Restoration Time..... Vintage 1968 Talking Barbie

     Hello doll lovers!! Remember that sad estate sale doll lot I was working on in November of last year? Well this girl is one of the last from that lot. As you can see I saved the "best" for last when it came to these dolls. As I stated in those restoration posts I paid $1 a piece for these dolls. Of course taking a chance, especially on this girl she was taped together and her head had been broken off. 

     First step was to clean this girl up, I washed her body and hair 3 times (steps for that will be at the bottom of the post). Her legs and arms were so dirty I had to use a magic eraser on them to get them clean, I included photos of how dirty they were compared to the clean ones (it was gross). The tape residue came of pretty easily with soap and water, did have to magic erase a little but I thought it was going to be really hard to get off. Her face did have a little bit of marker on the eye brow but it is not noticeable now. Her hair was nice it just needed cleaning. 

     I do not have her original outfit, the outfit she came in was made out of paper and tape so I put her in an older outfit I had. Think it looks really cute on her, I did her hair like it was originally done in the 60s. I didn't have any little ribbon so I just used the rubber hair ties. Unfortuntely I could not fix her leg knobs so her legs could pop back on, that meant the only way I could get her legs to stay on was to super glue them. I hated doing it but that was the only way she could be fixed so now she can not move her legs. Her neck piece was broken as well so it was super glued too. Over all I think she is really pretty am I sad her legs did not get fixed back, yes. But atleast she is clean and back in one piece, I am sure she is happier now. 

(If you are wondering how I clean my dolls I use dish soap first then do a wash with some baking soda, I use a tooth brush for both of these steps. I clean their hair with dish soap too and use conditioner that I let set for about 10 min then comb through. For really damaged hair I use a boil wash, which is just some boiling water and you dunk their hair in or can let them set for a bit. All of my cleaning tips came from a YouTube channel called "a thousand splendid dolls" I love their channel and she has so many helpful tutorials. This is how I clean all the dolls and ponies I do restorations on.)