Repairing an Antique Doll part 4

Having completed the doll’s torso, it was time to work on the legs. Since the leather patches on her hips were already starting to lift, I peeled them all the way off…

And couldn’t figure out why they’d been put on in the first place. They were huge and appeared to only be for the section around the metal buttons on the ends of the hip wire. Yeah, there was damage, but only in the shape of the circle under the button and had worn through the patches, too.

Ironically, on the inside of one of the legs, the leather had a tear which would’ve been prevented had the person who’d done the outside also done the inside.

As I inspected it, I squeezed the leg. It was lighter than the other one and didn’t feel right. Grrr… the whole thing had been stuffed with polyester fiberfill!!!!!

Well, the whole thing except the foot.

I pulled out all the fiberfill and threw it away so I wouldn’t have to look at it. Then, I set about repairing the upper tear. It was the easiest of all the leg damage so I got that out of the way.

And while I was at it, I noticed another tear on her torso so I took care of that one as well.

Okay, so I was actually procrastinating. I was actually dreading the knee repairs. I did absolutely everything else I could do before I embarked upon all the work to be done to those legs. One needed to be completely restuffed with sawdust. They both were shredded at the knee and just below where the fabric met the leather. Those legs were a wreck, but they weren’t beyond repair.

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