on her cheeks. Wendy's hair is also perfect, with the original pins and curls still in place, except for one tiny spot in the back where the curls droop just a touch — probably from being stored flat at some point. Wendy Bride has all of her original outfit, including her hard-to-find half slip with hoop! The hoop is bent from storage. I don't know if it could be s

This 1950s/1960s fashion doll is a 19-inch Horsman Cindy. She has a soft vinyl head with rooted hair, a hard vinyl body, a swivel waist, and jointed knees. Vivid coral face paint adorns her lips and cheeks, and painted lashes frame her clear blue-green eyes. Her hair is strawberry blond and very definitely out of its original style, but not quite as frizzy as most Cindy fashion dolls I see. This doll came to me naked, but she'll come to you with three different dresses, two pairs of shoes, one pair of nylons, and one pair of earrings. The earrings, nylons, shoes, and one of the dresses are all modern reproductions. The first dress is a beautiful aquamarine 1950s-style street dress that was made for me by a very talented local seamstress. It features a snug bodice and a full skirt supported by a separate half-slip in matching satin and tulle. There are also matching satin undies that tie on one side of her waist with a ribbon. I chose this color because it brings out the blue in her

I recently blogged about a Nancy Ann Style Show doll we are selling. Dash of Spice is made of painted hard plastic, a type of doll that seems to be rather susceptible to mold problems. Basically, a fine, almost powdery mold grows on the painted surface of the plastic — I'm assuming only on dolls that are stored in humid climates, as Colorado (where we live) is too dry for that type of thing. The mold can be cleaned off but tends to leave pale discolorations where it grew. My mom bought Dash of Spice fairly early in our years of collecting and acquiring dolls. We're not sure if we just didn't notice then, or if it has gotten worse over the years, but when we were getting ready to take her picture we noticed that she had a powdery-like white residue on her clothes. We stripped her, and found splotches of mold on her arms, chest, back, and legs. At the same time, I realized that the doll was filthy: She had a thin shadow of dirt over every bit of exposed plastic. I immediatel

This little beauty of my mom's is an 18-inch strung Nancy Ann Style Show doll. The outfit is called "Dash of Spice" and the doll dates to the early to mid 1950s. (I don't know the exact year — I'll have to look that one up!) We are asking $150 for her. Dash of Spice has absolutely beautiful face paint. Nancy Ann Style Show dolls had not only blush and painted eyelashes, but also smoky eye shadow. You can see her gorgeous face quite clearly in this picture. Her hair is also still tied back into the original chignon. Dash of Spice has all of her original costume except for her hoop, which would have been sewn into a half slip worn under her dress. The Nancy Ann Style Show dolls had voluminous skirts with great big hoops, which is why the dress is so long. A seamstress could probably make a new hoop slip for her. Also, the lace trim on her dress is rather torn. It would probably improve her appearance a great deal to carefully trim away the tattered lace, but I'l