Elise Has A Beach Wedding

Elise from the 1950s before restoration

While we were at my parents’ for Thanksgiving I picked up a doll my mom bought for me online. My mom told me it was a Madame Alexander Cissy doll for just $25. I told her that would be a miracle and sure enough, it was too good to be true. 

The doll in question was a Madame Alexander Elise from the 1980s. She’s a beautiful doll with very unusual coloring: strawberry blonde hair and green eyes. Elise had been displayed on a stand for her entire life and her bridal costume was complete and nearly perfect, with just a few tiny age spots on her veil.

The problem with the doll is it’s only worth about $25, even in perfect condition. The 1980s Alexander dolls just aren’t worth anything anymore unfortunately. By the 80s everyone bought them as collectibles instead of play dolls. Way too many were made and they’re pretty much all in pristine condition. To top it off, in the 80s the Alexander company paid no attention whatsoever to the dolls themselves and just made lovely clothes. This Elise doll has a pretty face but the body is very cheap hard plastic, not at all durable, and the eyes used were inexpensive and tend to get bubbles in the irises. This doll has the bubble irises. They make the eyes look sparkly and they’re a very unusual color, as I mentioned, so I didn’t replace them.

If I were a doll collector I would have kept this doll to display. I am not a doll collector, however ~ though that doesn’t stop us from being overrun with dolls. We have two doll cabinets packed to the gills with my and my daughter’s childhood dolls, plus tubs and tubs of dolls. My daughter has shelves loaded with dolls around two walls of her bedroom. There’s just no more room!

I’ve mentioned before how my mother grew up with a lot of brothers and sisters and no money. She only got one present for Christmas. She loved dolls but she had to choose, one year between a new doll or a bathrobe and another year between a doll or a fashionable crinoline. She also loves clothes, so this was a difficult choice. As a child I would think, “Just choose the doll, DUH!”  But I wasn’t as into fashion. She had a friend who was the only child of rich parents who had a display case full of “look at” dolls as well as play dolls. She had the Storybook Doll display shelf with all those little dolls too. My mother views having a case of collector dolls (or two or three cases) as the height of a luxury lifestyle, so she bought all of us girls boatloads of dolls both for play and display.

Anyway, I need to make back my $25 and if I have to pay selling fees on eBay or Etsy I’ll lose money. It so happens I had a valuable 1950s Elise in my studio. She needed her broken knee restrung and general restoration but I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t have any clothes for her. The newer Elise clothes fit perfectly except for the shoes, which tend to fall off. So I just moved the beautiful dress to the now-restored Elise. The 1980s Elise is for sale in my shops as a dress-me or blank doll for customization. That particular Elise makes a great candidate for an art doll because her face is really lovely and her body can be greatly improved with a repaint. My daughter had one of them as a child and just loved her.

You can watch the video of the original Elise in her dress as well as my mother’s wedding portrait Barbie in a dress made by my great-grandmother by clicking here.

Elise after restoration, dressed in the #1685 bridal outfit from the 80s

I restrung Elise’s knee and her body and cleaned her all up. I styled her hair I a bridal updo and then as I was getting her dressed… her other knee fell off! This Elise body is notorious for dropping its knees. The springs used to attach the knees have hooks on the ends that just aren’t tight enough. The open circle gets loose from the bar inside the leg all the time. So I restrung that knee. 

Now Elise makes a beautiful bride in exceptional condition for her age. The Victorian dress is perfect for a 50s doll, as a classic style that doesn’t go out of fashion, plus the crystal pleated tiers in the skirt were popular in the 50s and 80s alike. 

I used eBay’s new AI photo backgrounds to imagine a beach wedding for Elise! I gave her a Cissy wedding ring from the 50s that’s worth at least $60 by itself. I also gave her vintage rhinestone earrings, after I treated the posts to prevent green ear.

Elise would make an amazing holiday gift for your doll lover (even if that’s you!). I took a few pictures of her under the tree to show what a statement she would make on Christmas morning. You can get her by clicking here.

And because the knee issue is such a problem for Elise and also the 8 inch Alexanderkins I made a video showing how to fix the issue. It’s posted in my Heirloom Doll Challenge Facebook group and you can watch it there for free. Click here to join the group.

You can watch this lesson for free in the Heirloom Doll Challenge Facebook Group