Cleaning and protection of dolls

your doll Clothing

I have to be honest here: cleaning fabric is a very scary subject, too simple and too complicated at the same time. It’s even more complicated because old and/or collectible doll clothes are shaped the way they are (full and fluffy), because the fabric is starched to the max. The starch is water soluble. Learn about conservation and let common sense be your guide. But here are some useful tools and techniques:

SOFT BRUSH

But not too smooth. Think of this as a little whiskey broom for your dolls. A variety of cheap but NEW brushes will do. Different sizes and if they are not stiff enough, use strong scissors to trim and shorten the bristles a bit.

COMPRESSED GAS

The kind that comes in a can with a long tube/spout and works great for removing potato chip crumbs from the keyboard. It also works on doll clothes. It may be all you need to freshen up a doll’s clothes.

VACUUM CLEANER (type with hose)

Kind of like compressed air, just going the other way. To make it really fancy, delicate fabrics and all, make yourself a frame and staple nylon mesh around it. This will involve a trip into hardware history and some woodworking, but it can’t be helped. If making a frame is out of your hands, get a small piece of metal mesh and fold a few layers of duct tape around the edge. It would be a shame to have neglected this step and ruined something all nice and glossy by catching it on a jagged metal edge of the screen. If it has skin, and all the best collectors do, duct tape will also make it easier to keep the blood inside the skin because these ends are always sharp. Vacuum through this and the buttons and ties will stay on whatever you’re cleaning.

SUDS, warm soapy water

Look carefully at what I have written, not the water, but the SUDS*. Make yourself a sink full of foam, apply it to the dirty parts of the fabric, and apply it with one of your brushes. Vacuum everything again.

MOLD:

Get rid of it by soaking the stain in lemon juice and salt, let it dry in the sun (mold hates the sun). Use your brush and vacuum to remove what’s left. If this doesn’t work, try hydrogen peroxide plus sun, but expect some fading.

your doll Hatred

Dandruff shampoo won’t do it. Being as it is at the top, dust is likely to settle in your dolls hair. A toothbrush will remove the dust and what the heck! Try a new hairstyle! To do more than this, you better know exactly what you’re doing.

your doll “Skin”

In general, distilled water and cotton swabs won’t harm anything, unless the doll is celluloid. (See below). If this doesn’t work, add a small splash of detergent (shampoo). Beyond this, you run the risk of cleaning more than just dirt. Go slowly, but try, in aggressive solvency order…

1. Alcohol. If you don’t have shellac thinner on hand, use vodka instead. (Seriously, liquor is little more than a mix of alcohol and water.)
2. Paint thinner. Or tag remover, same thing but smells like lemons.
3. Lacquer thinner. Only in enameled porcelain and with VERY care with the painted parts.

*Chris from Bearly Believable Gifts offers this for cleaning stuffed toys (Teddy Bears) and it will work for doll clothes too.

I put a stream in the sink and then fill it with warm water. I only use SUDS, not the water itself, and thoroughly rub the foam into the fur with my hands. You don’t want to get the fur wet, just lather. You can test most fabrics in a small place, but I haven’t had any problems yet. When dry, I use a 1-2″ paint brush to “bush” the bear’s fur. Very simple, and this technique also removes most of the airborne oil that sticks to the fur.

Chris also suggests that staying in the freezer will kill allergic dust mites. Finally, he advises against having stuffed animals in the kitchen where they absorb cooking oil and odors. Clever lady!

A BIG RED LETTER WARNING!!!

Vintage plastic (celluloid)

Very old dolls were made of celluloid. Interesting celluloid material, but not at all pleasant. It was invented in 1856 and was the first plastic to hit the market, largely as a replacement for ivory. It pretty much went out of style in the 1950s. The only place you find it today is on ping-pong balls. The interesting thing is that it begins its life as cotton waste that is processed to become celluloid, cellulose lacquer or guncotton. Gun cotton is what they use to fire large shells from the cannons on battleships. Yes, guncotton is explosive just like celluloid! (And, for that matter, shellac also burns like a son of a gun.) Also, if it gets wet, and stays wet, it oozes nitric acid. Nitric acid is not only corrosive, it is also a powerful oxidizer.

There are stories (?) of celluloid glue balls exploding and killing people. Men’s collars used to be made of celluloid. But the most important celluloid for collectors is the old dolls. Antique doll heads/faces are made from this material. This is what the professionals have to say about celluloid. It will break. It cannot be avoided, it can only be slowed down. As it breaks down it releases camphor which makes Campho-phenique smell the way it does. Store celluloid dolls in explosion-proof cabinets (I swear to God) or in the freezer. Clean it with distilled water and dry it carefully, but understand that even water accelerates decomposition into corrosive nitric acid.