new Etsy purchase

 One of the things I've enjoyed doing with Etsy in the past couple years is looking for inexpensive lots of "vintage" handmade doll clothes, especially in Barbie size (because Barbie is more standard sized and easier to fit, and also there are a LOT of clothes out there for her)

I purchased one recently; it came Thursday. I bought a little bowl and strainer and some Oxyclean at the Target yesterday because the seller warned they needed cleaning, and a couple of the items needed repair. So here are the "before" shots, with a few comments

 

 

First: my favorites. I admit I mainly bought this lot for the unusual "square dance" type dress, which is made out of an actual bandana. I hope the oxyclean whitens the lace sleeves enough for it to be presentable.

I also really like the yellow print one in the top row. It looks too small for Barbie but I suspect it will fit one of the "Creatable World" dolls I have (I did buy one last one recently - the African American doll who comes with a short "natural" hairstyle but also a big, curly wig that matches. I decided she's a girl and her name is Beatrix; she's actually Ben's fraternal twin sister. She might look nice in it.

Oh hey, this is Beatrix:

The zebra shirt came with her set of clothes; the skirt is a vintage "Barbie or Skipper sized" skirt from an earlier set of vintage clothing purchases, and the shoes are from another Creatable World set. One thing I like about Creatable World is that the clothes are kind of childlike; more or less they look to me like what 7-8-or-9 year old kids would wear, and I think Creatable World is supposed to be pre teen kids. 

so maybe the yellow dress will fit her, once I get it clean

Also in that clothing photo are a couple of dresses with calico tops and some kind of faux-satin (maybe even the same fabric?) skirts. And a crocheted dress that I think needs a ribbon threaded through the eyelets at the waist. Again, I'm not convinced this one was actually made for a Barbie; it seems a bit wider and shorter.

There were others that seemed to be non-Barbie

This one wound up turned on its side in processing but I'm too lazy to try to flip it. The little crumpled up thing with red striped skirt is quite small and seems like it was actually glued to a doll - maybe it was off one of those "Souvenir" dolls in dress of different nations? And there's another red dress with a white collar (I plan to wash all of these separately as I bet they're going to bleed). And an inexpertly-hemmed ballgown of a blue faux-satin, and a short strappy sundress. And what is probably supposed to be a skating dress in blue (short, flared, with trim around the hem). The pink and white skirt is clearly for a larger doll - maybe a Toni or similarly sized doll? It might fit someone here though.

And some less-favorite but maybe kind of interesting ones

The white one is probably a wedding dress, and the two on the bottom - with the same fabric for the strapless top and then different but coordinating skirt colors - could they be "ugly" bridesmaid dresses? And there's a green dress that's kind of stained and might not be salvagable, as are the things in the next photo

The green gingham dress is cute but it has several stains on the back side that might not come out. And I think the other dress needs a little repair.

I'm going to try washing them this afternoon (by hand, in the sink, using the bowl and strainer I bought) and see how they work up. I hope at least a couple of my favorites come out looking better...

Update: got them all washed, they're drying now. ALMOST all the stains came out, including the ones on the green gingham dress, which will probably fit one of the Creatable World girls. Some of them were dirtier/shed more color or dirt into the water than others. OxyClean seems to be pretty good stuff; I have also heard of people managing to clean vintage tablecloths to an almost-like-new state using it

I spread them all out on older towels (in case any more dye migrates, in which case I probably won't put that dress on a doll) to dry

The black and white check really washed up nicely, but it's a little bigger than Barbie sized. (I am trying NOT to think "obviously this means you need more dolls" because I don't have room)