Restoring the 35th Anniversary Barbie: Safe Earrings, Tan Lines & Nostalgia
Barbie was a mess when I got her. Her clothes were missing and her original god hoop earrings were corroded. They hadn't caused green ear yet but the ear holes were starting to darken. It looks like she was displayed in bright sun because one side of her back and shoulder were "tanned" to a darker shade than her head and the rest of her body. I think she must have been the anniversary doll that came in the striped swimsuit and packaged with two other outfits because she has a tan line showing where a strap was on her shoulder, and the original swimsuit was strapless. One of the outfits in the larger set had a blouse with straps and I guess that's what she was wearing for display. Barbie's hair was bad too. Someone had wrapped a piece of wire around it to make a ponytail and then topped that with a rubber band that had stiffened and atrophied over the years.
During the livestream you watched as I made her new, safe gold-plated hoop earrings with a plastic sheath. I went on to clean her up and made her a new retro-style bathing suit. I cleaned and styled her hair in its original iconic ponytail. Then I found her some white high heel pumps.
Let me tell you... finding her shoes was the hardest part of the whole restoration! This girl has some BIG feet. I bet I have at least a thousand pairs of Barbie shoes from various eras and NOTHING fit her except this one pair of shoes. And one of them doesn't quite stay on her foot, so apparently one of her feet is a little bigger than the other.
But now Barbie looks like herself again. I made sure to put straps on her bathing suit so you can move the strap aside to see her "tan lines". That brought back such happy memories for me... I had the Malibu Sun Lovin' dolls (Barbie, PJ, Skipper, and Ken) in the 70s. Those are the ones with the painted tan lines under their swimsuits.
My dad died in the fall of 1977 and we moved from California, where we spent every weekend at the beach so he could go scuba diving, to snowy Ohio to live with my grandparents. I guess I must have gotten the dolls for Christmas that year because when the Blizzard of '78 hit in January I can remember sitting in the basement playing with my dolls and wishing I were back at the beach in California. I loved their tan lines and almost never dressed them in anything but swimsuits so I could slide the straps aside to admire their tans!
In the hopes some other girl might enjoy that I didn't try very hard to clean the darkened place on Barbie's back. And that's why I placed the straps to align exactly. It turns a potential flaw into an asset! Now she's an "OOAK" (one of a kind) doll!
I love the attention to detail on this doll. Her hair is actually far nicer than the original Barbie's. When I repaired my mother's wedding Barbie doll, which is a "platinum swirl" with the mod white lipstick from the mid-1960s I found out her hair is only rooted around the outside. If you take down her ponytail she has an enormous bald spot in the center of her head!
This anniversary Barbie has super thick golden blonde hair that you can curl by brushing it around your fingers. She also has red nail polish applied to her diminutive fingers and toes. When I was about 10 years old our neighbor across the street, Mrs. Bowen, would get out her daughter's childhood Barbies and let me play with them and I was so jealous of their nail polish and their amazing clothes, so much nicer than anything from the 70s or 80s. I loved the tiny glasses that really folded up to fit into a little case and the real metal, not plastic jewelry.
So anyway if you can't tell, I really enjoyed restoring this lovely girl! It took me back. You can find her for sale in my eBay and other shops. And if you want to see how to repair green ear and make safe earrings you can watch those videos in The Doll Repair Vault. It's just $19 a month and it's a subscription so you can cancel anytime. There's a TON of great stuff in there as well as a private community like a Facebook group, but without all the politics and ads! Sign up here.
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