Getting smells out of a used doll.

[ladydi43]

How can a person get the smell of cig smoke out of a doll bought on e-bay???? Can anyone help??

[horsemom]

This is what I've heard from other posts, though I never tried it myself:

Put the doll somewhere safe and a bit drafty, like the garage, for a while for it to air out.

Then wash the body in the washing machine (see the doll restoration link below). You'll remove the head for this.

Then give the doll a downy soak on the hair and wash her face with baking soda. I have done this and I used scented downy to get rid of the "storage" smell of my '91 Felicity. She'd been stored in a box for about ten years. Now her hair is smoother, shinier, and she smells good, pretty much like fresh laundry! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Doll Restoration Album (thanks so much for this djsnjones!!!):
http://www.imagestation.com/member/j...d%3D4288869625

[ladydi43]

Thankyou i ca't wait to try it . Some of these poor dolls on e-bay are in such bad shape. Thanks

[mom_to_an_americangirl]

I was very successful in eliminating nasty smells from Kaya and Josephina- they smelled like dog and cigarette/cigar smoke.

Take their clothes off. Launder the clothes as per the label in a good quality detergent. This may need to be done twice. Hang to dry (don't want to set in any smells)

Launder the doll bodies in a pillowcase and hang to dry.

In the event clothes can not be laundered, use a gentle fabric refresher such as febreze.

Wash the dolls hair in a gentle shampoo- I used baby shampoo and use downy condition method

Wipe all unlaundered vinyl with a baby wipe and use an odor neutralizer like lysol spray if necessary.

Reassemble and redress
Love them forever and know they are grateful to you! [img]graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[moderator]

Joy, that was in the discussion on used books, when I said I hadn't been able to get bad smells from them. I haven't tried it, though. I also wondered if it would work for dolls, but I'd rather put a book than a doll in kitty litter. [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ July 04, 2004 09:50 AM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>

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Didn't somebody post on here recently about having success with removing cigarette smells in the dolls by putting them in clean kitty litter for awhile, or something like that?
Joy

[[email protected]]

Sounds like it would be worth a try. Sounds like it would work, to me. If you put tape over her eyes and lay her gently on top and then gently put some over her, I would think that it could be done without getting any in the joints and hair to the point that you couldn't just shake/brush it out when you were done.

The toughest part is the smoke or mold smell. I think that there's a good chance that the litter would take that out, and then you could go ahead with the restoration hair-wash and body-wash as described in the restoration album.

The next time I get a smoky or mildewy or moldy doll, I will try this and let you-all know how it goes! (pictures included) Anybody have one I can use to initiate this process? [img]wink.gif[/img]
Joy