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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Giving Dolly a Bath!

I don't know if this post will necessarily be helpful to anyone, but I thought it might be fun to show you what I did this week. Recently while going through the attic looking for winter clothes, etc., we found my box of stuff that I was saving in case I had a daughter one day (and now I do!) ... Here are some of my dollies; most of which are homemade/sewn except for this Cabbage Patch Doll. I remember thinking when I was given the doll, "Why did she give me a doll with red hair? I have brown hair! She looks nothing like me!" And I was kinda disappointed... who knew that one day I would have my own little red-head to give this dolly to! Now I think it's really neat that I can pass her on to my sweet girlie. Problem. She looked like she had been playing in dirt for the past 25+ years and I wouldn't want her anywhere near my kiddos until she had a bath! This brought me to research what to do when baby dolls need a washing... I discovered that all you need are a few supplies and you can get your dolls looking almost new again! Items Used: Oxiclean, Warm Water, Baby Shampoo, Magic Eraser, Comb and a Washing Machine with a Delicate/Gentle Cycle setting.

Any doll with a polyester body (stuffed with fluff, basically) can be soaked in some warm water with a detergent or stain releaser (like Oxiclean), just keep the head out of the water. You can also run handmade/sewn dolls and their clothing through the gentle/delicate cycle on your washing machine. Once my CB Doll (and the other ones that were stuffed) soaked for awhile, I just lifted them out, squeezed out the water and set them in the sun to dry. Any baby doll with hair can get a wash with baby shampoo and be combed through carefully while the hair is wet. This was really helpful information because my dolls all had hair sticking in all different directions and while wet, I was able to tame the tangles and the hair dried nicely in place! I didn't comb the yarn hair, but I was able to tame it with just my fingers. Dolls with a vinyl face (and/or body parts) come totally clean of marks and stains using the Magic Eraser!!! Check out the comparison below in the collage picture! Even accessories like shoes and shoelaces can be wiped or soaked and come clean of stains. This was really important to me because these little sneakers were pretty bad and I was so happy to make them white again! Now the dollies are all sitting pretty in their basket, waiting for someone to play with them!!!


Do you need to give some dollies of your own a bath? Now you know you can!

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