Ethel-Maud: the early days, part two

 Before we start, I'd like to apologise in advance for the blurry photos!  As I mentioned in my previous post, I had to have a good old rootle around to find any old photos of Ethel-Maud from back-in-the-day.  For some reason they are all rather on the small side, so enlarging them has somewhat lost their crispness 😕

The first task called for some rather radical surgery on Ethel-Maud's arms.  Unfortunately I couldn't find a "before" photo; the closest I eventually came across was this one during the rather nerve-wracking process!  

Anyhoo I got them both re-attached the right way round, much to EM's relief 😉 ~ previously one of them (after all this time I can't remember which one it was now) had the thumb pointing backwards.  They had both been sewn back on at some point before she came to live with me.  Even if I do say so myself, they look a whole lot better now that I've had a go at them even though I admit it's not a perfect job by any means!  

To be honest, I was a tad perplexed as to how the arms should be re-attached, as I wasn't sure whether or not they had been correctly sewn back on previously.  It was also quite a difficult job in that the fabric at the top of EM's arms had become a little delicate over the years.  In the end I decided to turn in a tiny fraction more than had been done before just to give myself a little more fabric to sew through.  I guess arms on dolls, especially those made of fabric, do tend to get rather a lot of wear and tear ~ I don't think she minds that they are now a teensy wee bit shorter than they were!  

this photo shows Ethel-Maud's arms before her surgery

With Ethel-Maud being made from velvet, it wasn't as easy to wash her as it would have been had she been vinyl or plastic ~ and I certainly couldn't have given her a dip in the washing machine!  But she finally had a session in the dolly spa 😊

I think she definitely looked a little lighter in colour afterwards, and her eyes seemed brighter too, but the changes don't really show up well in the photos.  I certainly removed at least some of the 50-odd years of surface dirt, judging by the dirty patches on the wash cloth.  I was pretty nervous about cleaning her head because it is made from something very firm beneath the fabric ~ perhaps some sort of moulded card or papier mache.  I took great care not to saturate any part of Ethel-Maud during the cleaning process and thankfully all went without mishap.  I also chose a day that was nice and warm, so she was able to dry naturally and quite quickly.   

I had mixed results with the pen marks on her leg; the red came off nicely but the black is still visible, albeit much less so than before.

As you can see, I didn't have much success in removing the smudged marks from around Ethel-Maud's mouth.  I don't know if someone tried to colour in her mouth for some reason or if the original colour somehow got smudged.  The whites of her eyes look brighter now, although it's a shame that the brown of her right eye had worn away before she came to live with me.

Still, at least she and I know that she had a good cleaning session in the dolly spa, and that made us both happy.

EM seems to be somewhat conscious of her receding hairline, so I made her a pretty headdress a la Frida Kahlo 😊  Unfortunately said headdress has been lost so I will have to make her a new one at some point.

  

I also made her a simple new outfit to replace the hankie-held-together-with-a-brooch ensemble 😉  The dress is simply a very small piece of crocheted ripple; a set of four "peaks" was enough to create the simple sheath.  I crocheted a short length of chains to thread through the front and back peaks, which created a halter-neck effect.  I made the matching shawl using a 7mm hook and treble (US double) crochet, with a simple chain edging. 

Her shoes were another make-it-up-as-I-went along effort.  They aren't the prettiest of footwear but at least they are rather nicer than her old black boots/feet!  I also made a simple little bag for all her bits and bobs using the same yarn and matching ribbon.

All-in-all, I was very pleased with how surprisingly well Ethel-Maud's spa session turned out.  Now I just need to expand her very limited wardrobe.....and perhaps make/find something to keep all those future new clothes in!