A Day with Pinky

Pinky is 50 years old and has been loved by her family, so much that she came to us to give a second life and continue to be loved and cherished by her family.

Pinky is rather beige and grey in coloring in her current state. She has a big gash in her arm and several holes in the back especially where a music box turner comes out to wind to sing “Rock a Bye Baby”. Pinky is made to sit but she’s lost some life in her stuffing and is rather floppy. Pinky also has some years of grime on her face vinyl.

Can’t wait to get started!

First Pinky needs to be washed, so we know exactly what we are dealing with in staining. For that I need to remove the music box and all the current stuffing.

It grosses me out but the fact was 50 years ago toys were stuffed with debris from the factory floor. This often included string, leftover foam, cloth scraps, and such. This is all Pinky’s stuffing in my trash can. Good! She will need fresh stuffing!

Although there were several holes in Pinky’s back, none were large enough to remove the music box so I opened the center back seam on her body. This proved to be helpful because remnants of her stuffing was sticking on the inside and having the seam open allowed me to remove a lot more.

With the stuffing fully out I was able to remove the music box easily and set it aside. Then pinky went into the wash. It is important to know before you wash a doll what it is made from as not all dolls can be washed in a machine or even submerged. Pinky is made of faux fur and vinyl perfectly safe so in she went.

When Pinky came out I was overjoyed that she had returned to her original pink color! I used vinyl cleaner to remove the grime on her face that had set into her vinyl.

I did this process several times to keep lifting the grime out of the vinyl. I paid particular attention to her cheeks which were especially dark. Grime in vinyl has to be lifted to the surface, it does not wipe off simply. Vinyl cleaner will lift it out of the vinyl so that the vinyl is restored.

Lifting dirt from vinyl also restores its color tone. You can also see in this side by side the difference in color of Pinky’s body.

I trimmed and stitched the ends of the lace down so it would not fray any longer and it shapes it more like a bonnet. Pinky’s holes and gashes have been repaired, and I’ve brushed the fur of her body to be fluffy and remove some matting.

Pinky is now able to sit and you can see from this image that the music box winder is nice and snug with no holes around it.

The music box was cleaned before it went back in the body and it functions beautifully. Now Pinky can go back to her family!