Madame Alexander Cissette #905-1957

Lately I've been fixing a lot of my project dolls that have been languishing in storage, such as my Kathy skater, whose replacement oilcloth skates I restored.

Shortly after that, I also restrung this Madame Alexander Cissette, outfit #905 from 1957, the first year that Cissette was made.

Cissette came to me as a project doll, missing her shoes and with her head detached. She is also a little pale in the face.

Cissette's strong points are her original outfit, including her earrings, and her hair, which is still in the original set, pulled back into a cluster of curls at the nape of her neck.

I found her authentic black Cissette shoes not long after I got her, but it wasn't until about two weeks ago that I finally strung her head.

Cissette and some other fashion dolls, such as Elise, have their heads strung to a hook anchored in their necks. Their construction is extremely different than the early hard plastic strung dolls, so I took pictures of my stringing job on Cissette. I am working on an expanded version of my ebook, which will contain chapters explaining how to restring dolls other than the standard hard plastic strung dolls. I plan to include a chapter on restringing just the heads of these dolls, with this Cissette as my model.

After all, isn't it worthwhile to be able to restring — and restore life to — pretty dolls such as this one?