Sticky-Arm Skye

The Etsy shop is now open!  Thank you to everyone who has stopped by so far.  Ashley and Katie have already left for their new home!  I will miss their happy faces.

The doll I'm going to show you today was purchased before I started this blog, but I had another generous seller who was willing to let me share several full-sized "before" photographs from her shop.  I'm very grateful!

This is a beautiful pale-complexioned doll from 1997 with the Rosemary/Caitlin face (I can't tell which is which):

Used My Twinn Rosemary/Caitlin from 1997, photo courtesy of suburbantreasue on Etsy.

Stain Calamity Kate

This is the last doll that I'll show you before I open the Etsy shop.  This is also the last doll for whom I don't have decent before pictures.

This is a Denver-era Kate or "Kissy Kate" who lingered on eBay for ages before I finally bought her.  She was dressed in baby clothes first, and then the seller re-dressed her into a My Twinn outfit that I'd been wanting to buy, so I finally caved.

Denver Kates are usually like magnets to me, but I had a hard time getting excited about this doll.  First of all, she was covered with stains from her old clothing, and someone had put big black "x" marks on her ears where earrings should be.  I don't really enjoy wrestling with stains, and the results are seldom perfect.  Kate was also a fairly unremarkable doll overall.  She had brown eyes, brown hair, and the medium, slightly yellow skin tone that most My Twinn dolls have.  There was nothing to make her stand out...except that adorable Kate face, which is one of my absolute favorites.

As soon as Kate arrived at my house, I removed her scraggly brown wig, popped out her faded brown eyes, and coated her with RemoveZit to try and lessen the stains on her vinyl.  The first picture I took of Kate was after I'd been working on her for quite a while.  This is after a long round of stain removal treatments and the placement of new Secrist dark blue eyes:

Denver-era Kate in the middle of her restoration.

The Walking Red

I'm still presenting dolls that I've been working on for longer than I've had the blog idea, but the first pictures I took of this Denver Catherine nicely capture the creepy, zombie-like appearance that she had in her auction photos:

2002 My Twinn Catherine with eyes removed.

Jane Fonda Jenny

This Denver-era doll has the "Caitie" face mold and is another doll who I was working on before I started the blog, so I don't have a great picture log of her transformation.

I found her on eBay, and was very fortunate that the seller agreed to let me post one of her big auction photos at the top of this post.  This will have to serve as the "before" picture:

My Twinn Caitie.  Photo courtesy of RosesMadeofAshes on eBay.

The Fabulous Emma Twinns

These two cuties were both fixed up long before I had the idea to start a shop or a blog, so this (sadly) will be another post where I don't have any great before and after comparisons.

As much as I love a big reveal at the end of a restoration project, I'll have to forego that and just show you the finished Emma twins right away.

Meet Emma (left) and Tara (right):

Fixed-up My Twinn Emma dolls: Emma (left) and Tara (right).

Road Kill Monika

For my first post, I'll share a doll who is not actually for sale.  I love her, but she has way too many imperfections to make me comfortable selling her.  She's a good reminder that none of the dolls I restore end up perfect--these are old dolls and they carry with them the wear and tear of decades.

This Denika made a brief appearance over on The Toy Box Philosopher, but I never offered any follow-up.  She's become a bit of a mascot for this new site.

The poor thing arrived with a thinning wig, a moldy dress, missing eyelashes, no eyebrows...and a body that looked like it had been slashed to bits and dragged behind a car.  No joke.  But the Denika face mold--oh, man!  It tugs at my heart:

Denika when she first arrived.