The First book I got is the Art of Patti Playpal by Jennifer A.H. Kohn, Rita J. McLoskey, and Pauline V. Yohe.
What I like about this book is that several collectors came together to showcase this line of dolls and they hired a nice photographer to take professional shots of the dolls. The pictures are clear and big so you can see a lot of detail, which was great for me because of course I am studying the outfits for future sewing. This book also has a small section dedicated to restoration, it isn't very extensive and the methods are a bit dated as it mentions using Pert as a shampoo to wash the hair, but the visuals are nice to see the inner mechanics of the doll.
There is quite a lot of history writing in this book about how the doll came about, sculpting, and a love for the design of the doll. This is accompanied by large pictures of eye candy on these dolls, so it was a hard read for me without getting distracted. There is a chapter dedicated to Patti's hair and make-up and how that came about which has large colorful pictures of all the different bang styles and hair colors and background information on how the dolls were painted and details about what went into the faces and hair choices.
My favorite section goes into detail about all the different outfits and highlights about what to look for to see that it is authentic. There is just something that reels me in on 1950's fashion. I love it on adult dolls, but it also draws me in on children's clothing. I suppose it's because it's so delicate looking and "pretty" with bows, curls, flowers, and patent dress shoes. My girls love to dress up, but in this day and age dress up goes to special occasion dresses or princess dresses. This is something else entirely, it is a trip to a historic era and it is very collectible fashion. For me, I have a great love for fashion history so this is checking off a lot of boxes for me. I collect Gene Dolls as well which have great 1930's-1940's fashion on adult dolls. I also collect Shirley Temple for similar reasons because so much of her costumes and film dresses were just adorable Little Miss looking clothing and I was seeking any opportunity to recreate Shirley Temple style for my daughters but there is just not the right occasion and it's just out of place in everyday life. I suppose that having this doll now presents that opportunity since there is a Shirley Temple Playpal and I can forever enjoy the fashion without the awkwardness of it being out of place in modern times. The book continues to go into detail about her types of shoes, underwear, and socks.
In the later chapters, it reviews the various family members as part of this series and then there is a nice big section on the Shirley Temple Playpals which made me very happy. It is interesting to me that most of my Shirley Temple collection is Danbury Mint because I believe it had the best likeness and faces to Shirley, but by far Ideal's Shirley Temple beats out Danbury Mint's version of Shirley Temple by a landslide. The color photos in this book of the Ideal Shirley Temples just captivated me as well as the beautiful dresses. I might be in trouble here, as there are many film costumes I have always wanted to recreate and I can see myself wanting to display multiple. Yep definitely in trouble here.
The last page of the book has a listing of the children's clothing sizes that Patti and the Playpal Family can wear. I am not sure if sizing has changed since this book was done, but I'm not sure if the sizes are still true. Patti is supposed to be a lifesize companion to a 3 year old girl, but my daughter is three and they are the same height but I found that my daughter's dresses were rather big on Patti. I found that going a size down to a 2 year old size fit Patti's chest much better. It also recommends a size 5.5 Wide shoe, but I found that a size 7 was perfect sizing so I'm unsure on how accurate or useful this page will be. As I plan on recreating vintage clothes and not really using what's available for today's children, I probably won't use this much as a resource for future.