(This post has pictures of an undressed doll for the purpose of showing how I restored her.)

Do any of you guys remember that my second newest doll, Katy Christine, was actually bought secondhand from my BFFs’ neighbors in Texas? I made a post about how I planned to fix her up here.

It’s been months and months since I restored K.C., and I’ve just never made a post about it until now! Katy was my first doll bought secondhand in need of Tender Loving Care.

I’m finally getting around to share with you how I removed all of her stains and scuff marks.

By golly, she had a lot of them. I think I bought her from a seven year old who had owned her for two years.

What worried me most were these cheek stains of hers. If I was able to remove them, what about her cheek paint? Would it be removed as well?

I started with what I knew.

The ol’ baking soda and water cleansing solution. In a small bowl, I mixed a few spoonfuls of baking soda and some water together until it had the consistency of toothpaste.

After dipping the towel in the baking soda and water solution, I scrubbed all over K.C.’s vinyl, even a little of her face.

Then, I dampened another edge of the towel with water and wiped it all off, drying her afterward.

Next, my new secret weapon: persa-gel.

Meg from Canadian Doll Notebook was a lifesaver. If you know me, I like asking a lot of questions. And she answered them all. I learned about this awesome stain-removing tutorial from her post about it, and boy has it ever worked!

I actually first needed that tutorial because I took a black DreamWorld Collections hat off of Chloe only to discover a terrible black stain had bled onto her skin from it.

And only weeks before I was supposed to shoot The Goodbye. Talk about pressure!

Freaked out, I began working persa-gel’s magic. It worked quickly, and even though I didn’t have enough time to remove it all the way, you can’t see it anymore. I’ll make another post about that later with a full tutorial of how I did it super quickly.

Katy and Chloe had some… interesting bonding time during their stain treatments.

Two days after letting the persa-gel sit on Katy’s hand in my window where she could get sun, look how much the stain has faded!

Later, I realized the white stains on her hand on cheeks were actually scuff marks, and I quickly switched my methods to this one.

Somebody call Mr. Clean.

Working on Katy’s stains and scuffs with a damp Magic Eraser removed them all.

Well, mostly all. What about those cheek marks? I was scared to death of removing her cheek paint.

BUT I WAS BRAVE.

I carefully worked on the stains; thankfully, most of them were around the very edges of her cheek paint. And yes, the cheek paint was removed along with the stains.

One of the scuff marks was directly on her cheek paint, so I barely worked on that one just a little. The more the stain faded, the more her cheek paint did.

I finally stopped before the very faint missing dot of cheek paint could be more noticeable. Katy still has her little scuff mark there, but you can barely see it in any of her pictures! Phew.

Her hair and limbs were already in great condition, so all that needed work was her skin. Even though I was really dumb and said a high price for her right off without even seeing her first, I still got her for a fair deal, and it was really fun to bring her back to her full potential. (Her remaining scuff mark makes her special. ;) )

I’ll make a post about removing Chloe’s stain soon! I’m so happy the persa-gel worked. It’s amazing.

You can view Katy’s full photoshoot here!

Have you ever restored a doll in need of TLC? What do you think of Katy now? Do you think she looks better?