I collected dolls for 25 years.... when I saw the value's slipping I started selling. I sold the Barbies first then a few years later the hard plastics. Barbie is almost reduced to a toy again. I sold my last holiday barbies for $10 a piece if they took all I had. All collectables are down except for the very rare and mint items. I am stuck with just a few special editions Barbies that had packed away and forgotten. I paid $160 for them, they are now selling for $20 to $30. If I had all of those dolls now I would probably only get 20% of what I sold them for. I called dolls like Chrissy a novelty doll. Even when dolls were hot, they were only worth around $15 to $30 except for the black baby. She was very hard to find. I don't know how to remove the dust, washing lowers the value and they are almost impossible to iron. you might try putting the clothes in the dryer on air. Sorry I can't give more encouraging news.

A seller on ebay said that you can use Formula 409 to clean saran doll hair, & a blow dryer to clear "foggy" eyes, but I haven't tried either method, & I would try it first on a garage sale doll!

I have used a dilution of orange oil on a 50's hard plastic fashion doll that had that nasty white mold or mildew, the result of having been kept in a damp place for many years, & she came out fine.

Tumbling the clothes on "air fluff" sounds like a good idea.

I know that laundering the clothes can reduce their value, but I also know that dirt eats into the fibers & will weaken & break already-delicate fibers.

I once got a Revlon dress that was so dirty it was stiff.
I washed it by hand in the sink, using mild liquid soap, not dishwashing soap.

The first sinkful of water turned brown!

I doubt if washing it decreased the value; the dirt had already done that.

I used sewing machine oil on a cue tip to clean the eyes that are foggy, I think it is mold. And my experience with the mold on hard plastic is that it will come back. Another tip about clothes, if they are musty smelling put them in a brown paper bag with a lot of soda, shake it well and leave for a few weeks. Works like a charm. About selling dolls, the only dolls I sold during my collecting years were the dolls that the seller wouldn't sell by eaches. If I bought 15 dolls and I want 5, I would sell the rest. I sold through Collectors United back then. When I saw the Barbie's value slipping, I sold them right away, because they were fun to collect, but not important to me. Later when I sold my hard plastics like Ginnys, Terri Lees, etc., the value was slipping and I was getting a little bored with collecting. I was never obsessed with having dolls like some of my friends. Our financial security was aways first with me. I was very fortunate in my collecting and my sense of when to sell. If you knew how much money I sold my dolls for you would see why I sold them. So many of my friends couldn't part with theirs and they had huge losses, thousands of dollars losses.

I collect dolls too and the ones I have that are displayed on my dresser can get very dusty. When it is nice outside I take them out onto the porch and use a clean paint brush to brush the dust off the clothes.

Anne

I never collected Barbie. I thought she was just a fad when she came out, How wrong I was! However, I didn't care for Barbie as I loved the older dolls that I grew up with. Not having a sister, I found friendship and companionship in dolls. Today I collect whatever appeals to me. I leap for joy when I find a 1950s doll. Most of my dolls come from Yard Sales and Goodwill. I enjoy cleaning them up and dressing them in new clothes if they need them. I also have a few ethnic dolls ( Native American) and clowns.

I have three daughters, and only one likes dolls. The girls did not play with dolls as children even though I supplied them with plenty, and sewed doll clothes for them, the dolls

were just undressed and left to lie on the floor. But one daughter does enjoy and collect dolls, so my collection will go to her when I pass on.

My wife has a number of Madame Alexander dolls. I had just given her an old one and had not realized (and never seen before) that it had one dull eye. I read about the hair dryer with pointed cone approach and at least for a few days it brought the eye back to a shiny (although not perfect) condition. I only heated it for a few minutes, under 5; perhaps I will repeat the treatment later.

We have never worked on the clothes, but while reading about Alexander doll repair, I found this information from their site:

Clothing must be washed by hand in a basin of warm water. Use Woolite®
and a bit of Era® detergent. Never scrub the clothes, rather gently
squeeze or knead them until the soil comes out, then rinse in warm
water. After washing, do not wring, but gently squeeze excess water out.
To dry, attach the outfit to a hanger with safety pins at the shoulder
seams. Once dry, press only iron-safe fabrics with a warm iron.

That and other info can be found HERE .