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| Eight circa 1940s cloth dolls by Justyne Smith |
A few days ago, I resumed the restoration of more circa 1940s cloth dolls by Justyne Smith. In December 2023, I received eight dolls by Smith from doll artist Trish Williams. All needed restoration. I restored the first three in February 2024 a few weeks after Trish Williams transitioned.
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| The second set of Justyne Smith dolls was photographed before restoration began. |
I retrieved the second set of three dolls from the shed to begin their restoration. These three were in better condition than
the first three and required less work to restore.
First, I took several "before" pictures. To avoid fully wetting their bodies (a mistake I made with the others), I rubbed these three down from head to toe with disinfectant wipes. Some of the clothes were hand-washed, but these were wiped with disinfectant wipes first.
Individual Before Pictures
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| A 17-inch auburn-haired boy is illustrated from the front and back. |
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| A 25-inch redheaded girl is illustrated from the front and back. |
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| A 17-inch girl is illustrated from the front and back. |
I removed the clothing items that needed washing, sprayed each with stain remover, and soaked these overnight in hot water, liquid detergent, and Oyx-Clean.
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The boy's shirt and jacket were removed.
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| Hair nets held their restyled hair in place. |
Next, I finger-combed the yarn hair and braided or re-braided the girls' braids. Hair nets held the hair in place for over 48 hours.
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| Clean and ironed clothing |
After the washed clothes dried, I ironed each piece. I did not wash the dark plaid dress fearing the colors might bleed, but I ironed out the wrinkles as illustrated next.
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| I ironed the larger girl's dress. |
I needed but did not have beige ribbon for the smaller girl's braids. So, I tea stained white ribbon by soaking it for approximately an hour in a cup with hot coffee and a turmeric tea bag. The tea bag did most of the staining.
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| The formerly white ribbon stained nicely. |
After the ribbon was rinsed and dried, I cut and tied a piece around the ends of the smaller girl's braids. I used a piece of the same ribbon to replace the larger girl's original sewn-on ribbon headband and tied green string around the ends of her braids to match the trim of her pinafore.
With the dolls tidied and redressed, I took the next photos.
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| Shown in a full-length photo, this trio's restoration is complete. |
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| The trio is shown in a close-up photo after restoration. They look happier. |
Combined Before and After Photos
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| The restoration of the dolls circled in green is forthcoming. |
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I think my favorite of this bunch is the little boy. But I am mostly impressed with the difference between the yellowed clothes and the white they came out!
ReplyDeleteThe little boy is a cutie. I'm usually not in love with dolls with closed eyes, but he is an exception. I like him with his hair "all over his head, too." It's actually the style with some young boys.
DeleteThe hydrogen peroxide and water mix worked wonders on his white shirt. It can only be used on light or white clothes. It will remove the color from colored clothing. I made the mistake of adding it to a load of dark colored towels a few years ago which resulted in spotted burgundy towels.
How's your dad?
Eeks on the towels! Good thing towels don't have to look good. Dad is doing okay, this is his third radiation week and he did great yesterday but today was unable to lay down flat without feeling like he couldn't breathe. They think the stoma in his throat is swollen. So he got a day off we did not intend. It was frustrating because I want this to be over and its 30 days, whether that means adding more on to end or not. It doesn't help that its over 100! Then again, I do live in the low desert. lol
DeleteI have a thing about closed eye dolls too, but he just has personality. Which they usually don't!
I was disappointed about the towels because I do want my towels to look good.
DeleteI'm glad to hear your dad is doing okay. I hope his breathing normalizes and that the treatment works.
It's super hot here, too. Looking forward to cooler temperatures, and I know you are, too.
I think all eight dolls have their own personality, and the more I thought about your visualization of children playing with them, I agree that the artist might have made them for her children and kept them after the children aged past doll-playing years. But since they were passed on to her nephew, she might have been childless and made the dolls as items to enjoy herself. I wish I knew more about the artist and the dolls' complete story. I'm so glad she sewed her name label on the bodies of most.
I didn't mean you would be happy the towels were messed up, just that its better than clothes you wear all the time. Dad was able to successfully do his treatment on Wednesday, so that's good. Honestly, the dolls look like children just gone done playing with them and left them laying around. They don't look like they have just been stored. I love all of them, I just am amazed by the character of the closed eye dolls that usually look rather flat.
DeleteOkay, thanks for clarifying what you meant about the towels. I'm glad to hear your dad's Wednesday treatment went well.
DeleteBased on the first picture I received from the artist who gave me the eight cloth dolls I believe they had been in her storage before she took the picture she sent me to ask if I wanted them. Now the original artist, Justyne Smith, might not have stored them. I imagine that they were given to her nephew either before she transitioned or after. Whether or not he stored them at some point or not, I will never know. What I do know is now six of the eight are restored and "free." Two more are currently in my storage shed waiting for me to free and restore them.