🫧Washing Plush Dolls🫧

🫧Washing Plush Dolls🫧

NOTE:

I am VERY new to collecting these kinds of dolls. The doll shown above is literally the only one I have (as of right now…). That said please take everything I say with a grain of salt! This blog post is more of a log of my experience with washing my doll for the first time than a tutorial :)

Material List:

wash cloth (2x)

toothbrush (not used duh)

dawn dish soap

micellar water

tide to go stick/non bleach stain remover

blow dryer/fan

Prepping:

Before bath time there are some things I did to prep.

I started by taking off any stains on my doll. In this case mine had one on their embroidered paw on their foot. I used a “TideToGo” stick to get rid of it and it work wonders. I also heard great things about “Grandma’s Secret Spot Remover” too! Though as long as your stain remover doesn’t have bleach in it I THINK it will be fine, though I’m no expert.

After that I removed my doll’s blush. I did this by putting a little bit of micellar water onto a wash cloth and gently rubbing away where the blush was on my doll. When it comes to this please keep in mind a little goes a long way! Though I will say, I did asked some experienced plush doll collectors if I needed to remove the blush before a bath because I was scared of the blush getting moved around and staining the doll or embroidering. They told me it probably didn’t matter but it wouldn’t hurt. Do with that information what you will.

Bath Time:

Now for the actual bath I started by filling up a container with cold water and about 3 drops of dawn dish soap. (Please make sure it’s cold water because warm water makes things bleed!) Once everything was mixed together I took my toothbrush and dipped it into the mixture.

With the soapy mix I started scrubbing away at my doll. I was sure to be gentle over the embroidery in fear of loosening/damaging it if I was to rough with it. I made sure really get into all of the cracks and crevices too.

Once washed with soap I replaced the soapy water with just plain cold water. Then I scrubbed my doll again but this time with just the water. I made sure to dip my brush back into the water very frequently during this process. On my last scrub I brushed everything up in the same direction with my bruh.

Aftermath:

I placed my wet doll on a dry wash cloth and started to pat them dry with it. I was able to get the longer pieces of fabric (like the hair) pretty much dry with just the cloth but I can’t say that about the other parts.

For the other parts I used a mini fan to help the process go a little faster. (⤵️)

A blow dryer on the cold setting should also work for this if you’re impatient like me lolol. Good old fashion air drying should also work fine too but make sure it’s in a well lit room just to be careful of mold! I have also heard of people putting their dolls in pillowcases and throwing them into the drying machine along with a towel to cushion them more on a low setting. I have never tried this though personally so I’m not sure how well that would work and I’m to nervous to find out.

Also not going to lie I did not enjoy the smell of the “TideToGo” stick very much and I couldn’t get the smell to go away with just the soap and water so I did spray my doll with a bit of perfume. I’m not sure how safe/good this is for dolls but personally for me my doll turned out fine and now smells really good!

Conclusion:

This method worked very well for me I think! My doll is all clean and their hair feels so soft just like when I first got them which is very exciting. If anyone has any tips or thinks I should have done anything differently let me know! Also I’m here to answer questions too🫡 This is my first time making a blog post like this so I hope it was helpful and easy to understand!🙂