Cabbage Patch Kid Rescue Part 1 (November 8, 2010)

So I was at my parents' house yesterday, and came across a bag filled with my sister's and my own old cabbage patch kids.  Unfortunately, it seems several generation of mice also made their home in the bag....ruining some of the clothes.  For some reason, they left the dolls alone!  But of course, the dolls are probably ridden with mouse excrement and disease.  GROSS!  I found a couple online articles about cleaning up old CPKs, but I have no idea how successful I will be.



Here are the dolls stripped so we can see how they looked before I did anything.  Only one was my sister's- the one with the short blond hair.  Notice the difference between her doll and my three relatively clean dolls.  Some may say her doll is just more loved.  Maybe.  I DO remember her doll being tossed at the kitchen ceiling fan, so maybe our brothers had something to do with it, as well.  =)

I apologize in advance for the creepy molesterish-looking photos.









Okay, so we got the "before" shots.  I wish I remembered their names.  =(  I'm not even solid on the preemie's name.  So step one is to squirt the stains (which was Jessica's whole doll) with stain remover.  I used Shout because that's what I had.



The next step is going to be tying each doll in a pillow case and tossing them in the washing machine.  I am going to wash them in a gentle cycle on cold and then on hot.  Why?  I don't know.  That's how I washed my cloth diapers.  It just feels okay.  I'm just waiting for Gretchen to wake up because otherwise the big doll heads clanging around in the washer will surely do the trick.  And we should all know that a sleeping baby is one of the world's greatest joys.

Woot!  The dolls were machine-washed on cold, then hot.  Jessica's doll had to be shouted again and washed on hot twice.  I think the bodies are much improved, but I still see some black dots.  It was recommended that I wrap each doll in a towel and squeeze the life out of them to help them dry, but I opted for a fan.  Whatever, they're cleaner than they were.



I wanted a Magic Eraser, but Justin wouldn't get me one from Target.  Instead, I tried using Bon Ami and a toothbrush to scrub the preemie.  It definitely cleaned, but I managed to get the powder on the body and get the fabric wet.  Meh.  I'll try the Magic Eraser next.