Elizabeth Cole - 1775... Yes, again -- but I can explain!

I know what you're thinking... "Another Elizabeth?! How many do you need?!"

Just one more, I promise! Let me explain...

AGIG is filled with beautiful photos of dolls in different outdoor locations. Some are out in nature, posing near flowers or perching in trees, and some are tagging along for an outing somewhere scenic, like a historical building or an interesting spot. People bring their dolls for meet ups or just the fun of it. There have been so many times I've seen these creative photos and wished I could do the same.

The problem is, I am VERY protective of my dolls. As I mentioned in the doll restringing post, one of my biggest fears is messing up a doll. Part of that comes from accidentally botching my mini me's lip paint so badly I had to send her in for a new head, and part of that comes from having things become damaged from situations beyond my control, like when the heat from my old apartment (with no air conditioning and little insulation) damaged my Magic Attic Megan doll.

When I got April, my Just Like You #7, I actually thought she might be the first doll that I'd feel safe enough bringing outside. Her head still has shine marks and a pink spot I couldn't remove completely, and even though her body is from one of my former dolls, I think it has some wear from age and use. But I spent so much time restoring her (her hair alone took days), I don't think I want to take her outside either.

Clothing is another problem. Many of my doll clothes were gifts, most of them are retired pieces, and some of them are items I've spent a lot of time sewing. If any of those got dirty or damaged somehow, I'd feel terrible.

So, if everything is just too precious to bring outside, I needed something that wasn't -- something that I didn't spend that much on, that wasn't in perfect condition to begin with, and that was bought specifically for the purpose of taking doll photos outdoors (and not just the quick photos I've taken of Lizzie or Valletta in their ren fair outfits). That's where Elizabeth #5, a.k.a. "Adventure Lizzie," comes in.

I stumbled across her on eBay and couldn't help but take a look. Whenever I find a pre-loved Elizabeth, I'm always curious to see if she has her pin curls or not -- and really just the general state of her hair. When I saw this one, I could make out a tiny bit of one of her pin curls, and overall, I could tell that her hair strands were in surprisingly good shape (much better than Just Like You #7's had been). She definitely looked dirty, but I didn't see any ink marks or anything I wouldn't be able to clean. And best of all, she was very reasonably priced!

That's when I realized that she would be a good candidate for a doll I could travel with and take on photo adventures outdoors. She was one I already had, she wasn't in the best condition to begin with, and she would be a good way to really test my restoration skills. My husband ended up getting her for me as an anniversary present (13 years married!), and while he waited eagerly for his present from me to arrive (Final Fantasy Magic the Gathering cards), I was checking the tracking nonstop, waiting for my newest Elizabeth.

"Adventure Lizzie's" first adventure is getting clean!

The Arrival

As soon as I opened Elizabeth's packing box, I was met with a thick, perfume-y smell. My mind immediately went to, "Is this cigarette or cigar smell?! How do you get rid of that again?! Maybe I should've asked about smells before buying her!" But on second sniff, and with a second opinion from my husband, we came to the conclusion that it was more like some kind of strong perfume. I'm not sure if it was something like room spray or someone overusing perfume or just a mix of scents from random stuff the seller had accumulated (they seem to sell a lot of old perfumes and colognes). Whatever it was, it was so strong, I had a moment where I wondered if I was in over my head already and should just give up. But I'd seen and read so many restoration videos and tutorials that I knew there were ways to fix practically anything. And I knew that worst case, I could always send her to the Care Center for help.

Assessment and Cleaning

The first order of business was assessing what needed to be done. Her hair was slightly matted and very dry. One pin curl looked to have been cut off close to the scalp while the other had been brushed into her wig. Her hair had been combed backward, completely obscuring her middle part, and was tied in a low ponytail.

Her body was pretty dirty and she had shine marks and scratches all over. There was a weird crusty, yellow stain and a water line mark near her right armpit. And then there was the smell, which seemed to have permeated her limbs.

Her mismatched outfit -- the shirt from an old birthday outfit and Nicki Fleming (Girl of the Year 2007)'s meet skirt -- was filthy and not really worth the trouble of restoring. But on the plus side, her hair fiber was in really good shape, especially considering her condition, her eyes were even and functioned well, and her face paint was perfect.

