Hello doll lovers!! Today I have a restoration of a vintage barbie. I got this girl with a few other dolls at an estate sale earlier this year. There have been a couple of restorations on dolls from that sale. I call them my estate sale sad doll lot because they were all in bad shape. They were not stored properly and were very dirty, smelly and well sad. This girl right here is my favorite restoration so far, I think she turned out so beautiful. Especially considering how she was found.
This is a vintage brunette bubble cut barbie, she is from 1962-1967 I could not pin point an exact date on her. She has the midge/barbie tagged body so those are lumped together and I do not think they changed anything about the doll in those years. She does have light lip paint and red polish on her fingers and toes. This girl was a sad sight, she was sticky, smelled like mildew and was filthy. She also had a little artist paint her face (don't you just love that.... of course I can not talk, my mom gave me her light brown (one of the most sought after bubble cuts, first addition 1961) when I was 5 to play with and guess what??? I pulled her head off 😨😨😨😨 and wrote all over her body. I could just die now.....) It's not the child's fault most of the time they think this is old I don't want it and that's that. Her clothes were homemade and sewn to her body and filthy. She also has the problem of her limbs being darker than her torso and face, that happens with time and how you store your dolls but there is nothing you can do about it now. Poor girl. I will say that they did lighten up a bit after being scrubbed clean but they are still darker than her torso.
So first thing first I cut her homemade clothes off. I washed her body with dish soap and a toothbrush, then I washed her with baking soda using a toothbrush. I repeated these steps twice, making sure I got under her arms and around her legs. I scrubbed her face best as I could but the blue "eye shadow" she had been given has leeched into her vinyl skin. I tried to research how to remove it but all the ways seemed to say if there was paint to avoid cause the paint would be removed and her face paint is very nice considering the circumstances she was found in. So I don't want to mess her up anymore. And really her hair covers her eye brows anyways so you can't see it that bad. Her mouth was covered in red paint and I am happy to say that all of that came off!! After her body wash I washed her hair a few times with dish soap. Then I put conditioner all over her head and let her set for about 30 min. I then combed through her hair and it turned out beautiful. I think it made it fluffier and prettier. Then I washed the conditioner out and let her dry. Of course like all vintage barbies her hair is still a bit dry but I think it turned out nicely. She does still have some spots on her legs but they are very faint, I think for being bad as she was that her flaws are small.
To finish out her restoration I found a barbie tagged helencia bathing suit in my stash of clothes (I don't have a lot of vintage clothes but I have a few from bags I have bought) I have for my doll restorations. Since she came in a red helencia suit I thought this black one would work out fine. I can remember buying this at an antique store with some vintage barbie shoes (I was going to sell them on ebay to make a profit, glad I didn't) for .50 a pair! I paired it with a pair of gold strap heels, these were also in my collection of shoes I have gotten over the couple years of restoring dolls. I love how she turned out and because I love her so much I am keeping this girl. I doubt a serious collector would want her with the blue eye staining anyways and I worked so hard on her. She is my favorite restoration so far. I haven't kept any of the dolls that I have restored but I think she is a great exception, don't you? Oh by the way, at that estate sale I only paid $1 for her but I was taking a chance cause I did not know if she would come clean or not and just look at how beautiful she is. So take that chance it may just work out for you!
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