This is Susan, completed!

It was time to put Susan back together, and a double thickness of towel was spread out on the table. 

My visit to Ellie’s Doll Workshop was so helpful. I came away with some beautiful new elastic and some good advice. When you see the elastics side by side it is a great wonder Susan stayed together at all. I think she wore knitted leggings for some years to keep her legs on! The old elastic is so delightful though, and very much part of Susan. So if you are reading this in the future, let me assure you it still is part of her!

I secured the elastic inside a pouch of soft white fleece, just an off cut from making my Edward Tulane Dolls. This I have slipped inside Susan’s torso, and my Raggyrat lable identifies her too! Stringing involved getting loose wires and hooks (they are not joined to Susan) all places and threaded onto the elastic. Below, I’m using my forceps to keep a little tension on, stopping the wire inside her head from slipping. The crack on Susan’s back might break if moved so it was strengthened with epoxy and a piece of sugru, which had plenty of time to cure. 

Here is a close up of Susan’s right hip, showing the roughly cast pottery, and another sugru repair. It also looks like wear and tear has removed quite a bit of her paint. 

Once Susan’s head and legs were all connected it was time to tighten them. I asked Mike for help, and he pulled the elastic tight so I could tie three knots. It was a two handed job, because I wanted to avoid using forceps against the ceramic too much. After my repairs I used the metal ring insert and the elastic to add her voice box back. I tipped Susan back and forth, despite her having no arms yet, but the mama-voice-box never even squeaked! I removed it for safe keeping, and used the new one from Ellie’s Doll Workshop. It was all pink, so I painted the top with Culture Hussle / Stuart Semple’s Black Gold. Just a couple of thin coats made it look way more authentic. Susan speaks! 

Looking through Susan’s right arm socket you can see the voice box resting on the elastic. 

Previously the arms were simply hooked onto the one piece of elastic, but I cut a second piece, and used tension again as the wire and hooks kept slipping back down inside the limb! I had to try a few times to get everything lined up and connected, then clamp with forceps before asking Mike to help me get everything tight. This is so different to jointing the soft toys I’ve made, where I use disks or threads that don’t stretch. 

But we did it. Susan can safely sit again. And stand, if she’s leaning safely! Susan, I think this repair has taken years off you! 

She will be wearing the clothes my Nan knitted later in life, because these too are unique and part of the doll’s story. 

My children didn’t much care for susan when she arrived in 2010, a little worse for wear. They still say her face is a little strange, but that she’s quite nice to pick up and carry on your hip, and yes, she really fits! It takes me back to having my babies, just a little. 

I must say though, for a girl in your sixties (at least) you have lovely legs Susan …

This is Susan, too …

 After carefully taking poor Susan apart and visiting the Doll Workshop in Kinson, it was cleanup time. I washed all her clothes in cool water and used some Vanish for some stain spots, before a cool rinse and spin in the machine. This items were handmade by Nana many years before her death in 2010 so I’m having to replace the elastic on her knitted knickers too. 

And Susan needed a bath too, but being low fire ceramic, and pretty porous, soap and water really isn’t on the cards for her. I found an older paintbrush (not hard for an artist of many years) and also one of my soft, ostrich feather dusters. Ostrich feathers pick up dust using static, then you can shake them off outside. The paint brush loosened a lot of dust. I did wonder who’s skin cells were in there! 

Inside her newly dusted head you can see the eye mechanism. The gentle duster was good to use around her eyes and teeth area. 

The teeth are glued onto a piece of felt, and were poorly attached. Someone got glue all over her teeth but I decided that to try and clean them up might damage the old plastic so I brushed them dry, and used UHU to fix them back behind her bright red lips. 

I think Susan’s face is in great condition, and her colouring very unusual, more like one of my chickens brown eggs than any of the white dolls I’ve seen online. Her eyes seem to be dark grey, not blue or brown. 

Now at  Elllie’s Doll Workshop I bought some new elastic and a new voice. I met another pot doll who was in the shop for a re-string too. I also got Mike’s help to open the old Mama voice and see if we could perhaps hear it again. You can see how I got on in this video on YouTube. I really would like to put her old voice back in! 

This is Susan

Susan is in her 60s and wears aged six-month clothes. She’s been staying with us for a few years. But this year we both became orphans when my mother died of cancer, in March. 

She belonged to my mother, but lived most of her life at my Nana’s house, where sometimes I might be able to reverently hold her. I remember her wearing a pink dress but she came to me some years ago, in this set hand knitted by Nana. Her old head injury was caused by a drop in her early years. It’s got a nice patina on it now. 

Poor Susan was simply made, a post war pot doll. That’s a low fire clay if you are wondering. All of her limbs were held together by elastic which being over 60 years old hadn’t been very elastic for some time, and poor Susan gained a few chips around her joints. One piece of elastic held in everything including making a platform for her voice box, which you can see in the photo below. 

