The Six New Girls Move In and Another Bag of Doll Parts Arrives

The new girls have dresses but their hair hasn't been done and they don't have names.

The pink dress, the flowered dress, and the green gingham dress were made from a wrapper type dress pattern but then I realized I need to take some kind of tuck in the back because from the side they look hunchbacked.

"Jeff, you are very nice doggy."

The girls check out the house.

"This is the girls' room," says Dorinda. "We're supposed to get a bed but I'm beginning to have my doubts."

The bathroom will be lovely when it's finished.

The dressing table will be lovely when it's painted and the mirror is mounted.

"We just got this nice tablecloth," said Flora.

This morning I got a call from Mrs. Smith. She had been to Salvation Army and found a bag of doll parts. It was $7.99 and she thought that was rather a high price. I assured her it wasn't. She said she would go back and get it. I hoped she didn't need to be reimbursed right away. Just then two acquaintances (we will call them Gino and Tina) came by. They are semi-homeless people and are friends of my HLP more than mine. They were having bicycle problems and wanted HLP's assistance, but he wasn't there but another acquaintance came by and offered her help. Meanwhile, Tina pulled out two dolls and gave them to me (she's always trying to get chummy with me and I'd really rather she'd not). One was a really ugly little girl doll and one was a bigger porcelain soft bodied doll dressed in a cowgirl outfit. I knew Mrs. Smith would like them and sure enough, she did. We traded dolls and all was well.

So here are the new doll parts.

Because Mrs. Smith had joined the Sally Club at Salvation Army, she got 20% off the $7.99.

It looks like we have eight bodies, four with heads attached, two separate heads, three sets of arms. So we'll have extra bodies again.

The doll on the left is a Story Book Doll from the 50s. She is different from the others because her legs are movable. Unfortunately she is missing an arm and the extra arms I have are too big. We may have to conceal her missing arm with clothing. The blonde doll on the right has Lingerie Lou stamped on her back. I had never heard of her but apparently they were common in the 1950s.

This blonde doll's head was glued to her neck, but when I loosened it, it was attached with a rubber band so I don't know why someone glued it. Her eyes won't open but I haven't experimented too much with them. Maybe we can just paint eyeballs on the closed lids. The red mark on her stomach looks like plastic but I haven't been able to peel it off.

Dr. Frankenstein Gets To Work or Restringing the Hard Plastic Dolls

We have six new girls for Wayfarers Inn (after I get them dressed). They are all very happy with their new bodies.

I had already restrung three of them when it occurred to me I should be documenting this.

First you run the doll-stringing elastic through one armhole and out through the neck.

Now poke it up into the doll's head. There is a little plastic bar that runs from her nose/mouth area to the back of her head. The tricky part is to get the elastic over the bar and back out her neck.

I used extra long tweezers. There is a great deal of poking around and trying to grab the end of the elastic. I had a small crochet hook that helps, but I seem to have misplaced it. However, I finally got hold of the elastic and pulled it through.

Now poke the end of the elastic back into the neck hole and out the opposite armhole.

Tie a knot or a double knot in one end of the elastic.

Slide the hook of the arm over the elastic. Be sure you get the left arm on the left side. These girls have enough problems with mismatched body parts.

You can trim the end of the elastic if you want. Poke it all inside her armhole.

Now tie a knot as close to the other armhole as possible, stretching the elastic. Hook the other arm above the knot and pop the arm into place.

Voila! Dolly is a whole new person now.

The newer dolls are amazed. They are glad they will never have to endure such an operation.

Now they just need clothes and they'll be ready to move into Wayfarers Inn.



New Dolls Coming Soon

Actually, all their body parts are here. Auntie Berman and I went to the Easter Seals Thrift Shop and the first thing I spotted in the toy section was this:

88 cents for the whole bag! I would have been willing to spend $5 on it. Maybe $10. I was so thrilled. I wasn't sure if there were enough arms for everybody, but I knew I would at least get a couple of whole dolls out of it.

Later I sorted through things.

Seven bodies, five heads (the one on the far right is a head I already had) and six and a half sets of arms. I need to see if the arms are all left/right sets, but even if someone has to have two left arms I will try to make it unnoticeable. There were several heavy rubber bands in the bag, like someone had tried to use them to repair the dolls. I have doll-stringing elastic and will fix them up beautifully.

Three of the bodies are vinyl from the 60s. One is a PMA (Plastic Molded Arts) body from the 40s or 50s. The blonde on the right has Edward's head and face, before he had his operation.  She has a Duchess body, probably from the 40s. Two bodies are unmarked hard plastic.

I know I have neglected Wayfarers Inn dreadfully, because I had (and have) a bad case of Barbie Fever, but this find inspires me to get to work on them again.