What you might know about me is that I love American Girl Dolls, but what you might not know about me, is that is not the only thing I collect and it's not the only doll I get interested in. My grandmother was big time into restoring dolls. When I was a kid, that part didn't really interest me and to me she had a lot of scary looking dolls in her doll cabinets. There were only a few that I peered in through the glass and wanted to hold or touch. This is because for my grandma, she rescued dolls. It was like her entire collection were the dolls no one wanted and no one wanted to save. I never actually saw her restore any dolls, I just looked at her final collection, but it is only now that I understand what may have motivated her now that she has passed away.

Some of my grandma's collection is now mine, I have picked my favorites and now they are in my doll cabinets staring back at me from the glass. My collection is much different from hers, but I'm starting on a journey where more and more doll types come my way. The newest sector is vintage dolls. I have several in my collection, but I love going antique shopping with my mother and we come across some pretty interesting finds along our journey. It seems that whenever I say "I don't collect those" there's a doll that I come across that changes my mind and comes home with me. It's like the doll peers into my soul and tells me, take care of me, fix me, and take me home. So hey I end up with a few projects, but I love dolls and taking care of them and making them look their best is something I love doing.

Recently, one of those interesting dolls came my way out hunting for antiques. It was a Shirley Temple 3-foot doll manufactured around the 80's. I didn't purchase her, because although I collect Shirley Temple dolls, I wasn't 100% in love with the face rendition on it and the 80's gave me pause on whether or not she was a legit doll. But I hadn't seen a doll that large in person, and so I did a few internet searches. I found that doll was a "knock off" of the 1960's Patti Playpal line that was popular and then a number of other companies tried making similar versions in the 80's that they thought would sell. And down the rabbit hole I went.

If you are looking to restore one, you are in for a treat because from everything I've read so far, it's not easy but I'm bookmarking a few sites that I feel had valuable information to share and as I'm not an expert on all types of dolls, if I attempt to restore one in the future, these sites are what I will start with.

Firstly,

A really great eye tutorial on replacing the eyes on a Patti Playpal doll.

Patti PlayPal's Eyes (mandalineartfulliving.blogspot.com)

If you need hair - it seems like there are a few options from this site. I may develop some in the future, but first I want to talk to the collectors of this doll and see where their needs are being met and where they need things in the future.

WIGS FOR PATTY PATTI PLAYPAL (thedollhospital.com)

One of the best visuals on collecting of Patti Play Pal has to be in this video where you get to see a number of different restored versions and types all in a row. It gave me tons of ideas for hair styles.

Collection Tour of Vintage Patti PlayPal Dolls | AMAZING!! | Gregg Ortiz and Rachel Hoffman (youtube.com)

Do you collect Patti Playpal? Talk to us, we'd love to know your thoughts.