The voice box didn’t work. But I remember Nana tipping her upside down for me when I was a little girl. In her 20s, Susan would still meow like a Cat. But now the little device only goes ‘clunk’. 

So I’m going to do right by Susan. I feel confident to do it now. But I’m heading to Ellie’s Doll Workshop just to check a couple of things, and buy a new voice box and some new elastic. 

Fixing things

During lockdown you can perhaps do some house keeping. This is because it’s not easy to replace everything at this time. So Mary and took apart a toy pirate gun that wouldn’t fire, saw how it worked and promptly fixed it. Bang bang! 

My friend’s daughter tore a very pretty dress while trampolining (PE at home), and I agreed it was just too nice to throw away. It tore right across the front in two places, and stitches were just about holding the other side under the bodice. 

It was fairly easy to rejoin the skirt part to the top, then to repair the long rip in the fine fabric I opted to stitch it to the lining using two lines of zig zag in both pink and green. There’s a visible repair but in use on a child playing doesn’t really stand out. 

The dress dips lower at the back and you can see it in all it’s repaired glory here modelled beautifully by Vienna, who gave me permission to share this happy picture with you. The post wasn’t too bad either, first class only too two days. 

Keep smiling, and see what you can fix! 

Sammy's Special Skully!

My friend Sammy was sad to find her hat mysteriously unraveled one day ...

In desperation she brought it to The Raggy Rat because sometimes miracles can be performed ....

I'm not a knitter but I knew I would have to pick up all of these stitches, gather them together and attach the bobble more firmly once again. I turned the hat inside out and used double embroidery thread. That would be 12 strands then!

Finally, it's done and looks like a hat again! It's very satisfying fixing broken things and sometimes broken hearts. And yes, I really cannot knit. I have tried.  People have been cross with me. I can still fix your knitted hat though! 

Old Barney ....

In March, an old dog called Barney came to live at The Raggy Rat ...

His forelimbs are almost parting company from his body and his wood wool leaks out. But I love him. And so do others, it would appear! 

I think Barney appealed to me because I'm also a work in progress ....

Pegasus ...

Mary's toy horse did not have any wings. But Daisy's did have some golden, curved wings. I used one of them to help me fix Mary's horse. 

I made small semi-stiff wings using red sheet foam and some purple cotton. 

UHU glued them into place. Mary is happy. 

Street rescue ... Backpack repair

One rainy day this week we parked the car to go visiting, and there in a soggy heap was a backpack. It was covered in leaves and berries and contained woodlice, soil and a fat worn!

But Mike and I both saw potential. Something that ought to escape the landfill, and we threw it on the mat in the footwell of the car when we left. 

At home I shook it out and fed the worm to the chickens. After two dunkings in water from the rain butts, I brought the backpack in for a hand wash, in a solution of floor cleaner and disinfectant. After that an Express wash, rinse and spin in the Meile. 

As the bag dried I could see it was in pretty good shape apart from the adjusters. One was missing and another was smashed. The zips were sticking but  a few sprays of Mr Sheen and they didn't need replacing after all. 

I have a stash of webbing and clips and I found two adjusters the right size. Mike unpicked the loops needed to hold them in place and you can see my re-stitching. 

I don't think it matters that the clips don't match. I have a new bag! 

A fun repair!

Of course little slips happen to us all, especial busy crafters! And today I was cutting some thick card with such gusto that I took a slice at my table cloth too!

But I have the best girly-pink duct-tape ever, so I snipped put a little pink shape to stick across the hole!

Then I used some other pieces to repair the cuts that Mary added to the edge of the table cloth one fine day!

Book keeping again!

A Junior Mission Praise from a Weymouth school was greatly in need of some TLC, esp once I had stripped off all the parcel tape to see what I was working with ...

here is the heavy book put back together, and the spine supported externally with some blue fabric, left over from the cover ..

And here is the repaired and covered book, ready for the new term, we hope it lives for a long time now! The commissioner wanted Holy-Spirit Blue, with a bit of sparkle, so I used some silver and blue glitter-print fabric for the spine...

Book Keeping!

Another tatty book, well loved and in need of some TLC. This is a bible lacking a complete cover, never mind the spine like my last book project! Bibles get very personalised with notes and highlights, so it can be a blessing to find a way to keep yours a bit longer ...

Looking good with a Hard cover again, but pages also need to be uncurled!

And finally, the book's owner said they would be pleased with 'blue fabric' and I think this looks very smart! I am just going to put it under a weight to help flatten some of those corners ...

Book ...

This poor book was in need of some TLC, and is very well used as well as being a gift ...  I got the job of giving it a makeover, the spine of the book is already long gone!

So I used thick, stiff card to make a new spine and carefully sandwiched it between fabric hinges ...

finally I sewed the cover, using a little bit of fun, musical fabric and a lot of plain black, so the book can still look smart, esp if used at weddings and funerals ...