Doll Hospital Services
As doll lovers ourselves we know how important it is to "save" a dolly who's broken or needs repair and is dear to our hearts. Our doll hospital/workshop is located in Yuba City, CA and we do service on dolls nationwide. We are a member of the Doll Doctor's Association for doll hospitals nationwide.
What dolls do we work on?
Doll Material Type: vinyl, resin, and cloth bodied dolls and stuffed toys, some branded artist porcelain dolls
Doll Eras: 1950's-modern
Doll Hair Types: Wigged, or Conversion to a wig
Doll Sizes: 14"-48" tall (we carry in house parts for most of these sizes, including most 18" dolls)
Brands: Open to most vintage and modern brands
Our workshop handles most doll brands from mid-scale to large-scale dolls. We will also work on the dolls that are not covered by the American Girl Doll Hospital such as dolls that have been customized or altered, vintage head or bodied dolls that you do not want a newer replacement part for, and non-American Girl 18" brands such as Journey, Our Generation, Carpatina, U-Doll, Madame Alexander, etc. We do not specialize in smaller doll sizes such as 1/24, 1/16, 1/12, and 1/8 doll scale brands.
Services we do: doll cleaning, repair to wardrobe or replacement of wardrobe, hair styling and cutting, removing old hair and wigs and replacing with a new one, repairing eyelashes or adding them, stitching ripped or damaged cloth bodied dolls, restringing, refluffing or replacing fluff inside of dolls, ear piercing, replacing neckstrings, removal of stains or watermarks, repair to childhood dolls, replacement of limbs/bodies on vinyl dolls, reproduction work, replacing or switching out eyes, conversion of a rooted hair doll to a wig, hair wash and clean, sourcing of needed parts, eyes, or wigs for dolls that we do not have in stock parts for (includes purchasing of outside brands)
Services we partner with other vendors on: We partner with doll artists for face-ups or restoring a doll's original factory paint as well as sourcing parts for dolls that we don't carry in house. This is to facilitate the need for a customer to send their doll to multiple places to have services done. We will coordinate the outside services for you and purchase any needed parts for full repair and restoration of your doll.
Services we do not do: We are not an antique doll specialist, so we do not work on wax, wood, composition, or bisque dolls or dolls made prior to the 1950's. We are not able to repair or reconstruct dolls that have been cracked, broken, or are missing digits. We also do not restore original rooted hair or do re-rooting services (but we can convert a rooted hair doll to a wig). We do not repair dolls that are heavily damaged by permanent marker, highlighter, paint, dye transfer, etc. For these types of dolls it is best to work with a specialist directly and we will refer you to someone who is skilled at restoration for these dolls.
How does it work? We advise you to contact us first to let us know about the doll you need service on so we can best advise you on available repair and customization services. We can either send you a custom quote or you can choose from the services below and submit your order. Once we receive your hospital order, we will advise you of the next steps to take to get your doll to us for service including turnaround time and any deadlines you may have. It is possible we may not be able to service your doll if there are no available parts to restore your doll, we will advise you at time of contact.
Tools and kits are also available to purchase below if you'd like to repair your doll yourself. We post many of our restoration examples in our Doll Forum if you'd like to browse restoration projects we've done or if you wish to do your own and follow along. We often get donations of dolls, some dolls we can save and some we cannot. We post any excess doll parts that can be used to repair another doll on our Doll Parts page.