Last week of our farm share for the season, and a little lady visits.

On Tuesday my last week of farm share was delivered. I share it with neighbors and they are kind enough to sort and deliver to me. This week my neighbor also brought over this little lady in hopes I could fix her up. Her grandma had made the doll for her sister 30+ years ago and she'd been left at the family home with a lot of other childhood toys. The sister asked for this doll specifically out of everything and my neighbor thought she would have said no if she'd seen her in the condition she was in. I was happy to fix her up, she's a charming doll.

This is how she came to me. The long strand of yarn hair gave me hope that I could restore her with what was left of her original hair. I think it is some kind of mohair, definitely worth saving.

The hair was very tangled, but as luck would have it the big tangle was one long piece! Perfect for cutting lengths for a wig. It took me a couple of hours to carefully untangle, so SO worth it. I like to keep things original whenever possible. I undid the braided section that was safety pinned onto her head and separated and divided everything into 2 even sets for ponytails.

I reserved one section for making a base for the wig. I crocheted a long chain and pinned and hand stitched it into place on her head.

Then I put the lengths of hair into the base to make her wig. There was *just* enough to give her adequate coverage. I would have preferred a little more hair, but she was able to keep her original hair and that's pretty good! She's feeling quite a bit better by now! She had a bath too.

Here she is all finished! I cleaned her nightgown, it had yellowed a lot with age. I also removed the bottom ruffle and hemmed both edges neatly after removing a rust stained section. I hand ruffled it back on and anchored the snaps on the back closures. She was a very fun project!

 

Thanks for looking!