Doll Restoration & Upcycling
I'm a proud toy nerd, especially when it comes to dolls! Over the past 8 years, I've dedicated much of my free time to the restoration of vintage dolls, which allows me to exercise my style and design skills while also protecting the environment from plastic waste. Because 12-inch fashion dolls are often comprised of many different kinds of plastic, they can't easily be recycled like other plastic items. Below I have documented one of my many restoration projects.
I acquired this doll from a local thrift store for $2.99, and she was in a rather well-loved condition. Her Kanekalon hair (a synthetic hair used for dolls) was matted, her face was dirty and her legs were marked with who knows what.
After a good cleaning and some steam to relax/detangle the hair, she was in a much better state. I put a vintage Barbie outfit together for her and she was looking practically brand new:
Once I complete a restoration like this one, I'm able to sell the doll to continue funding my work (I always make a small profit as well after subtracting my cost!) I've calculated that over the past 8 years of working on this project, I've restored 700+ dolls and kept at least 317 pounds of plastic from polluting our environment.
Before & After
Other Works:
These dolls are some of my other recent projects. I completely rerooted all of them by hand with 10mm curly nylon and styled them for these photos:
Thank you for reading about my passion!