Step one of her restoration was getting rid of that smell. I removed Elizabeth's head and set it aside, then I carefully removed all of her stuffing and sealed it tightly in a Ziploc bag. Next, I set to work cleaning her limbs, torso, face, and hair.

Scenes from a Doll Restoration

Torso: I hadn't seen any marks on Elizabeth's torso in the listing photos, so I was a little surprised and pretty grossed out to find the crusty yellow mark and water stain near her right armpit. I started by treating the spot with laundry stain remover, then scrubbing the entire torso with Dawn dish soap. Next, I let the torso soak in Lysol laundry sanitizer for 15 minutes (with 1 more minute for good luck lol), and washed it thoroughly again with Dawn. After making sure it was rinsed well, I let it completely air dry. The yellow stain is still slightly visible even after all of that, but at least I know it's no longer germy.

NOTE: If you plan on using a sanitizer on your doll's torso, do it without the limbs attached. You never know how the chemicals in the sanitizer will interact with the metal ferrules and you also want to be able to thoroughly rinse anything that comes in contact with the sanitizer.

I love the fact that these older doll's torsos have shoulder tags that let you know when they were manufactured. According to this doll's tag, she was made in September of 2005, which is kind of fitting since I met my husband back in July of 2005! If you've never come across one of these tags before, the top numbers stand for the years 2000 to 2009 and the A through L stand for the months of the year. The punched "5" means 2005 and "I" is the 9th letter of the alphabet, which stands for the 9th month of the year, September.

Limbs: This Elizabeth's limbs were so dirty. I got some of the mystery crud (maybe old food?) off using a Clorox wipe, then I cleaned any residue off with Dawn dish soap. Next, I used micromesh and a magic eraser to try to minimize some of the bigger scratches and scuff marks. I could still smell faint traces of that strong perfume, so I tried to use a mixture of Dawn, vinegar, and water to get rid of the smell. After scrubbing with that, I did one more round of dish soap and then rinsed the limbs really well. I'm pretty sure the smell is finally gone! I'm not entirely sure if it was all the cleaning or it just finally aired out, but either way, she no longer smells like old perfume!

Face: Her face was in really good condition to begin with, so I just cleaned her skin and very carefully wiped her eyes and eyelashes. I did add some glue to preemptively stabilize her eyelashes. After my display Elizabeth almost lost her eyelashes, I've been nervous about any other PC head doll's lashes retracting.

I decided to darken Elizabeth's lips and give them a semi-gloss top coat. Since this Lizzie is going to be out in the sun, I thought it would help to give her a little more color. I really love how her lips turned out! I've learned to go really slowly when it comes to darkening them. I think I've done five lip repaints since the incident with my mini me, and they've all been successful. I hope it stays that way!

Hair: I began by combing out her hair with an old AG brush -- one I reserve for unwashed used doll hair. I worked from the bottom of her hair, up and took my time loosening bits that were really tangled or matted. Next, I did a cursory clean with dish soap -- trying get the hair clean without adding more tangles. I combed out her hair again, then did another pass with dish soap. I did this to help remove the perfume smell from her hair. Once her hair was clean, I switched to an OG brush, which is nicer and easier to use than the AG brushes (not to mention cheaper!), and continued smoothing and detangling her hair. After that, I ran her hair under super hot water (as hot as my sink would go) and used the sprayer to make sure all of the soap was gone and to help relax the hair fiber.

The hair was already feeling a lot better and fairly easy to comb through, but it was still dry. I combed through it one more time, then worked conditioner into the bottom half of her hair and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then I rinsed her hair over and over and over, until I was sure I'd gotten all of the product out. The hair was finally nice and soft!

The final step was recreating her pin curls. I separated out as much of the original pin curls as I could find and then tried to match the amount of hair on the other side. I wet the hair, carefully rolled it into curlers and then used my electric kettle to pour very hot water (about 160 degrees F) over the curlers. Then I let her hair completely air dry before removing the curlers and trimming the pin curls. I went back and redid them a couple times until I was happy with them, and later on, even added a little bit of watered down gel to help them retain their shape. One ended up a little springier than the other, but I like that they're not exactly the same.

Restringing and Re-stuffing

After restringing Kanani and Cécile, Elizabeth felt like a breeze! Like I've mentioned before, it's a scary process at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad! I really do recommend it over the "hair tie method" if you can get the supplies.

