Erndales N More: Baby Dear is done!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Baby Dear is done!

I took a bit of a break from posting here last week - it was a hectic week and I honestly couldn't find a spare moment to think of anything to post let alone settle down to actually write a post.

That busy week was followed by 4 days off from work, which really helped to rejuvenate me (somewhat)! I have had so much piling up for me to do at home that I just had to spend some of the 4 days getting some projects finished... and I did.

I spent the better part of Friday and Saturday working in the craft room, and I really got a lot accomplished for once.

I worked on the doll (baby Dear) that I am restoring for a friend. The doll needed a new body and there was a lot of work needed to clean her head.

This doll has a top knot hair style - meaning all the hair comes from a central spot on the top of the dolls head.

Over the years the hair clumped up and would not lie down on the head. At some point glue was used to try and get the hair to stay down, but all that really accomplished was adding glue to the scalp which later discoloured with age and dirt.

The glue was the most difficult thing to remove from her head. I used all kinds of things to try and get it off - repeated washings, and even so I was not able to remove it all, but what remains is no longer visible.

The hair had to be trained to stay down so after it was washed I encased the head in a plastic bag with holes punched all over the bag. I left the bag on for well over a week as the hair dried. And the end result was this.

Then it was make a new body

and put her all back together again.

I think she was praying that I knew what I was doing!

My friend had an outfit she wanted put on the doll - one that was worn by her grand daughter, so once she was all back together, I dressed her in her new clothes, and here she is...