Rhett Butler Moves In

I had noticed Rhett Butler/Clark Gable standing on the Girls' Toys shelf at work for a couple of days and finally investigated. He was 8 inches tall and made of a hard plastic with painted-on clothes.

I thought he was probably too tall for the little dolls, but decided I'd try him out. Although he is taller than everybody, I don't think he's out of place.

Rhett meets Jeff in the library.

He seems even more normal in the dining room.

Goldie and Geoffrey wish Rhett would not look over their shoulders.

Meanwhile, Tiffany the mini Liv doll came for a brief visit to Wayfarers Inn.

"Oh my! I feel very small here."

"They're all looking down at me!"

"I don't want to be one of the children!"

It's amazing what a difference an inch and a half makes. Tiffany decided to go back and live with the Graysons. DollyFever

"This family is weird, but I like it much better here than at Wayfarers Inn."

The Bag of New Girls and Eye Transplants

I finally got around to putting together the bag of doll parts that Mrs. Smith got for me. I was able to make five complete dolls. The little Storybook doll needs an arm and she is not put together the same as the rest, so I am saving her for another day.

Luckily we had found some clothes while thrifting.

I made the dresses for the two left-hand girls. The one in blue has part of a hat glued to her hair, which she will have to keep on until they all go to the Bunch O Hair Salon. The middle one originally had a huge ruffle around the bottom of her skirt but it looks much nicer without it. The colorful outfit of Girl #4 involves a small bathing suit, a midriff top, and a skirt. Girl #5 is wearing what appears to be pajama pants and a slightly too big top.

I thought one of the girls had her eyes stuck closed and tried to loosen them with a crochet hook, but then we decided someone had maybe painted over her eyes. It's hard to tell.

Sort of like Little Orphan Annie with blunked-out eyeballs

I wanted Auntie Berman to paint in eyes, but she refused. One of us got the bright idea of an eye transplant. But who would be the donor?  I remembered that I have a few extra Barbie heads.

"I like her eyes!"

It would bother me to take an Xacto knife to an innocent doll's head, but it didn't faze Auntie Berman a bit. (You may recall she once scalped a small doll in a failed experiment involving hair.)

The donor looks at her eye.

With the aid of a hot glue gun, the operation was quickly completed.

Don't look too closely.

It does look like she has bags under her eyes, but we prefer to think she's wearing goggles of some sort and it gives her a steampunk look. Anyway, she is very happy to see again. (The discarded Barbie head was given to a very happy dog for his amusement.)

Next, the new girls went to Wayfarers Inn.

"Lovely kitchen!"

Alice and Reginald show the new girl the dining room.

"What a beautiful bathtub!"

More New Dolls and a Bathtub

I have neglected Wayfarers Inn because of my bad case of Barbie Fever, but today we went thrifting and at Salvation Army Warehouse we found four little dolls. One was loose and three were in a bag that Salvation Army had originally tried to sell for $29.99. We asked the manager (we'll call him Pedro) how much and he said "Let's see, how much is a third of that?" "Ten dollars," we said sadly and started to turn away. "Okay," he said. "How about $7 for all four of them?" We accepted that gratefully. We like Pedro and he is always very generous. We found a few more things and moved on.

First up is the black doll, not quite a Carmen Miranda but I think we can Carmen Mirandize her:

Alas, she does NOT photograph well

She does not really have fangs but every picture I took of her made her look like she has them. Lola Gladiolus and Glorious Dolorious are not quite sure what to think of her. I am sure that once she's dressed like they are they will all get along fine. Her name is Lena Argentina.

An exciting find at Goodwill Bargain Bin was a bathtub!

Flora, Goldie, Sally, and Bonnie think the bathtub is wonderful.

It was a candle and still has wax in it, but that makes it look like it really has bathwater in it. Kind of dirty bathwater but that makes it more realistic.

The girls argue over who gets the first bath.

One of the new dolls turned out to be: MRS. CONSTANTINOPLE!

"Darling! I thought you went down on the Athena and I would never see you again."
"I was rescued by a fishing boat and spent six months in the Azores." 

Everyone is thrilled for the reunited couple and refreshments are served.

"I just love happy endings," Lily whispers to Starla.

The other new girls meet in the music room.

"My, what outlandish clothes," Cassie whispers to Georgia.

The Dutch girl on the left is new from a couple of weeks ago. I got her at work. The one in the striped dress on the right I also got at work and then discovered she is missing her right arm, but maybe I will find a spare.

"A piano and guitars and a victrola! I like this place."

So the other two new ones we got today are the girl with the red vest and lace apron and the one in the gold dress. I'm not sure what countries these girls are supposed to represent (other than the Dutch girl), but they are very colorful and I don't think I'll remove their clothes.

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.