Then it was on to re-stuffing. This is always a time consuming and somewhat difficult process. American Girl dolls have a TON of stuffing, and the biggest hurdle is making sure you put enough stuffing at the base of the torso, so that by the time you're at the top, you don't have the majority of the stuffing left and have to figure out how to get it all to fit correctly.

With Kanani and Cécile, the process was a little easier, because I was able to use their original stuffing. But in this Elizabeth's case, I didn't trust her perfume-y original stuffing and didn't want to try to clean it when I could more easily use some Poly-fil I've had sitting around forever. If you do decide to use brand new stuffing, just know that it's going to be a bit of a guess and check situation. I put as much stuffing in as I possibly could, and went back later and removed a little, because it was making her chest push out a little weirdly. She had a bunch of stuffing going into her head, so that was also a good indicator that I'd added a little too much.

I mostly used a chopstick to push the stuffing into the more difficult areas (around the legs and arms), and to help make sure the stuffing was compacted at the base. Toward the end of the process, I used my fingers to push in as much stuffing as possible. Then I replaced her head and checked my work. I think it took me three tries to get Elizabeth looking the way I wanted.

Elizabeth after being reconstructed and her new "meet" outfit air drying.

The final step was deciding if I needed to make any adjustments. I redid her pin curls, fixed one spot on her lip gloss, and tried to get rid of a couple more stubborn shine marks.

Then Elizabeth needed just one more thing -- clothes! I'd ordered a "Vacation Outfit" from eBay, and as soon as it arrived, I went to work removing its weird areas of dirt, fully cleaning and sanitizing it, and making sure the jeans wouldn't bleed dye onto my freshly-cleaned doll.

At this point, if you've read all this and are thinking, "Geez, you must really be a germaphobe the way you have to sanitize everything..." Yes! I am! But, a lot of that comes from having worked with younger kids as an academic coach, student teacher and substitute teacher. There's been barf, there's been poop, there's been dirt, and there have been lots of germs. As careful as I was, when I started student teaching, I got crazy sick for a couple of weeks. And then, my immune system temporarily became iron clad! The point is, knowing how germy some kids can be, I'd rather err on the side of caution and make sure the things that enter my house are super clean. If something's going to get dirty, I want to be the one that gets it dirty!

Finishing Touches

I tried a few different hairstyles with Adventure Lizzie, but ultimately decided that I liked her signature look best. I twisted the sides of her hair and secured them with clear rubber bands to help her hair retain its shape even with lots of handling. I added a spare Rapunzel flower clip to her hair, too, and I love the look!

Adventure Lizzie steps out into nature!

To aid in my photo adventures, I got a sturdy canvas bag that will allow me to bring Lizzie to other locations without drawing too much attention to her. I'd love to say that IDGAF what people think of a woman taking photos of a doll, but I'm still self-conscious. I've had people assume that I collect dolls because I "yearn for children," but I personally collect American Girl dolls because I've always loved fashion dolls and I've always loved the look of American Girl dolls in particular. They're much easier to style and sew for than a smaller scale doll, like Barbie, and I love how detailed and realistic their accessories can be. Just because I played with dolls as a kid doesn't mean I'm still using them the same way as an adult. They're a displayable artistic outlet. The ones that I've fixed up, like this Elizabeth, make me feel particularly accomplished. I've kept a dirty doll from being passed up and dumped in a landfill, and I've given something a second lease on life and added my own custom touches in the process. Doll collecting is kind of great for your mental health! Maybe someday the rest of the world will catch on. Until then, a bag helps lol.

Ready for the next adventure!

I'm super happy with how Adventure Lizzie turned out! I've always wanted to try completely restoring a doll, and now I can say that I have! She looks almost as good as a display-only doll IMHO, and you can't really see her scratches or shine marks. I'm looking forward to bringing her with me somewhere really fun or scenic and getting some good shots. I might sew her some easy-to-make and easy-to-clean stuff, too.

So now I have three Elizabeth's -- Lizzie, (Display) Elizabeth, and (Adventure) Lizzie -- and an Ariel made from an Elizabeth. It's a nice collection of Lizzie's to have. :)

Welcome, (Adventure) Lizzie!

#ElizabethCole