As you all know, dear readers, my specialty is stuffed animals, but as some of you may know (if you went to my web site), I started out making cloth dolls, and sometimes I repair cloth dolls in addition to stuffed animals.  You’ve seen some of the velour and terry ones here, who materially are pretty close to stuffed animals.  But I also take care of a lot of Raggedies (Anns and Andies).  In fact, they were some of my earliest patients!

Raggedy Anns and Andies, especially commercially made ones, tend to burst over time, because they were so densely stuffed originally.  I repair a lot of ankles, and toes.  They also tend to have their shoulder and hip joints fail, because the joints are thin and unstuffed and the limbs are long and heavy.  But facial injuries are the hardest, because any type of stitching to repair the injury is going to show on thin Raggedy skin, and it can look, well, unphotogenic except to the person who loves them.  So I don’t usually share their stories. 

But this summer, I had a request for help with a Raggedy Andy who hadn’t been injured from age… he met the new puppy!  Here is his diagnosis montage:

His injuries were serious enough that his person and I agreed a full face transplant, and possibly a new arm would be required, in addition to stitching his chest injury.  For face transplants, there are usually two options.  A person can provide a donor doll, or I can create a handmade transplant (where you may see brush strokes as it’s done by hand not machine).  Andy’s person opted for a new handmade face in addition to the new arm, and sent him to the hospital in California.

Andy’s pretty big, over 4 feet, so he came in a pretty big box. I opened it up and looked at him closely, and there was good and bad news.  The good news was, his arm was only damaged below the elbow, so we could keep his original arm to the elbow.  The bad news was he had another injury on his ankle which may or may not have been from the puppy, which would need treating :

Given the location of the ankle injury, I suggested a band of new fabric to repair it.  Either red and white striped (which would be a bit brighter than his aged fabric) or black to match his shoe.  His person opted for black.

Fast forward several weeks and all of Andy’s surgeries were completed and he was ready to fly home!  He’s one of my more photogenic Raggedy patients, so I made a note to share his story with all of you here. :-)  Here’s Andy ready to fly home:

You’ll note he wasn’t cleaned… that’s very invasive for Raggedies so we usually don’t do it.

Andy flew home and his person wrote:

Andy made it home safe today! He was 2 days early and I’m absolutely in love with him!! Thank you for fixing my best friend Of 45 years he means the world to me!! ️We are blessed to have found you!! Thank you again!!

She sent a photo of the two of them too (you know I don’t put human photos online) but it’s hanging in the hospital to encourage future Raggedy patients. :-)

Valentine the doll part 2

When we left, Valentine’s person was choosing fabrics for her new clothes. She chose:

Surgery proceeded and soon, Valentine was feeling much better:

Note at this point, she had her shoes recovered, her ankles redone, black trim where the original pattern was black polka dot, and new eyelet. But her hair, face, and hands were original, with any wounds stitched.

Seeing her looking bright and happy in her new clothes and without wounds, her person decided to she really could do with some new, supplemental hair as well as bang restoration. So here’s Valentine, feeling decades younger and ready to fly home (she kept the original ribbons on her braids, which were the original black with white polka dots):

“I love it!! Thank you so much!!” wrote her person. And Valentine flew home to Chicago, ready for many more years of hugs and adventures!